Recover Virus Infected Hidden Files from Pen Drive or Flash Drive

For Advanced users:

open cmd

type i: (Your Drive Letter) and enter

type attrib -s -h /s /d *.* and press enter

Below post is just a brief for the above command.

Today my Pen Drive is hit by a series of Trojan Virus, so I use Avast to clear the virus.

After scan is completed I found the Flash Drive is completely empty with no data at all.

But used disc space is showing a lot of data.

I tried ‘Show Hidden files’ option in ‘Folder Options’ but No use

I did some research and came to know that these files are hidden by Trojan Viruses within registry values.

This behavior can be changed using Command Prompt. Let’s see how it works.

Open Run (Win+R) and type cmd and press Enter.

A command Prompt will appear, type cd\ and hit enter.. This command will let the command applicable to Root directories and sub folders also.

Not type I: and Enter {Note: Type your driver letter in the place of I. (ex H, G.. etc}

Type dir/ah and Enter. This Command useful to identify the directories effected by the viruses.

Now type attrib –h –s /s /d and hit Enter [attrib –h{space}-s{space}/s{space}/d]

After a few seconds you can see your driver letter again this means the process is completed.

No I got all my data back.

Tip:

     This process is applicable not only for Pen Drive or Flash dives like External Hard Disc, but also applicable for your system drives also.

    After applying this command, some of the strange folders you have never seen may appear but don't worry, they are system related files, just hide them if you don't want or try delete if possible.

Secured Browsing

One of my friend was running an Internet Café. He requested a post to save his customers privacy, as most of the users don’t know how to be secured when they are using internet (especially non personal PC).

As per my knowledge three most popular browsers for internet surfing are Firefox, Google Chrome & Internet Explorer.

If you made small changes in the privacy settings to your system then anyone using your pc is secured. Let me tell you about individual browsers.

Mozilla Firefox: 

One of the open source web browser developed by Google.

To change Firefox privacy settings follow the following steps (I’m showing you 18.0 version)

Always make sure no one see what you have seen after you left the PC.

Firefox allows this with simple option called ‘Clear History When Firefox Closed’. Go to Tools >> Options >> Privacy >> Use Custom Settings for History >> Clear History When Firefox Closed. Make sure you have enabled it.

And on the settings column beside this option, select settings and make sure you have enabled all the options.

Next go to Security >> Password >> Deselect both Remember Password and Master Password

Google CHROME: 

Another Freeware web browser developed by 

Google.

I was worried because Chrome options are getting changed for version to version. I can tell you about the one I was using (Version 23.0).

To change privacy settings go to  ‘Customize Chrome’ option below the close button of the browser and go for settings >> Show Advanced Settings (at the bottom) >> go for Privacy

Disable both ‘Autofill’ & ‘Save Password’ on the ‘password and forms’ option as shown in the figure.

Now go to Content Settings on the privacy and Cookies Select ‘Keep Local Data until I quit my browser’.

Internet Explorer: 

One of the oldest and worst browser developed by Microsoft.

Go to Tools >> Internet Options >> Content >> Auto Complete >> Settings

Disable All the options appear there like Web Address, Forms, Passwords…

That’s it your system is safe for browsing for fresher’s and friends.

You can use Third party software like “CC Cleaner” to delete all the records you have gone through.

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Avast Anty Virus

With more than 150 Million users worldwide, Avast in The best Free Anty Virus since ‘stone age’.

Many of us may use Avast but don’t know how to use it perfectly. We can do this by altering some of the settings within the Anty Virus interface. In this post I would like to guide you through the standard installation, Activation and Settings alteration for best performance of the best anty virus.

Installation:  The recent versions of Avast have a 'single click installation'. So need not to worry for guidance. Follow the steps below…

Open the downloaded .exe file and you will see a welcome screen. Click on ‘Express Install’ to proceed. Uncheck Chrome and Toolbar if you don’t want.

The installation bar will show u status of installation.

A quick scan will be performed after a system restore. This may take few minutes.

That’s it. Setup is being installed successfully..

Activation:   Although Avast is for free, we have to activate to enjoy 1 year validation. All you need to do is follow the simple steps mentioned below.

After completion of installation a popup will appear to promote you to paid version, but use ‘Continue with protection’ option. (In some cases this popup may not appear)

If the popup does not appear open avast and use ‘register now’ option.

A pop up will appear as like above said for 'paid version'. Choose ‘Basic Protection’

A popup asks our personal information. You can fool it by giving any name and any ID. Or else you can give correct details.

Activation is DONE. Now You can see '365 days remaining message' on interface.

Settings: Now you have activated ‘Default’ Avast is with you. Let’s change few settings now.

Auto Action: You may have seen that Avast won’t heal the Viruses itself, instead of healing, it asks us what to do if it found any virus. If we neglect, the virus simply do its messy business. To make Avast work itself you have to set ‘AUTO ACTION” settings.

To enable ‘Auto Action’ go to Scan Computer >> click on’ More details’ on any of the scan options

Open ‘Settings’ and open ‘Actions’ on the left panel.. Now Change the settings as shown in the Snap shot. Order goes like this {Repair – Move to Chest – Delete}.

Now apply the same settings to ‘PUP’ and ‘Suspicious’ also.

You have just modified the settings for one type of scan only. Now apply the similar settings to the remaining scan also (Quick Scan, Fill Scan, Removable Media Scan & Selected folder Scan)

Popups: The one of the annoying about avast is its ‘Popups’.  There are 4 types of popups in Avast (Info, Update, Warning, Alert). By default these popups will stay on the screen for 20 seconds, we can change it to minimum.

To change popup settings go to Settings (on the right side of the interface) >> Popups >> Change the duration to ‘1’ for all the popups.

It may take few minutes to change settings,  but worth a lot as we set the anty virus to do all the work by itself only.