Scan and Remove Virus from USB Drives – autorun.inf Antivirus Software
Virus infection through USB drives is indeed the most annoying and most talked about case in the computer world. When someone plug his/her pendrive into your computer, if the USB autorun option is enabled in your PC, you might potentially get infected by the virus (if exist) contained in the pendrive and thus you’ll get mad at your friend.
Most of the common USB viruses can spread very rapidly that you’re not able to stop it. In some serious cases, people will have to format their PC as the virus has already spread very badly. Below is a list of the most famous USB viruses in Windows 7, Vista and XP:
- Autorun.inf
- Ravmon.exe
- New Folder.exe
- svchost.exe
- Heap41a
- Flash_Disinfector.exe
- boot.exe
- 3B_password_viewer.exe
- iph.exe
- unvise32.exe
- bad1.exe bad2.exe bad3.exe
- msmsg.exe
- system.exe
- newfolder.exe
- others… In the comment section below, share with us the viruses you’ve been infected with and we’ll add them here
Before proceeding to any solution, when you plug in your pendrive
Whenever you plug an USB drive into your computer, a window will appear similar to the one shown below (depending on the version of your Windows):
To prevent your computer from running any file in the plugged USB drive, click the red-cross sign or cancel button to close the autorun window. Then proceed to any of the solutions provided below:
Solution 1: Install an Antivirus Program
If you don’t have an antivirus program, it’s essential for you to install one. This is in fact the most effective and the most recommended way to scan and remove any virus contained in your USB Drive automatically. Please visit: Top 4 Best Antivirus Security Software 2010/2011. If you have an antivirus software installed, right click your USB drive from My Computer window, click Scan E: (or any alphabet that represent your drive) to scan for viruses and remove them.
Solution 2: Remove the virus manually
After canceling the autorun, open cmd from Start -> Run. In the command prompt type the drive letter: (for example, e:) and press enter. Next, type dir /w/a and press enter. This will display a list of the files currently exist in the pendrive. Check whether if there’s any suspicious file or file that exist unexpectedly.
Solution 3: Disable autorun for all USB devices
For best practice, it’s good to disable autorun feature for all USB removable drives which can potentially carry a virus. To disable autorun feature in Windows 7 or Vista,
- Go to the Start menu, click on Control Panel.
- Double click on the Default Programs icon. If in case you don’t see that icon, find the big word Programs, click it and now you should be able to see the Default Programs icon.
- Click on Change Auto play settings.
- Scroll through the list and locate Mixed Content.
- From the drop down menu, you can choose what action or program you want your computer to run when you plug in your USB device. In this case, we’ll choose take no action.
In Windows XP, you’ll need to install a tool called Tweak UI. Run the tool, navigate to Desktop ->My Computer -> Autoplay, from there you can disable autoplay for all removable medias.
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