Deleting .SCR files

  • Thread starter Thread starter casey.o
  • Start date Start date
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casey.o

I've never understaood why viruses always attack .SCR files, other than
the fact that they are used by many people, who use screen savers. But
I dont use them. I either disable them, or just let the screen go
blank. Screen Savers are not needed on modern computers anyhow.

Anyhow, will there be any harm done to just remove all the .SCR files?
I dont see any reason to keep them if they can be removed, and that
means less places for viruses to attack, and more HDD space too.
 
I've never understaood why viruses always attack .SCR files, other than
the fact that they are used by many people, who use screen savers. But
I dont use them. I either disable them, or just let the screen go
blank. Screen Savers are not needed on modern computers anyhow.

Anyhow, will there be any harm done to just remove all the .SCR files?
I dont see any reason to keep them if they can be removed, and that
means less places for viruses to attack, and more HDD space too.
Click to expand...

It's OK to delete them, but you should keep the LOGON.SCR since it's used at
the Windows "Welcome" login screen. If you want to delete LOGON.SCR, see
KB314493 first.
 
It's OK to delete them, but you should keep the LOGON.SCR since it's used at
the Windows "Welcome" login screen. If you want to delete LOGON.SCR, see
KB314493 first.
Click to expand...

I never knew a SCR ran at bootup. I thought they were just graphic
files. (BMP). No wonder virus creators like to target .SCR files.....
 
| I never knew a SCR ran at bootup. I thought they were just graphic
| files. (BMP). No wonder virus creators like to target .SCR files.....
|
Yes, they're actually executables. Executables that don't
look like executables are always attractive for attacks because
people are less likely to be cautious about them.
 
In message <[email protected]>,
I never knew a SCR ran at bootup. I thought they were just graphic
files. (BMP). No wonder virus creators like to target .SCR files.....
Click to expand...
No, .scr files - where they're screensavers, anyway - are executables:
you can prove that by just running them. I think you're remembering the
files - I forget the extension (was it .sys?) - that could be
substituted for the one used during bootup in Windows 9x, that could
produce apparent animation effects by palette changing. (They had an
unexpected aspect ratio as they didn't use square pixels when used.)

I qualified above with "where they're screensavers" because I _think_ I
_have_ encountered something else which used the .scr extension, but
it's not common. I can't remember what it was - at a guess, maybe some
sort of script?
 
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