i am putting ths question on for my brother.he put his camputer on and a big box came on in the middle of is screen saying you have to pay symantec to get it took off. so he can not use is pc as any one can help him as i have not got a clue. thanks bigted

We need some more information. If this is happening because he really did have Symantec (Norton) installed and he let his subscription expire, then this is probably Symantec nagging him until he renews - they have a history of not always playing nice.

If this is the case, he should still be able to use the computer, but certainly is not fully protected. He needs to renew now, or uninstall the Symantec products and install a different set of security tool.

Symantec products do provide great security, but there are other very effective, and free alternatives. Check out Cleaning Out Malware for alternatives.

And IN ANY EVENT I recommend he run Malwarebytes's Anti-Malware (MBAM) now! If he is not running with expired security, he is already infected.

he has told me that he has got rid of the symantic box from the middle of the screen. but when he turned the pc back on he has no start button and all is short cuts have gone the is a message saying userinit.exe aplication failure prob oxcoooooo5 what ever that means hope you can help thanks

If he can boot into safe mode, I might try to create a new admin account and see if it works.

he has told me that when he puts is pc on he has no start button and no short cuts.all he has is a wallpaper background untill he goes into something called manager and what ever he does the start button and short cuts come on but when he turns the pc off and then turns it back on he has to do it all again to get is short cuts back any help please as i have not got a clue what he is on about thanks

I would try a system restore to a point back in time before the problem started.

Have him go to Task Manager and try to run: explorer

then see what happens.

he said when he has tried system restore he has only one date and that will bring back the problem that he first had so can not do that thanks eddie