Malke wrote:

> Suleman wrote:
>
>> When I open my Device Manager, there is no hardware listed there. It
>> just shows an empty space.........
>> Is there a virus causing this???
>> Assistance needed
>
> There have been a rash of posts about this. Some new malware is
> probably causing it. Go through the following malware removal steps
> systematically, getting any tools/updates you need from a different,
> known-clean machine.
>
> http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...moving_Malware
>
> After you've done this, it would be great if you could report back as
> to whether this fixed the issue. R. McCarthy in
> microsoft.windowsxp.general has commented that the permissions on the
> ENUM key seem to be destroyed by whatever is going through the Windows
> community right now. We haven't identified the malware that is doing
> it yet.
>

Just to add to this, the poster in the other group said that the
AproposFix worked to solve this issue, so the problem is definitely
caused by malware. I would go through the malware removal steps at my
link above. Here is a link to the AproposFix forum entry at DSL
Reports:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14679793

Malke
--
MS-MVP Windows User/Shell
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic"