Acy

Hi all,

My brother thinks he has a virus. He's running Windows XP Home and McAfee AV software. Here are the symptoms:


-Pressing ctrl-alt-delete has no effect
-Internet Explorer automatically closes when trying to search or going to websites related to "virus", "antivirus"
-McAfee scan doesn't work because it's an online scan and it automatically gets cancelled
-I sent him a bunch of AV software and the installation programs automatically cancel a few seconds into installation

Do you guys know what this is and how to fix it?
Will a system restore work or does he need to reformat?

Thanks~

-ACY

rajatQ2

If I were him, I'd probably reformat. Depending on which virus it is, some of them will go through infecting or deleting other file types.

Anyway, in an effort to get his computer useable again, maybe you could download the "stinger" tool from http://vil.nai.com , and boot into SAFE MODE to run that. There is a chance that those virii will not execute in safe mode.

Also, if you have McAfee installed on your computer, try making one of those "emergency boot disks". That will be bootable, so you will always be able to run the scan (from dos mode). hth

__________________
Find some free Comcast or Verizon on-demand movies to watch at home tonight:
www.movie-cat.tv

Markel

Many of the recent nasty viruses include themselves in the system restore. Thus the removal method is:
1) Disable system restore
2) If you can run regedit, do so. (Some of the viruses try to prevent this. Perhaps a boot to safe mode might allow it.) Go to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce and remove any strange entries. (You might want to do a registry export of this section before you delete anything).
3) Also check other startup areas (start menu "startup") for anything strange).

If he's lucky, he might be able to kill the virus process and then be able to do a system scan to see if there are other infected files. Once done, re-enable system restore.

__________________
stay low... keep moving...