Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Combofix

My computer survived Combofix.  This car climbed Mt. Washington.  Poor old desktop was still sluggish so I tried the roughest toughest anti virus out there.  Combofix, spoken of in awed tones by computer geeks. I downloaded it from Bleeping Computer and turned it loose.  It took it's time, made at least two passes.  On pass one it reported another rootkit Zero.Layer.something or other, hiding in the TCP-IP stack.  Claimed to have killed it.  Warned that I might encounter some problems getting back on the internet, but promised a fix.
Any how, after a long run it reported success and printed out a LONG log file.  It listed a lot of files that it zapped, all the "run" keys it found in the registry, and a bunch of other Windows files.  Surprisingly it didn't list the rootkit it claimed to have zapped.  You would think the programmers would be happy to claim a trophy like a root kit.  The log file looks a lot like the file created by Hijack This, in fact the Combofix developers may have borrowed all the Hijack This code to print the log.  I haven't acted on anything in the log file yet.  I recognize all the run keys, they are running legitimate programs like the wireless modem driver.
   I'll Google on the windows files it lists, and see if I can find Microsoft certified, pure as the driven snow, replacements, just in case.
  But not tonight.  It's bed time.  And the desktop is running better.  Quicker keyboard and mouse response.
   Anyhow, if you have a really tough virus that ordinary anti virus programs cannot see or cannot zap, try Combofix.  It's powerful.  And free.   Just running it ain't hard, just click on it and it goes to work.
   The log file is kinda cryptic and you do have to know stuff to understand it.  Don't blow anything away just cause it shows up in the log file.

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