A friend of mine was complaining about his Windows computer being slow here lately.
I told him he is probably full of malware that slipped past his anti-virus program.
I’ve heard that one can use a live Linux cd to remove malware from a windows computer. How would I go about doing this?
Is it as simple as booting the cd, then using zypper to install an anti-virus program to the ram file system and mounting/scanning the hard drive. If so what program is the best to use for this purpose?
You would have to have already ran a scan with a good virus protection software and found a file that you could not delete while Windows is running. You would boot with the Linux Live CD and browse to the folder and manually delete the offending file. You would also be able to do this with the Window installation CD from the command line.
Are you having an issue with a virus that is in the Restore Points? If so, the easy way to deal with this is to turn off System Restore and that will delete all the restore points. Once that is done, you can turn System Restore back on and tell it to create a new Restore Point.
linuxminded wrote:
> Sounds like I need to advise him to run a full system scan with his
> installed anti-virus program first.
you do as you wish, but i long ago decided to not take the risk of
screwing up a friends Window’s computer with a Linux disk and give
him/her the opportunity to tell their 500 closest friends that Linux
SUCKS big time…
instead i ask them to find a friend who is a Windows guru…or pay
a real (windows) geek to do it right…or learn how to administer
their system of choice (like i do my own)…
now, there is one other thing you need to consider: it is just a fact
that overtime all Redmond software will slowdown…for several
reasons designed into the system (design deficiencies which Linux does
not have, or not to the same degree):
1 .the ‘registry’ gets jumbled up and bloated (to use some highly
technical phrases since i don’t really know much about the ‘registry’)
because instead of each individual program keeping up with its own
configuration like in Linux, every program has to use the single
registry…AND when a Redmond user deletes a program the ‘junk’
usually remains in the ‘registry’…
Redmond file systems are highly prone to fragmentation…
so your friend may need to tend to these things, at lease:
find and kill malware
fix registry
defrag
send him a $25 bill for your advice and wish him luck with his chosen OS…
It’s been so long since I ran Windows, I completely forgot about defragmentation and the registry. lol!
He complained, and I saw a potential opportunity to show off openSUSE and perhaps gain another Linux convert. (another notch on my computer case)
I think I’ll just suggest that he defragments his hd and runs a full system scan with his anti-virus program and then step back and see if that helps. The opportunity to introduce Linux may present itself yet.
