Cannot open windows apps

[john73]

Hi
My wife said she was having trouble (a) updating windows and (b) shutting down her laptop. A message appeared saying two programs were preventing shut down. " Elara" and "host windows" and a windows box "Do want to shut down any way?" Further investigation showed that Elara was a virus. Run full system scan ( Kaspersky) nothing detected. downloaded Lavasoft Ad aware and ran that- one item found and put into quarantine. Run update and a backlog of updates were subsequently downloaded.
One of these updates was Windows 10 upgrade version1511,105861 which deleted Ad aware ( would not work on this upgrade) but re-activated windows defender which was then switched off by Kaspersky. When next she logged-on she entered her password but was surprised to see an "old screen format" when using a mouse she was unable to open any old type icons.
When she logs-on(cave picture) enters her password the next screen shows icons and three rows of blank white files. I have tried in vain to get past this second screen. Can anyone help, because next she will be asking to use my desktop!
Thanks
john73

 

[Trouble]

I suppose that it's possible that whatever finally yanked the infection out (if in fact it is entirely gone) may have produced some file corruption.
The file corruption could be either....
Her user profile, in which case you can try creating a new user (as a member of the local administrator's group, not a standard user) log on as the new user and see if that provides any relief from the problem
OR
Some system file corruption, in which case you may try using the native System File Checker and see if that helps.
Right click the start button and choose Command Prompt (Admin) in the command prompt window type
sfc /scannow
hit enter
See what it produces.

Consider that the infection may not be gone entirely, use these to further scan the system

ADWcleaner from here http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/dl/125/
JRT (Junkware Removal Tool) from here http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/junkware-removal-tool/dl/131/
Rogue Killer from here http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/roguekiller/dl/121/
Norton Power Eraser from here https://security.symantec.com/nbrt/npe.aspx
Malwarebytes from here http://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/confirm/
SuperAntiSpyware from here http://www.superantispyware.com/downloadfile.html?productid=SUPERANTISPYWAREFREE
ESET Online Scanner from here http://www.eset.com/us/online-scanner/

Eset online scanner is a bit different than the others in that you need to either use
IE or download and run their smart installer if you're using another browser. Then tick
the radio button that says "Enable detection of potentiall unwanted application"
Then click the link that says "Advanced settings", then check all the boxes except the
one that mentions "Use custom proxy settings", unless of course you're using a Proxy
Server. Then just click "Start", it will do a thorough system scan so it takes a long
time.

I don't check the links above everyday, so if you have any problem with any one of them then just Google for the program name but use the site names that I have recommended since I'm relatively certain they are free of extraneous garbage.