Hi all. My antivirus found and quarantined windows\services.exe which i understand is a virus and not the system file. With it quarantined however, when i boot i keep getting the error "Could not find windows\services.exe. Please check filename etc." I've searched HKLM and HKCU Run folders but did not see any entries that had this same filename. I have also checked my Startup Tab in Msconfig and found nothing there either.

Can someone help me out?Is there another registry folder i should be looking in?Or another filename i should be looking for?

Thanks very much.

Is there another registry folder i should be looking in?

If the reference is in the registry, an easy way to find it is by searching for it using the registry editor's Edit Menu > Find and Find Next commands. Also, sometimes malware will register as a browser helper object and have numerous registry references.

I think you might have had a file infecting virus.

Open your antivirus, goto your quarantine. Look for services.exe.
If it is there, just check the virus name next to it.
Goto the antivirus's website and read up about the virus.

You see normally a virus would manifest on your PC as a file, with it's own name ect... Example LoveBug.exe.
When the Avirus detects it, it will quarantine or remove it. And all is well.

A file infecting virus will attach itself to your file's data. Example,
CALC.EXE (file size 560KB) is your pc's calculator program. The virus attaches itself to CALC.EXE and now the file size is 620KB.
Obviously your antivirus will detect CALC.EXE as a virus and remove the file. Now your PC sits without a calculator.
Most antivirus companies have special removal tools for these viruses listed on the're websites.

Here is the tricky bit, you will have to retore all the infected files, basicaly infecting the PC again.
But now running the removal tool, it will save your application and just remove the virus.

Hope this helps...

Hi guys, I appreciate the help.

I think you might have had a file infecting virus.

A file infecting virus will attach itself to your file's data. Example,
CALC.EXE (file size 560KB) is your pc's calculator program. The virus attaches itself to CALC.EXE and now the file size is 620KB.
Obviously your antivirus will detect CALC.EXE as a virus and remove the file. Now your PC sits without a calculator.
Most antivirus companies have special removal tools for these viruses listed on the're websites.




i understand what you mean but i don't think it applies in my case as the actual system file is found in the path windows\system32\services.exe and not windows\services.exe.

still looking for a fix for this.