Spy-Bot Search and Destroy

Comments

• Lee Fogarty

  April 2006 edited April 2006

  I'm not sure that deleting that file was such a good idea as it holds certain data needed to keep windows running smoothly. If you're lucky, windows will have detected that it doesn't exist & re-created it.

  My test signature
• Ian Hamilton

  April 2006 edited April 2006

  Isn't win.ini a plain ASCII text file? If there were viruses (virii?) hidden in the file, you'd probably notice random, spurious characters in a block together, probably at the end of the file.
  
  Necros.
• Graz

  April 2006 edited April 2006

  Bermondsey Bob wrote:

  I'm having problems with Spy-bot. It searches for about 5-6 miniutes, then stops. It says there is an error during the scan, and it gives me a file (C/WINDOWS.win.ini then the rest of the message is in German and I can't read it. It also goes off the edge of the display and won't scroll along either.) I deleted this file, but it got as far as the next file slong and stopped again. All my files are up-to date and I'm using Windows XP home edition. Does any body know how to solve this problem? The FAQ provided doesn't help at all!

  
  I had a similar problem with Spybot. It seems to offer you a file for deletion, but when you do so, the whole system goes cranky. The way I got over it was to completely re-install windows. Dont overwrite all your precious work/games though (You'll need them!)
• psj3809

  April 2006 edited April 2006

  Dont delete win.ini
  
  If youre having problems with Spybot perhaps try Ad-Aware and see what comes up with that
• guesser

  April 2006 edited April 2006

  But have you tried reinstalling spybot?
  
  I was having all sorts of problems, different error messages everytime, and the auto update wouldn't work at all, so I downloaded the newest version installer from the spybot site and reinstalled. works fine now

  My rubbish website including the redrawn Amstrad schematics and the Sinclair Wiki.
• Bermondsey Bob

  April 2006 edited April 2006

  fogartylee wrote:

  I'm not sure that deleting that file was such a good idea as it holds certain data needed to keep windows running smoothly. If you're lucky, windows will have detected that it doesn't exist & re-created it.

  
  I didn't fully delete it, I just moved it to another file, then put it back again once my next search failed.
• BruceNorton

  April 2006 edited April 2006

  There are some viruses and trojans that modify the Win.ini file by adding a couple of lines to it, and then every time Windows starts, it makes Windows itself see if the virus files/ trojan files have been deleted and if so runs the trojan again to remake the files.
  
  Try downloading Mcaffee stinger etc. and scanning from safe mode.
  
  Don't delete win.ini, simply rename it and then open it in Wordpad and have a read through it, see what you can find.
  
  Also try downloading ad-aware from www.lavasoftusa.com.
  
  Whatever you do don't use Microsoft Antispyware or as it's now called Windows Defender, as Microsoft are in cahoots with the Gator corp and this program ignores any Gator corp spyware installed on your machine.
  
  Good luck!
• Bermondsey Bob

  April 2006 edited April 2006

  BruceNorton wrote:

  There are some viruses and trojans that modify the Win.ini file by adding a couple of lines to it, and then every time Windows starts, it makes Windows itself see if the virus files/ trojan files have been deleted and if so runs the trojan again to remake the files.
  
  Try downloading Mcaffee stinger etc. and scanning from safe mode.
  
  Don't delete win.ini, simply rename it and then open it in Wordpad and have a read through it, see what you can find.
  
  Also try downloading ad-aware from www.lavasoftusa.com.
  
  Whatever you do don't use Microsoft Antispyware or as it's now called Windows Defender, as Microsoft are in cahoots with the Gator corp and this program ignores any Gator corp spyware installed on your machine.
  
  Good luck!

  
  Thanks for the advice! I think I'll try re-installing Spy-Bot. I used d-aware before, but found it to be just as unreliable! At least I got 3 of 4 full scans with Spy-Bot before it packed up :roll:
• Bermondsey Bob

  April 2006 edited April 2006

  Fixed it! There was a new file called something lik DLLERROR that was created at about the time that it stopped working. I deleted it and now Spybot is working better than it ever has done before!
  
  Thanks for the advice people :)