I recently ran some anti-spyware software on one of my systems (AdAware 2008 and Spybot Search & Destroy) and eliminated a host of malevolent software. The system then ran fine; everything seemed peachy keen. Next I ran CCleaner on the same system and followed the recommendations for deleting files and fixing registry entries. Shortly thereafter (it may have been the very next time I rebooted but I'm not certain), I received the following error message as my Windows XP machine was booting up:
"This application has failed to start because OLEAUT32.dll was not found. Re-Installing the application may fix this problem" The blue bar across the top added the following: ?Isass.exe - Unable to Locate Component.?
I was able to click through this error message but then received a series of identical error messages, each time with the blue bar across the top citing a different component - userinit.exe, services.exe, explorer.exe. Eventually I reached the Windows background screen, but my desktop did not initialize.
From this point I tried to run Task Manager, but got a message that OLEPRO32.dll was missing. I was able to click through that error message and get to Task Manager, and ran the command prompt. I determined that both file OLEAUT32.dll and OLEPRO32.dll were not present in the ..\Windows\System32 directory.
I made a copy of both missing *.dll files from another Windows XP computer and installed them on the problem system using DOS copy from the command prompt and rebooted. Everything seemed to be working correctly; there were no error messages and Windows desktop initialized just fine. I was able to run some programs and access the internet and my home network. However, the next time I rebooted the system, I was back where I started from - with the error message that Oleaut32.dll was missing.
Did I do something with CCleaner that could cause this behavior? Or has my machine become infected with a virus or a trojan horse? I can't seem to locate any useful information about this situation. Has anyone seen this problem before or have any idea what?s going on.
