detecting a virus

[tmm5899]

a friend has a computer and he thinks he may have a virus how can he scan the
computer to see if he has one and where can he download a free virus
protector from or is there one on the windows cd and what would i look for it
the windows cd has a virus protector the operating system is windows xp
professional

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "tmm5899" <tmm5899@discussions.microsoft.com>

| a friend has a computer and he thinks he may have a virus how can he scan the
| computer to see if he has one and where can he download a free virus
| protector from or is there one on the windows cd and what would i look for it
| the windows cd has a virus protector the operating system is windows xp
| professional

The is NO built-in anti virus capability in Windows XP.

When you use the term "protector" you infer that you want to prevent viruses (and other
forms of malware). There are free anti virus packages that can help prevent and remove
malware. The one I suggest is the free personal Avira AntiVir -- http://www.freeav.com/

The following can be used to find and remove viruses (and other types of malware) but will
not be a "protector". It is an "On Demand" anti virus scanner and does not perform "On
Access" scanning which is the capability to help protect against getting infected in the
first place.


Download MULTI_AV.EXE from the URL --
http://www.pctipp.ch/ds/28400/28470/Multi_AV.exe

http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp

English:
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/01/09/scan-your-computer-with-multiple-anti-virus-for-free/

To use this utility, perform the following...
Execute Multi_AV.exe { Note: You must use the default folder C:\AV-CLS }
Choose Unzip
Choose Close

Execute C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT
{ or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS }

NOTE: You may have to disable your software FireWall or allow WGET.EXE to go through your
FireWall to allow it to download the needed AV vendor related files.

C:\AV-CLS\StartMenu.BAT -- { or Double-click on 'Start Menu' in C:\AV-CLS}
This will bring up the initial menu of choices and should be executed in Normal Mode.
This way all the components can be downloaded from each AV vendor's web site.
The choices are Sophos, Trend, McAfee, Kaspersky, Exit this menu and Reboot the PC.

You can choose to go to each menu item and just download the needed files or you can
download the files and perform a scan in Normal Mode. Once you have downloaded the files
needed for each scanner you want to use, you should reboot the PC into Safe Mode [F8 key
during boot] and re-run the menu again and choose which scanner you want to run in Safe
Mode. It is suggested to run the scanners in both Safe Mode and Normal Mode.

When the menu is displayed hitting 'H' or 'h' will bring up a more comprehensive PDF help
file.

Additional Instructions:
http://pcdid.com/Multi_AV.htm


* * * Please report back your results * * *



--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
Multi-AV - http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp

 

[Lon]

tmm5899 wrote:
> a friend has a computer and he thinks he may have a virus how can he scan the
> computer to see if he has one and where can he download a free virus
> protector from or is there one on the windows cd and what would i look for it
> the windows cd has a virus protector the operating system is windows xp
> professional

What leads your friend to think they have a virus?

Wireshark show any unusual network connections that cannot be explained?

Crashing behavior could just be a new app annoying a downlevel video
driver.