Posted: 10/15/2011 6:22:38 AM EDT
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"Roommate" has XP laptop. Got one of those fake virus warnings that won't go away. She can't even restore to a previous point, which had always worked before. We are running out of options. Is there a dos command or something that will let us bypass triggering the virus? |
| Sorry to hear. My parents computer is having the same problem, only my dad decided to follow the link and buy the product to defeat the virus. Spent $86 to open up a can of worms. Can't restore to previous point, can't clean boot. It's an old computer so no big deal, but a costly lesson for my parents. |
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Try restoring to an earlier restore point using the built in restore tool (As far back as you can), then install AVAST or AVG and scan/clean.
Set browser cached to empty each time you log off. Don't download stuff you don't know is clean. Don't visit sites you don't know are not safe. ETA go to safe mode first. |
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"Roommate" has XP laptop. Got one of those fake virus warnings that won't go away. She can't even restore to a previous point, which had always worked before. We are running out of options. Is there a dos command or something that will let us bypass triggering the virus? Have you tried start up in "safe mode" then do a system restore. ETA hit f8 just after BIOS is loaded and just before Windows starts (might take a few tries to time this just right.) this starts it in "safe mode". |
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wipe the computer and reload. This is the *only* safe answer to a virus infection. Yup.. You may fuck around with it for hours trying to get it back to the way it was and it will never be the way it was again. Just spend and hour and format that motherfucker. |
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wipe the computer and reload. This is the *only* safe answer to a virus infection. this Unless the virus has installed itself onto the drive in the right place. and what place on the hard drive escapes a format that a virus could install it self? 
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wipe the computer and reload. This is the *only* safe answer to a virus infection. this Unless the virus has installed itself onto the drive in the right place. and what place on the hard drive escapes a format that a virus could install it self? Anywhere. You don't really think that formatting a drive erases everything on it, do you? When you format a drive, all it does is erase the directory table that lists where things are stored on the drive. |
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wipe the computer and reload. This is the *only* safe answer to a virus infection. this Unless the virus has installed itself onto the drive in the right place. and what place on the hard drive escapes a format that a virus could install it self? Anywhere. You don't really think that formatting a drive erases everything on it, do you? When you format a drive, all it does is erase the directory table that lists where things are stored on the drive. That's only one kind of format, and not what I suggested doing. |
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Frankly, I'd Ground Zero the hard drive and reinstall XP from scratch. That's the only way to be sure, and in the end will take a lot less time than dicking around with the tinker toy tools provided with XP, or with any third-party product. Back up data files first, of course. I'd put those on a thumb drive or CD, and make a second copy for safety. Those will need to be scanned before being put back on the hard drive. |
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nothing has worked so far. Sometimes we can get to safe mode and select a restore point but every time it will say it can't do it. Probably going to give up for awhile. It's too pretty outside. I'll peruse the UC forum and see what comes up. TRy booting into the OS installtion Cd and choose the reapir fucntion - sometimes it will let you reinstall critical components without wiping data. Backup first. |
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As an IT guy. If you don't want to spend endless amounts of time, nuke it from orbit and reinstall the OS. You'll remove all the bloatware you collected throughout the lifetime of that OS so a clean install is actually healthy. Reinstalling all of your apps. Not so much but it allows you to decide what is needed and what's not. |