Need help with Computer Virus

[hsmomx3]

My son recently downloaded the google toolbar and I ran the AV program and there were viruses detected in this particular item.

After the scan, AVG said, "selected object is located inside the archive and cannot be healed."

How in the world do I handle something like this?

[thoughtomator]

Delete the archive (if you don't need any of its contents).

Otherwise, unpack the archive, ID the offending item, and repack the archive without it.

[relictele]

Dittos on thoughtomator's comments - if you are unsure what an archive is it's usually a .zip file or similar (e.g., .rar) containing other files (that have been compressed and stored). AVG and most other modern AV packages will scan inside these archive files since they are can be (and often are) hiding places for a virus.

[b4its2late]

I agree with the posts ahead of this. One other thing to do though.... Make sure you have folder options to view hidden files because these things like hiding in those types of files too....AVG should tell you exactly path where it is located. Just go in and zap them there.

[Publius6961]

Dittos on thoughtomator's comments - if you are unsure what an archive is it's usually a .zip file or similar (e.g., .rar) containing other files (that have been compressed and stored). AVG and most other modern AV packages will scan inside these archive files since they are can be (and often are) hiding places for a virus.

Thank you for elaborating on this. Some people don't realize that asking implies almost total ignorance, and nothing can be assumed.

In a WindowsXP system, where might these files be located?

[dhs12345]

A side note: very frustrated with Google and Yahoo and their POS tool bars.

It is not obvious that you are installing them and when I accepted an upgrade to Acrobat, even though I specified that the Yahoo tool bar not be installed, it installed it anyway.

And then when I uninstalled the Yahoo tool bar, Acrobat wouldn't work. Had to revert back to a prior Acrobat version that didn't include the toolbar.

Now, only my password protected account has sys admin privileges so that no one else in my family can install software without me being involved.

Have you tried uninstalling the toolbar and running the virus scan again?

[hsmomx3]

Yes, I did that but to no avail.

I will keep playing around with this.

[relictele]

In a WindowsXP system, where might these files be located?

Unfortunately there are no absolutes with respect to file location, but some likely places (folders) are Program Files, Windows, My Documents or any other place you store/keep downloaded files from your e-mail or the Internet. The virus scan should identify the (archive) file name and its location and you should be able to navigate to the folder in question to examine/remove without having to hunt for it. The alternative is to search all of your hard disk (C:) for files with the extension .zip, .rar etc. then virus-scan the resulting list.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

It is not obvious that you are installing them and when I accepted an upgrade to Acrobat

Get rid of Acrobat. It's bloated and so...1990s.
Download and install the Foxit Reader.
It'll do everything that Acrobat will do and it does it faster and more efficiently with no additional crap to go with it.

[dhs12345]

Thanks!

Noticed that other apps install the tool bars, too. Must be a way for them to make a few extra dollars. Most people don't care but I like to keep my computers simple and without a lot of useless garbage.

Will dump Acrobat.

[backhoe]

You might try this online scan, which is compatible with AVG and most other scanners that reside on your hard drive:

http://www.ewido.net/en/download/
Ewido-Free Malware Scan (beta)

[djf]

I never use Google toolbar or any of the other fancies that get spread around.

If you want to Google something, just go to Google!

I would love to figure out a way to uninstall the Google tb from Firefox, I'm running Firefox 1.0

[TheOracleAtLilac]

re: Foxit:
integration into IE 6.0 ?
can set as default pdf app ?

[TheOracleAtLilac]

disregard post 13.
works great & much smaller than acrobat

Thnx

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Integrates the same as Acrobat as far as I know.
Can easily be set as the default even if you keep Acrobat around.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

disregard post 13.

Oopsy.