How to whack Windows viruii using the Mint?

[Timberbeast]

My Mom has a two year old HP desktop machine. She has acquired a serious Windows virus on her 8.1 machine. She has taken it to two local computer shops. The first one couldn't fix it and the other has had it a week and we haven't heard from them either.

I read somewhere here you can do that using Linux. Could somebody here please enlighten me the correct procedure? It may be the only way to get her machine working again. Thanks.

BTW, I like Rebecca very much. I haven't the time to play with it, but after the upgrade, it runs flawlessly for me. Thanks Clem et al.

Larry

[Mute Ant]

''I read somewhere here you can do that using Linux.'' Nah. A live session will let you recover your raw data from an inactive Windows system without triggering the malware. Linux tools are for Linux problems.

[jimallyn]

There are antivirus programs that run from a live CD. Can't think of the names of them right off the top of my head, but I have used them in the past.

[jimallyn]

Here's one liveCD antivirus:

http://antiviruslivecd.4mlinux.com

And here's a list of others:

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/13-antiviru ... scue-disk/

[Buzzsaw]

http://www.livecdlist.com/purpose/windows-antivirus
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-av-cd.html
http://antiviruslivecd.4mlinux.com/

If the computer shops were any good, they would have used things like these already.

[Timberbeast]

Thanks guys. I'll try your suggestions. The machine is still in the hands of the windows idiots for now. It hasn't come home yet.

Thanks
Larry

[Pierre]

something like 'bitdefender for unices' - is a linux based xfce Linux disc,
that has their standard anti-virus on it.

- burn that, or one of the similar offerings, from other vendors,
- boot that, recover your data first off, then run the inbuilt ant-virus software. ..

[Timberbeast]

thank you Pierre,

We'll see if it will work

larry

[paxmark1]

avg and i believe panda have linux live cd's I have used it to clean friends systems. Can't find it, well the linux rescue systems "cd's" are often targeted to their business clients at least for AVG I did use to like the kaspersky version, but it has not been updated in awhile. and of course there is the tired and true ClamAV which you can use from a live cd, say knoppix or puppy. I have a 16gb stick with 4 different live cd's

The advantage here is that the virus is "frozen" in an unexpected environment. They are much easier to get rid of this way in my experience.

A side observation, much of the damage comes from having too many antivirus programs and security programs installed. Some are outright scams, but still some viruses get in when, oh say Norton and avg interreact badly. Get them to ONLY use one antivirus and security program, only ONE, and maybe ccleaner, etc.

If anyone wants to chime in on ways to give persistence and if they have found a better multi-system-usb install tool I would love it. I have used yumi to install several in a windows7 environment, my strong suggestion is to not install the yummi.deb

Just a guy who gets food, gas and $10cdn to help out friends occasionally.

[Fred Barclay]

I've used Clamav with the clamtk interface before: to install to a live disk run

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install clamtk

. However, I wouldn't really recommend it. It tends to find too many threats (around 12,000 once, I think)--clearly false positives-- and gives almost no information about them to help me decide which are threats and which aren't. If I were to delete all the files it suspected as contaminated I don't believe I would be left with a working system. On the up side, if the system's broke, the virus can't work...
Any way you could convince your Mum to try Mint?

[Timberbeast]

@ Fred Barclay

Any way you could convince your Mum to try Mint?

At 81, she is pretty well set it her ways. Hell, her machine isn't even home yet.

larry

[Fred Barclay]

What antivirus does she currently use? My family that's still on Windows has used both free (as in price) AVG and Norton 360 with pretty good results. I do know that Norton had successfully blocked around 20 intrusion attempts in a 1 year period on a Win 8.1 lappy (that's running Rebecca Cinnamon now. Yippee!). However, it failed miserably at blocking one intrusion that ended up destroying quite a bit--took me a week or so to fix. It also seemed to do pretty well with viruses.
With that said, a "good" virus can overcome a antivirus if it's on the same disk as the antivirus program. A "great" virus can overcome almost anything.
Remember that security is relative. Windows in the hands of a smart user can be safer than Linux in an inexperienced user's hands. And not all viruses/rootkits/cracks can be stopped or blocked by automated scripts. Just run a tight ship and keep an eye on everything, so that if you see suspicious activity, you can stop it.
One last thought. Do you think that your mum would at least try Mint on a dual-boot that way if she doesn't like it she can always just use Windows?

[obxdiver]

I've got a similar issue going on...

I switched to LM about a week ago going with a dual boot system. Yesterday, my bank called me concerning suspicious purchases. My card number had been compromised. I'm suspicious of Windows malware.

How can I go about killing the suspected Windows (XP) applications from Mint, so, that I don't have to boot into Windows and give it a chance to launch?

I'm running LM, so I didn't figure there was no need to burn a live disc as the other responses suggested.

[MartyMint]

Did you not create a Recovery Disk, like you were instructed to when you first got the machine?

[obxdiver]

Did you not create a Recovery Disk, like you were instructed to when you first got the machine?

I've got a Windows recovery disk, if that's what you mean.

[MartyMint]

Did you not create a Recovery Disk, like you were instructed to when you first got the machine?

I've got a Windows recovery disk, if that's what you mean.

My post was directed at the OP...

[MtnDewManiac]

Any way you could convince your Mum to try Mint?

At 81, she is pretty well set it her ways. Hell, her machine isn't even home yet.

A couple (three?) years ago, I installed Mint on a good friend's laptop. It drastically cut down on her "support calls" to me.

She's 79.

BtW, how do you know it is a virus?

Regards,
MDM