Avoid Flash Disk Viruses This ruins a lot of Windows PC

[x2envi 0]

There are this new hype of virus scattering around nowadays that ruins a lot of PCs in our country; in schools and public cafes! Its bad since it disables a lot of features as well as it ruins memory the slows down the whole thing. It disables much of the removal process like Windows RegEdit.exe, MsConfig.exe and also TaskMan.exe. Variations of these also disables your keyboard during normal booting, floods your disk with virus files in the root directory and also the windows directory and some also floods your directory with Folder looking icons that is an executable..

 

So heres my tip in avoiding this:

 

1st: Always make all files visible like system and also hidden files with their extension shown.

Go to Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Option > View

* Enable Show Hidden File

* Disable Hide Extensions for know file type

* Disable Hide Protected OS files

 

2nd: Never Use the Autorun functionality in Windows

whenever you put a disk(flash, memory card, usb drive devices and other form of removable drive) it is always a practice to scan it first. but to avoid being the first to be infected by a wild one, always use Windows Explorer to browse the files. Use the left side(Folder Window), to browse the files. Whenever you see an autorun.inf file, delete it! remove the disk and insert it again to avoid clicking it.

 

3rd: Always update Virus database!

 

Enjoy my tip!

[Grafitti 0]

Good tip. Another one is to do away with windows explorer and move on to something more powerful like total commander. There if you have hide files disabled, anything that's on the flash disk is listed there. And since it won't automatically load thumbnails unless you specify that, there no accessing the virus. If you know what to look for, you can spot them right away and delete them before they do any damage to your system.

[HellFire121 0]

I agree with the hidden files and file extensions. There have been lots of times when you get a file that has 2 extensions, if you have extensions disabled it might be very easy to overlook the extension that shows, because if they're disabled you expect none to show. It stands out more when you have extensions enabled where there's 2 sets of extensions, you can also see what the file really is by looking at the real extension.As always keep your antivirus running and up to date at all times.-HellFire

[wutske 0]

bwa, having an Anti-virus program installed is everything you need (doesn't matter how you look at it, having no anti-virus solution up and running is suicide).Best way to avoid is not to use Microsoft programs (because they are the most used and most populair under viri-writers).

[rockershive 0]

I am using the AVG Free Edition. It takes care of my system, especially when enter 'illegitimate' sites. I don't have the complete package protection from AVG coz it's quite expensive. But the Free Edition assures me of unwanted and harmful threats in the Internet.

[blackhand101 0]

that sounds bad...glad i dont have that prob anyway some peoplez computers i work on get the infected .exe files is there any way i can fix thatthanks

[vizskywalker 0]

bwa, having an Anti-virus program installed is everything you need (doesn't matter how you look at it, having no anti-virus solution up and running is suicide).

While I agree it is a bad idea not to have antivirus software, having antivirus software does not make you immune. I've both received from infected friends and worked directly with (installed myself, even created myself (I was doing a research project)) viruses that cannot be cleaned (or sometimes detected) by antivirus. I use Symantec Corporate and keep it up to date, but there are some viruses it finds, and fails to properly clean, and some it can't find. For those who are about to jump on me with the whole "Symantec sucks" shpiel, first of all, it doesn't, and second of all, in these cases I use AVG as a backup. I've noticed that AVG finds and cleans some stuff Symantec doesn't, and Symantec finds and cleans stuff AVG doesn't. I'm not sure which, if either, is truly better. All I know is that I'm better than either of them, when I need to be. Using antivirus software is not guaranteed protection, especially since there are some viruses that work "with" antivirus software, for instance, to help them gain fully priveleged access to system files they otherwise wouldn't be able to touch. So even if running antivirus, keep an eye out for when your system starts to act up.
~Viz

[Chesso 0]

From my experience anti virus softwate cannot truly kill nasty viruses, it can only slow them down. Any virus or spyware etc that an anti virus has taken care of for me fully, is one I could easily fix manually, and do a cleaner job of it.But if you have the space and time for it, something that stops infected files from even running in the first place is certainly a useful idea.Having known file type extensions not hidden as well as protected operating system files showing etc is useful if you need to go hunt the bugs yourself.If your TaskMan is not working, download a third party one, or actually Microsoft has a more advanced one of their own that is free I believe and won't be affected by TaskMan, it can even replace TaskMan if you want it to (sorry I can't remember the name of it right now).And Yeah I wouldn't have auto run CD's/DVD's etc on either, aside from being sometimes annoying, it could be running a virus for all anyone knows.

[Grafitti 0]

Especially with flash disks, the autorun feature is where all the viruses and worms load themselves. Currently I'm fighting an infestation of Ravmon.E worms. They hop around on flash disks, and for some reason neither NOD32 nor AVG is detecting it. It's a pretty harmless virus, doesn't destroy anything, just runs and makes a nuisance of itself. It's easy to kill, and looking at a flash disk with total commander shows the virus, and from there's it's just a click to delete. the problem is users. who don't know what they're doing and think they know better, and refuse to stop the autorun feature. That, and they won't open their pgp disks (which ravmon infects as well), so they come crying for a cleanup, and the next day they're back again.

[ethergeek 0]

You could also just be more judicious about who's machine you shove your flash drive into, and who you let shove their flash drive into your machine. It's really common sense, like sex. If you see someone that uses IE and has alot of toolbars and crap, or seems computer illiterate, don't stick your disk in there.

[vizskywalker 0]

If you see someone that uses IE and has alot of toolbars and crap, or seems computer illiterate, don't stick your disk in there.

Just because someone uses IE does not necessarily mean they are an inferior computer user. In fact, I have had more issue with Firefox plugins than I've ever had with IE plugins, and IE7 is avtually a good browser. I still use Firefox, but I disapprove of the whole IE is Microsoft thus not good software idea.
It is a good idea to remove the autorun feature from flash drives. I know of no pieces of software for flash drives, other than viruses, that require the autorun feature to work, and there never should be.

~Viz

[ethergeek 0]

Just because someone uses IE does not necessarily mean they are an inferior computer user. In fact, I have had more issue with Firefox plugins than I've ever had with IE plugins, and IE7 is avtually a good browser. I still use Firefox, but I disapprove of the whole IE is Microsoft thus not good software idea.
It is a good idea to remove the autorun feature from flash drives. I know of no pieces of software for flash drives, other than viruses, that require the autorun feature to work, and there never should be.

~Viz

I didn't say someone using ie, i said "someone using ie and has alot of toolbars". Someone using IE and having multiple advertising-oriented BHO toolbars throws up a warning flag to me.

IE is bad not because it's microsoft, but because it's such a popular target for attacks due to its tight integration with the underlying operating system. Overrun a buffer in IE and you have potentially the same level of access to the computer that the shell does...overrun a buffer in firefox and congratulations, you've just annoyed someone by crashing their browser.

[mHelmy 0]

And this is to disable all autorun in XP :

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:000000ff"NoDriveAutoRun"=hex:ff,ff,ff,03[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom]"AutoRun"=dword:00000000

save it as noautorun.reg and double click it.

[Chesso 0]

So that stops all auto-run applications?I never knew about that, but I don't think I would want them all not running generally.

[zoedimax 0]

just scan your flash disk regularly