I’m running XP Pro SP2. Newly installed avast! ver 4.8 Home Edition, Build: Apr2008 (4.8.1169),VSP file (virus database) Compliation date: 080515-1
Installation was successful with no incidents, VSP updates automatically, installed with no issues, all program settings are set to Normal.
Once installed the program found several virus, worm/malware and trojans.
Performed 4 boot scans and 4 normal scans and it looks like the program removed all threats and moved all viruses to the Chest.
Only problem/issue I detect so far is that now I can no longer open any hard drive volume via start"> My Computer > click on Drive.
Instead, a window pops up titled: “Open with” saying "Choose the program you want to use to open this file: File: C:".
I note that scrolling down the list of programs that Explorer is not listed and the check box “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” is grayed out. By using the Browse button I can move to the Windows folder and click on explorer.exe and then the hard drive opens.
It would seem that some system files have possibly been corrupted during the removal of all the viruses and/or the avast program is locking access to drives.
Can anyone shed some light on this issue and/or advise a possible fix?
Don’t know, but something to try, download Dial-a-fix http://djlizard.net/ and run it, click on the tools section (a hammer icon at the bottom of the GUI) and have a look at some of the repairs available. “Repair Permissions”, and “reset networking interfaces” look to be likely candidates, but as I say, I don’t really know. I believe it can probably do no harm, though.
It seems at least equally possible the malware disabled this explorer view, as Avast.
If you have Superantispyware, it looks to have an equally useful toolkit, under “preferences>repairs”
Sorry I can’t offer better help. (Let me know if it works.)
It would seem that some system files have possibly been corrupted during the removal of all the viruses and/or the avast program is locking access to drives.
Avast does not corrupt files nor does it block drive access. What you have here is the remnand after cleaning your system. The little problem you are facing is a error in the registry. [url=http://www.ache.nl]Click here[/url], goto the downloads and get the "DriveContextHandler" from there. Extract the zip file and double click (or run) the .reg that is in it. That will fix it.
What I have determined since my original post is that the culprit virus that was causing all the trouble was Win32:AuCrypt [Crypt] and a few others that had similar behavior.
Reading posts from other members on this forum and doing a Google search I found others that had the identical problems I was having with respect to not being able to open the volume hard drives. The posts described that these type of viruses use a autorun.inf file that is placed in the root directory of each drive, which accounts for not being able to open the drive normally.
Initially I tried to delete the autorun.inf file by using the command prompt. This was successful in opening the local C: drive on one pc but not the rest of the drives on the pc. On the other pc infected this procedure did not work at all, however I was able to pull up the files on each drive and view the files in notepad to confirm that this was the problem.
Not only did this program remove/fix the autorun.inf files it also found several other viruses that avast did not detect. To polonus a BIG THANK YOU. I highly recommend this program. Without using it I would still be stuck up the river without a paddle. ;D
many thanks for the feedback and description of your path to recovery … it may well help others who come across this thread in the future and adds to the store of assistance in this forum.