how do i get rid of this virus?

penny1001

Hi,
I use AVG anti-virus software and it works well. last week i started up my laptop(took a lot longer than usual) and within a lot of folders there were extra folders eg. in my music folder there were extra jpegs, and in the C:\ folder there were extra, they were faded( like where you cut and paste something)
Any suggestions an what it might be and how i should tackle it,
Penny

aidan_walsh

Are you sure you have a virus, and someone just hasn't set hidden files to be visible (they are marked with a semi-transparent icon such as you mention). You can check this by going to (in Windows XP) My Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View and checking the radio button "Hidden Files and Folders" is set to "Show Hidden Files and Folders".

If you do a full system scan with AVG (which is up to date?) does it show anything up?

Sparky

aidan_walsh wrote:

Are you sure you have a virus, and someone just hasn't set hidden files to be visible (they are marked with a semi-transparent icon such as you mention). You can check this by going to (in Windows XP) My Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View and checking the radio button "Hidden Files and Folders" is set to "Show Hidden Files and Folders".

If you do a full system scan with AVG (which is up to date?) does it show anything up?

Yes aidan, id say your right, as i do have the same in my documents folder, i do hide some of the necessary crap, to make things look better, and cleaner.
Aswell to the OP if you use WMP 10 in your my music folder any album has a hidden thumbs file.

But as always any transparent file is always a hidden file, its just that you have it set to show them, but windows leave's them transparent so that you know.

If you do suspect a virus, do a CTRL ALT DELETE and check Processes, if you see anything untoward taking alot of memory, check it out. also do a MSCONFIG in start>Run and see whats in your startup processes, to see if anything that looks out of place is starting up.

penny1001

thank very much for the help. I went into processes and see that Kazaa is using a lot of memory. I try to remove it by normal means( ininstall program) but it wont let me. it was suggested to go to their website and find a "kazaa uninstall" program but not to be found.
I hate Kazaa!
penny

EOA_Mushy

Load in safe mode and uninstall from the control panel...

macphisto

hello Penny

once upon a time i used to use kazaa and very quickly realised that lots of files that i would expect to be larger than the values i saw were in fact all viruses (viri ? :-D). I gave up using it after i saw the exact same problem that you have....
use msconfig (start > run > msconfig > startup). Turn everything off (except your antivirus/firewall/anti-spyware, etc) and apply. Try avast antivirus or nod32 and see what they can do. That happened to me twice and each time it copied loads n loads of files to the HD (chewing up resources in the mean time) and 4 files were always ultimately responsible. Keep an eye on the file sizes of what you download. Thats how i avoided all of that hassle.

hope this helps,
macphisto

Karoma

Viruses is the correct term.

Uinstall Kazaa (+if it's Kazaa Lite, there used to be other programs installed alongside it-read through the list and remove) via Safe Mode
(Tapping F8 on boot will give you the option for Safe Mode )
Then, whilst in Safe Mode - run a thorough scan with AVG, spybot s&d and ad-aware (All with up-to-date definitions of course.) to remove the crap left behind.

penny1001

Thanks again all,
I have done all suggestions but have'nt gotten totally removed it. In "add/remove program" it is down to 2.4MB! im determined to weed it out! I had to go into the registry to get some files.
but how will i get it totally gone?
penny

Karoma

And you performed all of the above in Safe Mode?