Norton Is a Virus!

[j0k3r]

Bah, I installed Norton 2001 and scanned, it found nothing so I uninstalled. Then I installed 2002 and it found 2 viruses, yay.

Since I uninstalled 2001, I've been getting this error every time my computer starts up, it lags a couple extra seconds, and it seems to be pretty much self explanatory but I wouldn't think Windows could even start up if it's true.



1. Is it really missing?
2. Where do I get the file from?

[Raven]

One of the viruses it found could've killed your System32.exe, which means you may have to format and reinstall Windows.

[j0k3r]

Do I really need to format? Someone suggested just reinstalling Windows.

[iago]

Norton and McAfee are eww..

[Adron]

Is there supposed to be a system32.exe? Are you sure it's not the remnants of an old trojan named system32.exe that has been eradicated but still sits in your autostart or whatever?

Reinstalling should be enough if the file belongs to windows.

[Skywing]

No, there should not be a system32.  Sounds like some virus/trojan/random malware named itself that and set something to start it on boot or logon.  Check if there are any services pointing to it, and see if you come up with anything suspicuous with AutoRuns.

[Yoni]

In Win2K and above, you can delete almost any file in system32 thanks to Windows File Protection... If it magically comes back, it was important

[Hitmen]

One of these?

[Raven]

Ah ok, I have it figured out now. As Sky said, there is no such file as System32; it was instead installed on your computer as part of some sort of malware, and Windows was setup to run it upon startup. Now that the file is no longer there, you're getting that box because Windows thinks it should start the bogus routine, when in reality, it's not there anymore. See if you can remove it from your startup routine, and post here if you feel you should.

[j0k3r]

Ah thanks for the help... And thanks to Skywing I've removed it.

Will leaving the folder affect anything? Or should I get rid of that too?

[Raven]

Just delete the folder for neatness' sake.

[iago]

Just delete the folder for neatness' sake.

I hope he doesn't mean the folder /system32...

[Zakath]

Yes, deleting that strikes me as a bad idea