Viruses!

[Amethyst Hunter]

I've been turning up all sorts of crapware with my AVG anti-virus lately, because of family members using my computer to surf some potentially questionable sites (like MySpace). Last night I ran two scans, one I started and one that the system automatically does every night a few hours later. I turned up two Trojan horses, one from each scan:

1st one, found in Adobe Acrobat 7.0/Updater/adberdr709_en_US.exe
Infection: Trojan horse Generic10.BHES

2nd one, found in C://System Volume Information/_restore
Infection: Trojan horse Generic10.BHES

I'm curious as to what any of this stuff means, since I was initially freaked out when I saw the info popping up on my screen once the scans were done. It says it stuck them in the Virus Vault, and according to varying reports from people, these infected files may or may not be able to be deleted without much trouble (I hope) thus getting rid of the bastardly Trojans (which are apparently harmless so long as they're still isolated in the Virus Vault).

Plz to be giving me enlightenment?

[Broomjockey]

Very generally, it means two tiny programs capable of letting someone hijack your system inserted themselves into files in those locations. AVG found them based on code templates, isolated them, and made it so people can no longer take over your system. It almost looks like it was the same program twice, that somehow made it into a system restore point, or back up of some kind. Once they're in the virus vault, delete them, and smack the crap out of whoever's been using the system. I'd also recommend running SpyBot in the background, as it can help prevent stuff like that. You can set it up so that nothing can install itself and auto-run, and I'd recommend making different accounts with lesser access, if they haven't already.

[JustADude]

Personally, I run Hitman Pro regularly, on top of my AV. Hitman pretty much sets up and administers scans from all the major players in freeware Malware detection.

One button and boom, you've got it handled.

[earl colby pottinger]

Accounts

Give them limited accounts and NEVER, NEVER, EVER give them Root again.

In my case it is simple:

One) I break the fingers of anyone who tries to use my laptop without my permission (ok, I just rap their fingers hard enough that they think I will break them).

Two) I use an OS they can't run their games on.

Three) I NEVER give out my password!

Harder to do, but works for me is that my computer uses Bootman to boot from one of four partitions. Each partition has it's own copy of the OS on it. If you set it up this way for your family any member can completely hose their partition and the others will still be fine. Since I use BeOS not Windows I don't know if you can do this, but also in my setup when a partition in booted the others are all left unmounted so their contents are untouched no matter what happens to the booted partition. Ask around.

[Broomjockey]

I think that's possible, but would require several different activation keys for Windows. It'd be similar to dual booting, I guess (quad booting, whatever ), but since they're all seperate, each would want a key to be activated.

[LostMyMind]

Not really, since it's the same computer. You can install it multiple times with the same key. Since you generally can't boot both OS at the same time, it falls under fair use. And microsoft "unique" formula to figure out if it's the same computer is based on the hardware of the computer, which would be the same so it will report to microsoft that it's the same computer.

[Broomjockey]

But don't they limit the number of times you can install it per year? I'd heard it was 2x per year. It wasn't an official source, so it could quite easily be wrong.

[LostMyMind]

Not that I'm aware of, I can install win9x, NT, XP, 2000 as many times as I want. In fact, I have. There is no "check" before installing or during. However with vista, I'm not sure. But who would install vista twice. That's like shooting your left foot just to feel the same pain from shooting your right foot.

[Broomjockey]

However with vista, I'm not sure. But who would install vista twice. That's like shooting your left foot just to feel the same pain from shooting your right foot.

Please to be not dissing my operating system for no good reason. And considering I *have* had to call in to get them to activate my copy of XP, but not Vista, the second time around, there's some kind of criteria in place, but I have no clue what it is now.

[LostMyMind]

I'm sorry, there is no reason to install vista to dual boot into another copy of vista. Win9x, XP, or linux I can understand the need of having multiple boots of the same OS. But not vista.

If you had to call to activate your XP key, it probably was installed and registered on several different computers (hardware wise). Or the key was on the pirate's list of keys that you can use to activate your XP. Which you only need to access the update via website. Unlike Vista, XP's registration don't really do anything for the OS other that deactivate that annoying pop-up.