Virus problem

[red indian]

....Norton and Trend House call both tell me i have a number of viruses, but my machine will not allow me to remove them. It keeps telling me the "file is in use". They are all windows media player files and are stored in C:\_RESTORE\TEMP I would like to clear this folder completely of all 200 files but it wont let me touch any of them. Neither will it let me play any of them to see what they are.

They all try to open in a version of WMP that never works on my puter (presumably an older version).

I have a fairly new version of WMP as well which works perfectly well, but none of the contents of RESTORE\TEMP open in the new version.

As far as i can recall, this older version of WMP has never worked anyway.

How do I get rid of these files which I have never seen and dont want?

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Hmmm...if they are in use, you can try deleting them while in Safe Mode. Quite often, files that are in use while in normal Windows are not in Safe Mode. If you use XP, restart your computer and wait until it has started to boot up. Then press F8 and keep pressing it until a screen comes up allowing you to choose how you'd like to boot up (There is a specific time to press it, but I find that simply pressing it as soon as the computer starts to boot up and then continuing to do so means you will not miss that opening). Choose "Safe Mode." When Safe Mode has finished booting up, do your deletion. Then restart and normal Windows will load.

If that does not work, there are a few programs that can attempt to delete files before Windows boots up and loads whatever program is using them or protecting them, but there is a more fail-safe method, DOS. The method for booting in MS-DOS mode is similar to Safe Mode. Do your restart and F8 thing and then choose "MS-DOS Mode" or something similar at the same screen where you chose Safe Mode. But before that you need to write down the absolute address of each file that you want to delete. C:\Program Files\Whatever\badfile.exe for example. Then, while in MS-DOS mode, type del followed by the address of the file you want to delete. Hit enter. Repeat until all files are gone. Then type EXIT, I believe, and you will reboot (They tell you what must be typed to exit MS-DOS mode as you enter it.). And that should have done it. No file-protection exists in MS-DOS mode, which is what makes it so powerful and so dangerous. YOu could delete a vital Windows system file inadvertantly. Take care.

 

[red indian]

Thanks for taking the trouble......

....to help, very much appreciated me old china! unfortunately I still cant shift the files. I tried the F8/safe mode route but they still will not delete.

I cant see any reference in my system during boot up to ms-dos, it is not one of the choices offered of the four.

Any other ideas?

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Hmmm...*Tests a Re-start* It appears I was wrong about there being an option for MS-DOS mode....tell me, do you have an original Windows XP CD? If so, you can boot from it and use the built-in Repair Mode to delete the necessary files.

 

[red indian]

Sorry to be so "retro".........

....but I am still running windows ME! (dear oh dear! us old fashioned Limeys!) I can see i am going to end up having to format the whole shebang.

 

[His Divine Shadow]

*Does a search* Not necessarily. I believe I found your solution. When you got to the choice of booting in Safe Mode (After hitting F8), did you see a choice called "Command Prompt Only?" You should have. Select that, and use the instructions I gave you for DOS to delete the files.

For a full walk-through on how to get there, go here: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chdos.htm#03, and follow the steps.

Let me know if that works.