How do I?...No.43

[JaXanim]

If this concerned my Amiga I wouldn't be asking. So, as it's a peecee/WinXP of which I know next to nowt, maybe someone will help out.

It got infected with some malware which none of my antivirus(AVG)/spyware(AdAware) stuff could fix. There were .txt files with hidden .exe extensions all over the shop. AVG saw them as viruses OK, but couldn't fix, delete or quarrantine 'em. A real load of use that is!

Anyway, when I was trying to clean it up, I noticed my boot scanner showed suspect files on the second drive (D:). Some of these were in two folders I didn't recognise (D:Recycle and D:Recycled). These appear to be part of the malware, which spawned dubious content throughout drive C: and then started on D:. Most of that I managed to delete manually. Annoyingly, it then started spawning again so I had to reformat drive C: and start over....probably not necessary when you know what you're doing, but I don't.

Anyway, under WinXP the two folders are not shown when I open D:, which I assume means they are hidden (?). I want to clear these away, but don't know how.

So, How do I delete these folders?

What's the best (free) malware treatment?

Cheers,

JaX

[X-ray]

@ JaXanim

Have you tried Stinger? It has fixed most of my problems before.

Get it here

[Etho]

The recyle and recycled folders are normal and part of the system. They are just part of your recyle bin, like a tempory storage till you empty your trash.

You could try deleting them from a command prompt:

attrib c:\recycler -h -s
del c:\recycler

I'd also give spybot a go as it often picks stuff up that Adaware misses.

http://beam.to/spybotsd

Don't forget to update it when you download so it's got the most up-to-date detection rules.

[BadBigBen]

Ok, for XP the combination of AdAware, SpyBot S&D, and MS AntiSpyware are the best...

you may also want to install EWIDO (Anti Trojan) which has saved me many times before... www.ewido.net, they have a freeware version with a Full Trial Version... ergo it just turns off the Fullware functionality when the Trial has expired but will continue to work in Manual Mode...

Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Spyware etc. are all Malware... but the AntiVirus Progies (most) will only kill Viruses and Worms, some Trojans, but NO SPYWARE... that is why you should always have at least TWO anti spyware progs running, ie. SpyBot and AdAware...

good luck...

[roguebeck]

 Sometimes using a Antivirus boot/rescure disk is the best bet. That way you're not running an OS off of an infected disk. This also prevents the files on your HD from being "in use", which sometimes prevents healing or deleting of the files.

 I am sure that AVG has the option to make floppies (at least it does during the install phase).

 You'll probably want to make a spare set off of a "clean" pc if you're still having trouble.

[_ThEcRoW]

Don't forget also that with a windows box you need a firewall on all cases. Running on the net without one coulda have bad consequences.
Do you run service pack2?, this is known of be responsible of some troubles on xp machines.

[JaXanim]

@all

Thanks for all the help and advice, I'll get some of the suggestions installed to supplement my existing stuff.

The problem was caused by me inadvertantly opening an email attachment to see what it was. Fatal eh?!

Anyway, it installed a set of three files (all with hidden .exe tails) wherever there was a shared folder on my system. That turned out to be lots of places. It was supposed to pop up a porno screensaver, XXX rated .avi's and such stuff. Luckily, it didn't get chance to run cos I shut everything down as soon as AVG sounded the claxon.

The daft thing was, AVG's Resident Sheild sounded the alarm bells but the AVG disk scanner reported no virus infection anywhere on the system. The shield spotted dozens, but the AVG wasn't able to do anything to resolve the problem. I contacted the AVG support team who implied that my spyware kit was probably at fault and recommended a commercial package. In other words, it wasn't a virus.

Even dafter, I DO have the AVG rescue disks I made weeks ago. I just forgot about them while thrashing around not knowing my Mars from Uranus. Reformatting seemed the only way. As I said, peecees are a black art to me!

As to the elusive Recycle/Recycled folders, I'll leave as is. No 'virus' is now reported by the scanners, so whatever was there before seems to have become harmless.

[Edit: Yes I have WinXP/SP2]

Cheers,

JaX