P
(PeteCresswell)
I'm in the process of trying to fix up an old Dell Inspiron B130
laptop for somebody.
First thing I did was replace the expired McAfee virus protection
with the freebie version of Avast.
On the first scan, Avast identified 10 infected files and I had
it move them to Avast's "Chest". Going by file
names/directories, none of them looked particularly critical to
the system's functioning and, indeed, it seemed to run OK after
the next boot.
Then I scheduled a boot scan which turned up Malware-Gen and
something called Alureon-B@mbr - which sounds ominous to me, who
knows next to nothing.
Apparently it belongs to the category of malware called "root
kit" - of which I know zilch except that it is reputedly harder
to detect and maybe impossible to remove.
Can anybody elucidate?
laptop for somebody.
First thing I did was replace the expired McAfee virus protection
with the freebie version of Avast.
On the first scan, Avast identified 10 infected files and I had
it move them to Avast's "Chest". Going by file
names/directories, none of them looked particularly critical to
the system's functioning and, indeed, it seemed to run OK after
the next boot.
Then I scheduled a boot scan which turned up Malware-Gen and
something called Alureon-B@mbr - which sounds ominous to me, who
knows next to nothing.
Apparently it belongs to the category of malware called "root
kit" - of which I know zilch except that it is reputedly harder
to detect and maybe impossible to remove.
Can anybody elucidate?