too many folders?????

[lancalot]

trying for 2 out of 2 people running xp pro
opening windows system32 folder i found about 7 folders with nonsense names that all contained the same files, [that all had games/apps/utils, names ], all made on the same day. when you try to open said files in said folders nothing happens.all folders have 78 files that appear to be full programs but of course they aint HELP

 

[Elvandil]

Not normal, of course. Possibly viral in origin. What files do these folders contain? If you are positive they are not system files, try deleting them. They can always be restored.

A good virus and malware scan is in order.

 

[lancalot]

have black ice,norton anti virus, running all the time spywareblaster going, i run spy sweeper regulary?[ not sure that is the right spelling], have checked each folder with norton antivirus. each folder has an icon for . adobe photo shop,6 and 7 , adult password generator,age of empires,anal whore getting it from, aol password stealer, boborz, clone cd, credit card generator, max payne, passsword cracker, and many more,but each file is about 1.5 to 2.5 mb in size. and like i said nothing happens when you try to open them.hold the phone. now norton detects backdoor lithiun b virus if you try to open them...maybe i shoud just delete them all and shred with bleach??

 

[Elvandil]

Those all sound like files someone would be trying to download with a P2P app. There was a bug in one of those apps that converted all downloads to .exe files and placed them in a folder in the root directory. This looks very similar. Kazaa or anything like that being run by someone on that machine?

 

[lancalot]

yep i have kazaa and yep i do use it occasionaly to find some games but mostly midi files and a few programs sorry.

 

[lancalot]

more to add to that,,,,,,, i would not not not use it to download many of the file names in the folder because some of them aint very nice capish

 

[Elvandil]

Certainly not accusing anyone of anything. Kazaa is well-known to do a lot of things on peoples' machines that they don't know about. And Kazaa users frequently misname files in order to trade.

Still, Kazaa is probably the origin of the problem.

 

[lancalot]

sorry for the tone,,,,,,,so ok this means i should delete the file that are the problem yes?

 

[Elvandil]

I think "yes". And keep an eye out that they don't come back.

 

[jnibori]

If you're leery, you can just re-name the folder to break the "path" and see if it causes problems. If so, name it back. You can just add a "No" to the end of the name.

 

[rude]

Also check task manager for any new services.I had the exact same problem about a year ago,from a file downloaded from Kazaa.I had to stop the service in task manager before the files would delete,and they had copies in C:/Windows/Temp as well as C:/Windows/Media.Anyway,once the service was stopped,I did a search and deleted everything I found.

 

[lancalot]

shreded files and folders and wh- la all gone thanks guys.............