Help! Fake 'My Computer' window, FF crashing, corrupted icons?

blackjellognomes

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Feb 17, 2009
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Hi guys,
This might be the wrong forum for my question. Sorry if it is.
Anyway, my dad has an older PC running XP and recently some problems started popping up.

Not sure if this is a virus but symptoms include:

-icons distorted by greenish horizontal lines, in Explorer windows as well in Firefox (before it began crashing)
-Firefox crashes on startup (IE is fine???)
-Fake 'My Computer' window lacking the bar on top; the words "2/3 viruses found" flashes in red beneath the My Computer, Local Disk, and DVD drive icons
-request to download some security software that will apparently fix everything :pfff:

I think that's most of it. Does anyone know what this is/might be? Personally, I don't really know the difference between malware, viruses, worms, etc.
Also, any suggestions on how to fix this?