Re: Friend has a virus ..
Posted by Crono on Sat Oct 1st at 12:49am 2005
You can run most virus and spyware scanners in safemode as well.
You can't, however, update the definitions or anything (and I wouldn't suggest enabling network access, since that's part of the problem)
A lot of virus's however, will start up even if you remove them from the msconfig window. They could be logged as a service ... or just in the registry somewhere.
The best thing to do is goto safemode, like nickle said, then run a scan which will recognize all the virus's if they're there (hopefully) write them down.
Try to delete them, and turn everything off in MSconfig, hopefully that'll turn it off so you can boot with network support. Then go online and find detailed removal instructions. Usually, it's easiest to make a batch file with the removal commands.
You can do that, if it doesn't work, make the batch file (or get a remover ... which don't work all the time, just about every one I've ever used hasn't gotten rid of what they're suppose to) reboot in safemode ... in the administrator account, and run those batchfiles, it should be able to delete everything. Goto the directories and delete everything it tells you to .. blah blah blah.
You get the gist, I'm sure.
By the way, AVG is really bad with some of the most basic virus's it lets them through without any hassle.
Also, if you want to install XP, don't do it through 98. That'll make the file system FAT32 and as far as I know it's just a really s**tty file system.

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Re: Friend has a virus ..
Posted by rs6 on Sat Oct 1st at 12:55am 2005
You can easily upgrade from FAT32 to NTFS when upgrading fomr 98 to XP, it even asks you if you want to do it.

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Re: Friend has a virus ..
Posted by Crono on Sat Oct 1st at 1:01am 2005
Yes, but what's the point if you're going to do that anyway? Just start with it. Just like anything else in the word, converting something over and over again isn't as good as just doing the final thing. (Connection converters are a good example)

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Re: Friend has a virus ..
Posted by Crono on Sat Oct 1st at 2:37am 2005
I thought the computer was already running XP. Not that he specified what it was running.
jake, it's been my experience to have pretty much zero protection while using AVG. I used it on my laptop at school ... it got plastered with viruses (in a matter of minutes, actually).
I use Norton, but there's plenty of good ones. I just use norton because it's widely supported and they've got a pretty expansive definition set. McAfee is suppose to be good and then there's all sorts of professional and corporate antiviral software out there. Most of which actually sever your network connection on virus detection (it's usually adjustable, but sometimes not). It's to protect the rest of the network.
But, something like Norton should work find. I find Norton and a Spy/Adware scanner is good to have. I use ... um ... Ad-Aware. It's pretty good. But I don't use it unless I go into safemode and scan.
Also ... I'm behind a hardware firewall on my Belkin router. But, I have noticed, with the same version of Norton (2005) on my laptop, at school I rarely notice anything. Actually, it runs pretty smooth and fast ... this is equally amazing because the laptop is ten years old.
Also, Nickle, I'm not sure about Win'98, but you have to check the same path under HKLM.

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Re: Friend has a virus ..
Posted by Crono on Sat Oct 1st at 2:59am 2005
I know. All I said was that that is another 'run' path that is used often. Actually, if the virus writers were smart that's where they'd put it ... since it pertains to the computer and not just that user.

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Re: Friend has a virus ..
Posted by parakeet on Sat Oct 1st at 3:05am 2005
yeah this virus was caused by a MSDOS file that left big holes for
other stuff to come in . i'll mention the stuff we have to her. i
recommended a full sweep , just because she had nothing important on
there and it'd more within my timeframe that i'd have if i tried to go
over there and fix it. I also found that she'd have a new version of XP
so thats handy

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Re: Friend has a virus ..
Posted by G4MER on Sat Oct 1st at 8:29am 2005
Tell him to get to the Doctor and get a shot.. lol
I would of been more constructive, but I think everyone above me pretty much have it coverd.

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Re: Friend has a virus ..
Posted by Nickelplate on Sun Oct 2nd at 4:25pm 2005
Just load Windows XP "FCKGW- Edition"

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Re: Friend has a virus ..
Posted by Crono on Sun Oct 2nd at 10:32pm 2005
Are you implying Fedora is more complicated then SuSE?!
Fedora is cake walk in comparison. Prettier startup too. Those are all pretty "beginner - intermediate" suites though. If you want talk advanced, You're talking Gentoo and Slackware. s**t where you have to build your own binaries ... almost always.

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Re: Friend has a virus ..
Posted by wil5on on Mon Oct 3rd at 12:04am 2005
? quoting Nickelplate
Just load Windows XP "FCKGW- Edition"
In my experience, that particular version doesnt support any service packs.

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