avast! 4.7 dected a win32 adware!

Viruses and worms
1

some sort of adware has infected my laptop, which is running windows xp home editon, (i think it’s service pack 3)

the file is rdyabjyv.EXE

c:\WINDOWS\system32

virus name: win32:adware-geb[adw]

becuase the file was a windows, i was scared if i deleted it, it would affect my laptop, so i put it in the chest, until i got some assitance, help would be greatly apretieated.

2

This is a common tactic of malware to place their files in system folders to scare users into thinking it is an important system file.

A google search for that file name (assuming you typed it correctly) returns zero hits, which in its own right is suspicious. The file name itself looks like a randomly generated file name, so I don’t believe it is an important system file.

You have done the right thing, ‘first do no harm’ don’t delete, send virus to the chest and investigate.

There is no rush to delete anything from the chest, a protected area where it can do no harm. Anything that you send to the chest you should leave there for a few weeks. If after that time you have suffered no adverse effects from moving these to the chest, scan them again (inside the chest) and if they are still detected as viruses, delete them.

3

Send to Chest. Safer than to delete as David explained.
If you can’t get rid of the infection, follow:
I suggest:

  1. Disable System Restore and reenable it after step 3.
  2. Clean your temporary files.
  3. Schedule a boot time scanning with avast with archive scanning turned on.
  4. Use AVG Antispyware; SUPERantispyware and/or Spyware Terminator to scan for spywares and trojans. If any infection is detected, better and safer is send the file to Quarantine than to simple delete than.