Nasty Virus

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

Ok all might not be lost. Here's a quick fix if you have the same nasty malware virus. Some Malware hides your files they are not gone deleted just hidden from view.

I kind of figured that part out when I tried to creat new icons for some of the main files and it asked me if I wanted to replace the old ones. I did a couple of searches and found that the folders were indeed there.

First get rid of the malware using malwarebtyes program.

I think between SpyBot, Advanced System Care and MSE I've done a pretty good job of that. I'll run Malwarebytes too.

Then in the 'Hidden files and folders' check the 'Show hidden files and folders' box. Click the apply button below then the 'Apply to all button' up top. Applying to all means every folder will do the same, could take a while to complete.

Okay, I can see (and access) everything now. Unfortunately they are still technically 'hidden' and look kind of ghostly. How do I make them back into real-looking folders?

Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo

Can you give specifics as to which bug it was that got you?

I think it's called WindowsRepair. It wasn't in the list that Jan linked, but it looks a lot like some of the ones on that list. No way am I going to go find it again to make sure of the name. I'm not sure exactly what I did, but I was checking out some music files and when it turned up I probably just clicked 'Download', overriding MSE's settings. It looks like one of those annoying things that tells you something's wrong with your registry and saying you need to buy their product. The difference with this one was that it only had options for 'Scan' and 'Purchase'. It wouldn't go away no matter what I did. Luckily some of the main folders were unaffected. Between those three programs we managed to get rid of it, at least as far as I can tell. I'm going to run some deep scans tomorrow.

Oh, my 'Favorites' section in IE is still empty. I know they are there too, because it won't let me add new folders with the same names.

[edit] Never mind about the Desktop. I figured out how to 'Unhide' the folders. 'Favorites' is still a problem though.