Richard

Added to this section: I believe not all Windows operating system have this but you could try…

START — RUN — GPEDIT.MSC

Once the Group Policy is loaded, please click the following:

Local Computer Policy
–Computer Configuration
—–Administrative Templates
——-System

and look for TURN OFF AUTOPLAY and double click on it. Select ENABLED and configured as “ALL DRIVES”. This will disable any autorun on all harddrives/flashdrives/discs (any drives uses AUTORUN.INF). This will prevent to run the malicious codes automatically. But still, you have to run your anti-virus to check the drive. But newer virus signatures may not recognized

To verify if the drive is infected with “Autorun virus”, open your Windows Explorer, unhide all hidden and system files (Tools — Folder Options — ViewTab section) and open the drive with right click (instead of left click) and click EXPLORE instead of AUTOPLAY/OPEN.

Once you found a AUTORUN.INF existed on your root drive, there’s a possibility that you are infected with virus.

*GPEDIT.MSC is tested on Windows XP Professional platform. You could try to other O/S too (but haven’t tested with other versions)

If you want to verify your DESKTOP.INI’s details, drag the file to NOTEPAD and see what it contains with you.

This is what commonly found on a MY DOCUMENTS\MY MUSIC\DESKTOP.INI (from Windows XP systems)

———————————————————————————
[DeleteOnCopy]
Personalized=13
PersonalizedName=My Music
[.ShellClassInfo]
InfoTip=@Shell32.dll,-12689
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
IconIndex=-237
———————————————————————————

For me as part of precautions, I already blocked those files in order for me to prevent from any attacks without notifications. If I have to copy from folders to folders, I disabled my McAfee’s customized blocker before I transfer the file(s). But as possible, I don’t include FOLDER.HTT, DESKTOP.INI, and THUMBS.DB on my target drive/folder.

About the “genius” thing, I am no genius. I just look for any possibilities that an infection may occur. About this article, I only announce to the public that those files are normally seen on our computer. But in that way, they are also too vulnerable to any virus/malware/adware attacks.

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