[Mighty Mouse]

hi there,

have recently downloaded and ran AVG FREE V8.0 and it showed HEAPS of malware in the registry. here is an example (i have stopped the scan at 43 seconds as it checks the registry first) >>>>>>>>



if i let the full system scan finish off (it takes 45 minutes), the test result says no infection, no viri, no malware. BUT it shows 400 registry keys as infected and WARNS each is potentially dangerous !

sooo i ran Comodo, Defender - full scans - and they both say system clean, no infection !

i let AVG put those affected registry items in the Vault, ran the AVG scan again - ALL CLEAR ! great

but when i reboot, and run AVG full scan again, all the malware shows up again in the registry !

and yet AVG Comodo and Defender say healthy system, no infection, all clear.

what should i do ?

thanks

[Elvandil]

The registry cannot get infected. It is a file and is not executable. So anything found in the registry is not an infection, but only a possible symptom or trace of one somewhere else on the machine. So if a scan shows you are clean, you have nothing to worry about as far as viruses go.

But viruses are only a small part of the possible infections that you can catch. So you should scan for malware, too, with 3 or more programs since they all miss some and catch some better than others.

Free anti-malware scanners:

A-Squared
Spybot S&D
RunScanner
Ad-Aware 2007
SuperAntiSpyware
Spyware Eliminator
Emco Malware Destroyer
Spyware Doctor
Arovax Anti-spyware
Trend-Micro Rootkit Buster
F-Secure Blacklight
Bootzilla (Bootable antimalware CD with many other tools.)

List of freeware security software

[Mighty Mouse]

Originally Posted by Elvandil

So anything found in the registry is not an infection, but only a possible symptom or trace of one somewhere else on the machine.

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hi Elvandil,
thanks for the quick reply.
so what you are saying is there is a probabilty that there IS something nasty lurking, which my 3 (above mentioned) scanners have missed ?

ok i'll go grab another few scanners and run them. S&D will be one for starters.

the PC as a whole feels normal, not sick or anything.

thanks

[ferrija1]

I would post an HJT log and if you're infected, format and reinstall.

[Mighty Mouse]

Originally Posted by ferrija1

I would post an HJT log and if you're infected, format and reinstall.

thanks vm for your input, but problem solved !

see Response #16 and my Response #17 here >>>
http://forums.techguy.org/general-se...telling-2.html

cheers