how to make a cd for virus scan

[Gabriel Knight]

Hi I have a laptop that has no virus protection to fix as it might have all
sorts of viruses, all I want to do is create a cd that will do a full scan
and fix any problems it might have. I dont have any cash to spend on so I
need to know about any free ways to do this. Or on my pc it has Norton
Internet Security 2010, can a disk be made from that?

Thanks GK

 

[FromTheRafters]

Hi I have a laptop that has no virus protection to fix as it might
have all sorts of viruses, all I want to do is create a cd that will
do a full scan and fix any problems it might have. I dont have any
cash to spend on so I need to know about any free ways to do this. Or
on my pc it has Norton Internet Security 2010, can a disk be made from
that?

Many vendors offer free CD based scanners.

http://www.techmixer.com/free-bootable-antivirus-rescue-cds-download-list/

 

[FromTheRafters]

You can download the free version of MalwareBytes Anti Malware at
http://www.malwarebytes.org/

and SUPERAntiSpyware Free Edition from
http://superantispyware.com/download.html

Neither of which are particularly concerned with *viruses*.

 

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

Neither of which are particularly concerned with *viruses*.

That's true, but ... remember that almost all non-geeky people still
call every type of malware a "virus." Apparently, even the Mighty Goog
doesn't care about the difference.

<http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/10/18/email.spam.viruses/index.html>

I haven't seen a spam actually containing a virus in .. years?

 

[FromTheRafters]

That's true, but ... remember that almost all non-geeky people still
call every type of malware a "virus." Apparently, even the Mighty
Goog
doesn't care about the difference.

<http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/10/18/email.spam.viruses/index.html>

True also, but since the OP stipulated "all sorts of viruses", the best
thing to do is use antivirus scanners and may also want to employ
general malware scanners (antimalware, antispyware, and antiadware).

I haven't seen a spam actually containing a virus in .. years?

It seems they prefer the internet and web for distribution - server and
client application layer attacks against vulnerable software or people.
Not too many actual viruses unless you are of the "all worms are
viruses" crowd. )

 

[FromTheRafters]

"Virus" has come to mean "malware" in common, non-geek parlance.
That's what happens when ordinary folk get hold of a word. You can't
keep the language "pure".

True, and this is one case where correct terminology matters. The
non-geek may not realize that antimalware might not have the ability to
find viruses, and antivirus might not even bother to look for some kinds
of malware. If you are really concerned about *viruses* then you should
use a scanner that is designed to find them.

In this case a poster read "all sorts of viruses" and recommended tools
that only detect a small subset of *viruses* yet are very well respected
in general malware removal.

When using a rescue CD you are usually scanning a drive from a cleanly
booted machine (booted from the CD) - many of the best detection methods
are actually context (environment) based rather than content (scanned
file) based, and you lose that context based ability when using a clean
boot. *Virus* scanners are largely content based which is just as
effective (or *more* effective) when cleanly booted.

 

[mm]

Many vendors offer free CD based scanners.

http://www.techmixer.com/free-bootable-antivirus-rescue-cds-download-list/

Good list.

There is also Panda or PandaSafe.

AVG It says that is in Trinity, which I have never used, but I
wouldn't hesistate to get it separately. Oh, it is listed separately
too.

PCTools PCTools doesn't update from the net like most do. They
release a new version every week.

If you have a current subscription to Norton, it has a free boot cd
too.

I ran all 6 that I had at the time. The first 4, Panda, Kaspersky,
Bit Defender, and AVG, found things, even though they were run right
after each other. Only Kaspersky found the rootkit. I would run
every one you can find.

I had a page that listed 7 of these, with some overlap. Maybe I'll
find it later.

For immediately future reference, I would write down whatever the logs
said, not counting tracking cookies, I guess, because there are so
many of them. Supposedly they save a log somewhere, but I never found
most of them. At the very least look carefully over the log and write
down every file that gets deleted or renamed that is important to
windows or a program's operation, assuming you are likely to recognize
which ones are. You need to know if you have damaged good tissue when
cutting out bad tissue.

I deleted winlogon32.exe and wshudh32.dll, from system32 and windows
directories. I haven't checked if these were essential files or
virus-files only, but I ended up doing a Repair Install of windows
(NOT a full install) becaues XP wouldn't fully start until I did that.

I guess before you do any of this, you should run File and Settings
Transfer Wizard and Mozbackup at least to save your data. You'll have
to Anti-Virus scan these files before trying to reinstall them, if it
becomes necessary.