[GESTO]

I am running Outlook Express 6 on my Dell PC and have picked up a virus listed as c:\DOWNLOAD.EXE TROJAN HORSE.

It has totally dis-abled "WORD" and despite uninstallinig it and re-installing it from a CD ROM I still can't get "WORD" to run.

There must be millions out there with this problem. Can anyone help please?

[psi42]

How did you detect the virus? Did a virus scanner such as McAfee or Symantec (Norton) pick it up? If so, there should be a "repair" or at least a "quarantine" option. You must get rid of the trojan horse at any cost, even if you have to wipe your hard drive. You can't leave it there to do whetever it wants. (Note it might be monitoring everything you do.)






A few things to watch out for in the future (in no particular order) :) :) :) ;D

1) Always have an "active" virus scanner running that monitors your system.

2) Never "guess" a web address. If you don't know the website address, try searching for it in Google. If you just guess, you may end up at a virus site.

3) Watch out for "download our FREE 10 second download" pop-up messages in internet explorer. They are almost certainly spyware and maybe even more malicious than that.

4) Don't execute suspicious e-mail attachments



Of course, there is always the old "don't use windows, internet explorer, or outlook because they are full of security holes and get attacked most often," but if you really like outlook ;D , you shouldn't stop using it because of that.




~psi42

[GESTO]

Thanks for your lucid reply.

The virus was picked up by AVG

Yes, I believe I have got rid of it by deleting the file c:\download.exe Trojan Horse. I then removed it from the re-cycle bin.

The problem with WORD remains and that, I think, is where I need help.

Kind regards.

Gesto

[psi42]

Hmm I hate to say this but it is very possible that the trojan included more than just one file, and probably is also in your registry.

You should try and use AVG to remove it.


Do you remember the name of the trojan horse?

~psi42

[GESTO]

Oh Dear,

I have upgraded from AVG6 (free) to AVG7, which tells me that having run a complete test there are no viruses.

I have e.mailed to AVG just now asking them for their advice. The name of TROJAN HORSE in full was:

c:\DLOAD.EXE Trojan Horse Downloader.Small.AD

As before many thanks for your help.

Regards.

[psi42]

Well, I can't find any good information on this trojan... Possibly other virus scanners have different names for it, and so it doesn't show up in their virus dictionaries.


If AVG said no viruses, maybe it was only one file. Hopefully the AVG e-mail will shed some more light on the subject. :)

But Word still isn't working...
I'm afraid that will be difficult to troubleshoot. Do you get any error messages?

In any case, until you get Word to work, you will probably need another word processor. You can get one here.


I suppose you have three options:

1) Repartition the hard drive, and reinstall your operating system. This will almost certainly get rid of the virus once and for all, but you will lose all data on the hard drive. :(

2) Wait for the e-mail response from AVG. Hopefully they will have a great deal of information for you. If they can't help, get another antivirus program.

3) Do nothing.

I recommend you don't do any online shopping until you know more about this trojan or are certain it is destroyed.


Hope this helps... :)
~psi42