Vista Playing Up? Or Malware?

Viruses and worms
1

Hi, long time user of avast!, first time user of the forums.

I had this program on my computer, and it wasn’t installed per se but the necessary .EXE and DLL files were extracted from a .ZIP archive, so I could run it straight from there.

Now I want to delete this folder, since its hogging about 250MB of my hard-drive’s memory. This is where I first encountered problems.

C:\Users\Angus\Downloads\RPG Studio This is the directory, so as you can see it definitely shouldn’t be a system or protected file.

However, when I tried to delete it, it asked me for permission. I thought it was odd, but I clicked continue and clicked continue on the UAC pop up. It says “Recycling 626 Files (245MB)…” for a few seconds then pops up saying “Destination Folder Access Denied - You need permission to perform this action.” Try again or cancel… I keep clicking try again but the same result occurs. I try starting it again, and make sure I click continue on the UAC, but still the same result.

The next thing that I think is that it might be set to read only, which it definitely shouldn’t be. I right click, properties and hey what would you know - read only! So I uncheck the read only box, relieved that I’ve fixed the problem. I click Apply then close the properties window. I try deleting it again, the UAC pops up, I click continue, and you guessed it: “Destination Folder Access Denied - You need permission to perform this action.” So I close that, and check the properties. The read only box has magically rechecked itself! I uncheck it and try again, to the same result. So somehow, the program is protecting itself from certain doom… A scan of the folder with avast! reveals… nothing?

Literally, right now, I’ve solved it…
I went into the folder and tried deleting the main .EXE, and it worked since it wasn’t read only (which is funny 'cause the folder was set to “Read Only (apply to subfolders and files)”). So I delete the read me next, and it works too. Then I try deleting the Library folder, but it doesn’t work. I go to the properties and wouldn’t you know it’s read only. I uncheck the box, and click apply, close the dialog box and try deleting it. It works!!! Ecstatic, I go to delete the other folders, and they all work to. On the last folder, it was set to read only, and without unchecking it I could still delete it without so much as a UAC pop up. Odd… So now the folder is empty. I go back to the Downloads directory and try deleting it. ZOMG!!! The SOB is in the Recycle Bin, finally. But I didn’t uncheck the read only box? Funny… Oh well, CCleaner didn’t seem to have any problems wiping the bugger from my bin.

What I would like to know is: Is this my computer acting up, or is it a malware that can defend itself from deletion?
Also, has this ever happened to anyone else at any point of trying to delete something?

OS Information: Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit) SP 1.
Account Information: Only Account on PC, Full Administrative Access.

Thanks for your time, hope to have your two cents.

kthxbai

2

It has been my experience with some programs that they don’t exit cleanly. This causes the operating system to believe that a file is still in use – which it is, because part of it is still in memory.

I would bet that if you had rebooted the PC once the folder would have deleted the first time without any hassle.

3

Did you try using the uninstall tool if it had one?

Why don’t you use ComboFix to remove it. (Wait for someone to give you code to delete…)