Virus Problem

[musashius]

My Norton recently detected a "Trojan Horse" virus in my "C:\WINDOWS\Autoupd\" directory. The file is called "upd.exe". Norton couldn't disinfect it (as usual) so it's quarantined right now.

Now, I'd delete the whole folder and get it over with, but I have no idea what "C:\WINDOWS\Autoupd\upd.exe" does. And since it is in the "WINDOWS" directory, I'm thinking it might have some importance to the computer. So uh... can someone help me out?

[bennator]

I have Win98, so that directory isn't on my computer, but it looks like it handles windows updating. Go ahead and delete it would be my guess, you can always recopy it from the windows CD if you have to. But that's just my idea, I love to abuse windows to see what I really need in the C:\windows folder tokeep it running.

[crono_logical]

Many viruses and trojans install in the Windows folder exactly for the reason you think it's part of Windows so you feel you shouldn't delete it If the virus scanner says its a virus, chances are that it's a vius so you should delete it, regardless of where on the PC it is.

Besides, the Windows Update stuff is stored in the system/system32 folder, not where you mentioned.

[musashius]

Thanks a lot, crono_logical! I think I'll delete it.

Besides, there's really nothing important on my computer that I don't have backed-up.

[Dr Unne]

Instead of deleting it you could rename or move the folder first (so Windows can't find it) and reboot and see if your computer works. If it works, then you know it's safe to delete it outright