kingaff

Some Viruses disable the installed antivirus software and blocking the PC from accessing every antivirus Web site on the Internet. Further research shows that some of these viruses will also block certain tools including Msconfig (Windows System Configuration Utility) and regedit (Registry Editor).

I have heard of many people performing an outright format and reinstall of Windows to rid themselves of these nasty but clever viruses. Yet the fix is really simple, and you need not delete anything other than one single file on your hard drive.

These viruses will block your antivirus Web sites by altering your HOSTS file. This is a simple text file with no extension that programs on your system use to assign a specific IP address to a Web page. You can find this file in the following locations:

Windows 98/ME – C:/Windows
Windows 2000 – C:/WINNT/system32/drivers/etc
Windows XP – C:/Windows/system32/drivers/etc

To correct the problem, simply delete the HOSTS file; Windows recreates it automatically with zero entries. Now you can log on to an online virus scanner and check your hard drive and remove the virus.

To unblock your defense tools such as Msconfig and regedit, change the extension of these files from .exe to .com.

1. Click on the Start button.
2. Click on Run.
3. Type Command and press the Enter key.
4. Type ren c:/windows/regedit.exe regedit.com and press the Enter key.

Now you will be able to run your Registry Editor. Do the same steps above for changing msconfig.exe to msconfig.com. Windows 2000 does not have this file, but 98/ME and XP does. See below for the location.

Windows 98/ME – C:/windows/system
Windows XP – C:/windows/pchealth/helpctr/binaries

Hopefully this information will save many of you from having to format your hard drives and losing your valuable data :1smoke: