Delete "un-deleteable" file

[Shady]

Ok, stupid cousin d/l's a program thats supposed to "kick" people off-line. He wanted to play around with his friends. Now when he double-clicks the "punttek.exe" file on the desktop, nothing "appears" to happen, but the Ctl-atl-del command does not work. When you attempt to delete the file, it tells you, you are not authorized and that the file is being used by windows! Anyway, I had him start in Safe-mode and he could then delete the file. He also looked in his Autoexec and Config.sys, and Win.ini for similar names with negative results. When he went "step-by-step" there was about 4 lines that were blank when asking if you wanted to load a certain line. ie. load windows? Y/N well they were blank that just asked y/n. Weird.
Anyway, after deleting the file in safe mode, the files gone, only now when booting normally, it has an error message that says "Can't find the path C: punttek" or something like that. It says to check the Win.ini area, which we did.
Any suggestions? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

[Paleo Pete]

OK, I'm going to be bluntly honest here. Some may jump on me about this, but so be it.

Nuking people is just as illegal as hacking into their computers, and I think the guy got exactly what he deserved. The best advice I can give is stay away from hacking sites, they are very good at dropping trojans into your system under the guise of cute little apps like this one.

And if I ever find out his name he'll be talking to some men in blue uniforms with badges on them...

Jump on me if you wish folks, but too much nuking and hacking are going on in this Internet world of ours, and I prefer not to help these people undo the problems their "pranks" got them into...

I've been knocked offline by people with apps like this, and had many BSOD's, have friends who have had to format and reinstall, etc. I now am forced to run a firewall because of these morons. No matter how you try to justify it, malicious is malicious, illegal is illegal, and I think he got what he had coming, and can find his own way out of it.



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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[Shady]

Pete, I totally agree with you! I'm not justifying what he did, but as a friend/Cousin will stick by him to help him out. Thats what Family is for, help out when they screw up, just like I would bail him out if he were in Jail. But off of my soapbox and after lecturing him about getting what he deserved, its time to help (As far as I'm concerned). Whether he got this file purposely or if someone else in this forum gets one that someone sends them, I personnally would like to "Learn" how to get rid of it. He is a young "curios george" type of individual that takes things apart just to see how the run. So I'm the "big brother" he comes running to when he gets in a jam. And until he disrespects me or purposely harms another, I'm going to help him out.
And you'll never guess what I do for a living.....

Thanks for your opinion Pete, I wish more people were like you,
Slim

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

[ixl]

I hear what you're saying Pete. I mean, if he was really doing this with friends I think it's OK, but often that is just what people tell others. I wonder if the "friends" knew about it. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif
As to the original issue: much as is the case with "warez" programs, there's a *high* chance that this program either contained a trojan, or was just poorly written. It may have modified the system or changed something in the registry.. who knows?
People should treat PC software the same way they treat food for their bodies: ask themselves "do I really want to ingest this? Who made it? Can I trust them?" With this sort of software you ar really taking your chances.
(After all, the same sorts of people who enjoy bumping people offline, enjoy giving others viruses. What "fun!" http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif )

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Charles M. Kozierok
Webslave, The PC Guide (http://www.PCGuide.com)
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...
Note: Please reply to my forum postings here on the forums. Thanks.

[ReddDogg]

While I won't jump on you Paleo, I will say that I don't feel so strongly against people who run hack and nuke programs on the interent. Sure, the malicious ones deserve to go to jail, but I, along with majority of my coworkers have copies of various programs just like the one that was in question. True, you have to be very careful when using any downloaded program from a warez site, they do tend to be infected more than other places.

I am sorry Pete if you have had hackers and such that purposely try to hurt your computer and have caused you nothing but grief, but the where I work, these sorts of activities are used as learning tools, and while I can't assure you that none of them have never done anything malicious, I can tell you that learning how to create these sorts of programs and playing with each other's computers has done nothing but help our learning process, and my lone hacking experience was to reformat a guy's drive once I realized he keeps a separate partition for his system files, because he wanted to run a warez server on his cable connection and I did that to prove that he did not have a secure site going, so he then decided to learn how to secure that puppy before opening it to other people.

I spend my free time in this forum and in yahoo fantasy sports, or studying for my next Microsoft certification. (not to mention, I take phone calls for a living http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif), but what I do know about tcp/ip and network ports and things of the like.

I know it is wrong to be hacking and such. But illegal, I only see it as illegal if you are dumb enough to piss someone off and get caught. I try to avoid the first, and in doing so the latter become much easier to accomplish too.

by the way, the problem you are having shady... I would format and reinstall windows, who knows what virus you now have.

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Joe Redd
MCP

[ReddDogg]

by the way, the company I work for does not condone any illegal activities, and we are not allowed to do any thing of the sort on company property using company computers, but I work with alot of people in 18-26 age group who are computer geeks as much or worse than me, not saying that is a bad thing.

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Joe Redd
MCP

[Paleo Pete]

Sorry it took a few days, been forced offline for about a week...

ReddDog: In a case such as you described, maybe I could condone experimenting in that manner. In a case such as descirbed in the original post, not knowing the person, I have to say no. As ixl said, the same sort of people like to do nastier things as well, and I can't take the chance of helping someone fix it the first time, only to find it worse next week.

Shady: I understand and applaud your sentiments, but I have to decline on principle. He'll have to ask someone else for assistance.

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[Will Rickards]

Check system.ini, win.ini, registry. Check for any recently modified files. Check for that executables name (without the .exe). It was probably a Memory Resident program, which is why you got the message that it was in use. You could have killed it by crtl-alt-delete to get to the task manager and then killed the executable, then you would have been able to delete it.

When playing with fire, be careful not to burn yourself.

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Will Rickards ~ wrickard@home.com
http://www.willrickards.net

[Shady]

Thanks Will. I think he used Norton Utilities which fixed all the broken links are repaired this problem. Unfortunely I was unable to help, but he really learned his lesson http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif But I'm definately gonna watch what I post and ask here, I was looking for help but until you Will, all I received was lecture. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

Thanks again http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif