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I have Windows XP SP2 installed on my laptop, its been infected by a virus, which creates autorun.inf
in each of my drives as read-only, hidden and system file attribute being set, and which generates some EXE file and PIF file. I tried some free versions of anti-rootkit, anti-malware, registry scanning softwares but of no use. For most of them it denies installation. I also tried online scanning but it disconnects the process. Then I deleted them using Live Ubuntu running on a bootable USB. But after rebooting the laptop in Windows XP they were autogenerated again. I think the registry is being affected by the virus which is restoring them. I dont want to format my laptop. Earlier the safemode was also being disbled but anyhow I enabled it then, I tried deleting the autorun.inf
files from there
Is there any way to check what is causing them to be autogenerate.
You're running an outdated version of windows. You're unwilling to do the one thing that will definitely kill off the virus. You're doing a public service by reformatting your laptop. – Journeyman Geek – 2013-08-08T12:02:08.667
The first thing you will want to do is update to Service Pack 3. create a bootable anti-virus disk and scan your hdd that way. If your not willing to install SP3 nor format the HDD your insecure computer will continue to get a virus. There are security holes that you cannnot resolve unless you update SP3 – Ramhound – 2013-08-08T12:12:22.457
1Maybe his hardware is old for newer systems? Maybe he lacks the knowledge to backup and transfer every software and setting? Maybe there's a thousand installed programs and he lacks the time for backing up it all? Maybe he customized his system extensively and don't want to redo it all again? Removing a virus can be much more efficient than format, reinstall, reconfigure, etc etc etc. – That Brazilian Guy – 2013-08-08T12:19:40.030
(That said, yes, XP is quite old, about a decade, and expect more and more for released software to not even be fully compatible with it. You should plan an upgrade the sooner you can) – That Brazilian Guy – 2013-08-08T12:20:54.723