Idiot tries to fix his laptop

Hey everyone,

So, here’s the situation. I’ve got a Dell Latitude—or something close to it—and since I’m the resident "IT expert" for my family (trust me, the bar is subterranean), I’m the designated fixer for anything that isn't mechanical. 🙂

Anyway, since I'm only home on weekends and during the summer, the laptop spends most of its time being used by the rest of the household... people who basically just know how to play mobile games, watch adult content, and scroll through Facebook.

I needed to open a specific link from an email and couldn't get it to work. In a fit of frustration, I went into the Control Panel and started nuking everything under Add/Remove Programs that didn't have a clear manufacturer or purpose—basically, anything that looked suspicious. 😉 I probably screwed things up. I wasn't smart enough to make a backup beforehand, and if I'm being honest, I don't even really know how you're supposed to do that. 🙂

Now there's a problem. Every time I try to launch a program, it just triggers an Internet Explorer download prompt asking whether to "run" or "save." No matter what I click, nothing actually opens.

I tried following some online guide to reset Windows, but whenever I boot up and hit F9 to access the setup utility, it asks for a password I definitely don't have.

Anyone have any ideas on what to do? I can't afford to pay someone to fix this—money is tight—but I would actually like to learn something along the way.

Thanks in advance.

Best,

stormycobra42

I’m honestly not following—what exactly is going wrong here? Is it happening while you're downloading stuff, or does it crash right when you try to launch an app? And seriously, why are you even using Internet Explorer? Have you tried switching over to Chrome, Opera, or Firefox yet? Also, what version of Windows are you running on that thing?

Moving forward, you should really clear out any viruses or other junk using a little tool called AdwCleaner—it doesn't even need an installation—and then run Malwarebytes, which does need an install but it's super easy to use. You should also run a scan with whatever antivirus you've got set up.

Hitting F2 usually just takes you into the BIOS... check the manual that came with your laptop to see if there are any passwords set for that.
As for installing Windows, you just need to pop in a Windows DVD and it should boot right up, provided you've set the CD drive as your primary boot device first. But since you clearly can't get into the BIOS, try hitting the Del key instead. If it still asks for a password, try pressing F9 when you start the computer up; that should bring up a menu where you can pick your boot device, like whether you want to go from the CD or the hard drive.
So, basically, if the Del key isn't getting you into the BIOS, give F9 a shot, and obviously make sure that Windows DVD is actually in the drive when you do it.

By the way, try to fix this without wiping everything first...

Give System Restore a shot to roll things back a day or two. Just head to All Programs-Accessories-System Tools-System Restore and see if it works.

If you already uninstalled Internet Explorer, just head over to Add/Remove Programs -> Add/remove Windows components and check the box for IE to get it back on there. Which version of Windows are we talking about here—is it Windows XP?