Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with WindowsXP and virus

Weird file corruption problem with mp3 and wma files.

sparklejess — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:10:40 -0800

.mp3 and .wma (played with Media Player on Windows XP) files seem to have amalgamated into a file named 'USBC°ïæå.' of varying size. Any clue why and how to fix it? I'm trying to help a friend whose music library has been scrambled in some way I don't recognise at all.

In the folder where the mp3 and wma files should be, there's a single file whose name and size change unpredictably, although it seems to be consistently of the form "USBC****." (where asterisks are varying characters).

Size varies between about 3GB (approx size of original files) and about 81K.

I've never seen this before at all, and can't find any information about what kind of virii, or other things, are around at the moment that might do this.

Any help would be very much appreciated. I'm running a full virus scan on my system right now just to be sure, but I'm totally baffled.

Windows XP repair/install woes.

RobotHero — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:53:10 -0800

My install of Windows XP got borked by a virus that necessitated the deletion of a number of .exe files needed by the operating system. I was kind of hoping to do this without re-formatting my C: drive, so I've been selecting the option to Repair the C:/Windows installation. It says that it successfully copies its setup files, and then restarts the computer. Upon restarting, it shows me a black screen with a mouse pointer but does not continue the install. If I boot from the Windows CD again, it says "Setup has already attempted to upgrade the following Windows installation." And it gives me the option of "Retry upgrading to Windows XP" or "continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing."

Just a couple days ago, I successfully ran a repair from this disk. (In order to get it running long enough to scan everything with Avira, which deleted a bunch of infected .exe files, thus leading to the install I'm trying to run now.)

Are there any other ideas I can try before I start backing up the many files I'll want to save from my C: drive?

Digital Immunodeficiency Disorder?

Rhaomi — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:44:21 -0800

My laptop's been infected by something that is interfering with all the usual solutions. Please help! After the recent hacking attempt that brought down Mefi, I scanned my laptop for any problems it may have picked up from it. AVG detected one threat, a trojan, which it promptly deleted. But that wasn't quick enough, apparently.

Now, my Windows XP setup is exhibiting weird behavior all around, and everything I've tried to do to fix it has been blocked. Here are all the symptoms:

Firewall - was originally turned off; I'm not sure for how long. I've since turned it back on.

Security software - AVG isn't detecting anything, but there's obviously something still wrong. Attempting to update the virus database throws an error. Most troubling, I cannot install the newest version of AVG as its website is blocked. Ditto for all the other major antivirus vendors -- trying to access their websites results in a page error.

Tech support sites - Same as above. Something is blocking all attempts to connect to the major tech help sites. I knew enough to check my hosts file, but can see no problems there. At least AskMe still works...

Google search - Searching Google for solutions leads to a standard results page. But when I click on a result, instead of going to the relevant page, it opens up a new tab and goes to a random spam site. This happens on Yahoo and other search sites as well. I can still get to the page I want by copying the URL and pasting, but it's slowing me down. And of course any link that points to a support site won't work.

Other browsers - I'd been using Firefox 3 up to this point, so I tried the other browsers on my system on the off chance they'd work better. No luck -- Google Chrome refuses to connect to *any* website, and Internet Explorer crashes immediately after launching.

System Restore - fed up with all the problems, I tried to roll back my system to a point before the infection. But to my great surprise, all the old system restore points have been deleted.

So to sum up: AV software is borked, security and support sites are blocked, searching is hampered, and I can't go back to an older system configuration. Any ideas?

PS: I know you are not my tech support, but like I said, all the more dedicated help sites I'd normally consult have been disappeared. Thanks for your time and patience!

Best way to switch a virus-riddled Eee running XP to Ubuntu?

rebekah — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 15:29:42 -0800

First-time Windows user. Brand new Asus Eee running Windows XP. Will installing Ubuntu get rid of these nasty viruses? I've had my Asus Eee 904 for two days, and it's already besieged by spammy IE pop-ups and fake "You Must Protect Ur Computer" windows. I've barely touched the thing, except to install Firefox and a legit copy of Microsoft Office from my university.

Assuming I can battle the pop-ups long enough to download Ubuntu, will installing it rid me of these problems, or do I need to wipe the whole machine and start over?

If wiping it is the only option, is there any way to do this that doesn't involve using the recovery CD that came with the computer? The Eee doesn't have a CD drive, and I don't have an external one readily available.

Thanks in advance. I'm going to go cradle my trusty MacBook and weep for a bit.

Copy and paste in XP: Why not?

beaucoupkevin — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 06:48:48 -0800

Help us get rid of this Copy/Paste problem we're having in Windows XP Pro // SP2! Throughout the office, we are unable to consistently copy and paste in Windows XP Professional. It acts as though the Clipboard is full, but when looking at Clipbook Viewer, there's nothing there! Restarting sometimes takes care of this, but it's a temporary reprieve until the problem starts again.

I've got AVG installed and ran a complete scan with no results. I've also run AdAware and SpyBot in an effort to purge this problem, and there's no joy in Mudville. Googling turns up nothing resembling help, so I turn to you, the green and ask you kindly for any input you may have on this manner.

How do I tell what program inserted a registry entry?

twine42 — Sun, 18 Jul 2004 07:05:52 -0800

PCFilter : Is there any way to tell what program inserted something into the registry?
I've been attacked by four seperate virii that sophos claims don't exist in the wild. One of them (netclnc.exe) keeps reappearing in my registry and the system32, and I want to know what's putting it there so I can kill it. Ideas?

Windows XP questions

Termite — Mon, 07 Jun 2004 23:43:07 -0800

Windows XP firewall + Zone Alarm = problem?
I've just upgraded to Windows XP and I have three questions (so far...). 1. After installing the Zone Alarm firewall I can't get online. Is this because of a conflict between the Windows firewall and ZA? How good is the Windows firewall – maybe I don't need ZA anymore? Should I disable the Windows firewall instead?

2. On top of the file tree in Windows Explorer is the "My documents" folder on my C drive. I've got all my documents stored in a "My documents" folder on my D drive (the D drive is bigger). I want to get the D drive folder on top of the file tree instead or, if this isn't possible, to delete the "My documents" folder from the file tree and start with the D drive expanded.

3. Any chance of getting the pie charts back in the "My computer" folder somehow? To view the used/free space on all hard drives at a glance was mighty handy, says me.

They keep making Windows uglier for every version...