Dos based spyware remover?

[marko731]

Hi All,
Does anyone know of a spyware/adware/malware etc, remover that works from a Dos environment or is bootable like an old anti-virus bootable floppy?
Seems like it would be a pretty handy thing to have. Most of the machines I've been running into are so loaded with this crap that they take forever to boot , if they boot at all, and the drives are so large that it takes forever to run a remover. A huge waste of time. I don't know, just seems like something like that would run faster from a command prompt. Any thoughts or info??
Later...

[rgharper]

Have you considered booting in Safe Mode and running the existing utilities from there? But more directly, I don't think there is any such utility that will run from DOS mode.

[gizmo1_1]

Most XP installations use NTFS which make a standard DOS-Boot disk useless. I know that utilites exist that will allow reading NTFS in a DOS Environment, but the when a machine is infected to the point of you are speaking about, the number of files and registry entries that must be changed will far exceed the limits of a boot disk.

I have found that on the first good boot I can eliminate a good part of the Malware by killing processes using utilities such as the ones found at:

Sysinternals
Hijack This


I will then Use Spybot or Adaware to finish it off.

It is unfortunate that the most popular operating system in the world has the most bugs.

[marko731]

Yeah,
I usually boot to safe mode and run my progs to get the job done too. I guess I was just daydreaming about the good ol' days when a boot disk could get the job done (given the right circumstances of course). Thanks for the replies.

I'm trying out Prevx intrusion preventer right now. It's free so maybe if it works out my clients and I won't even have this problem anymore. Seems to be working so far......Prevx

[InTheWayBoy]

You could make one of these boot disks:

Bart's PEBuilder

It's not your traditional bootdisk though...it's a CD first of all. Secondly, it doesn't boot DOS but rather WinXP! So you get a GUI with VGA and Mouse support plus more! I have mine setup with AdAware, and with some extra tools I can run a full scan on a system, including a large portion of the registry, and then go through and remove by hand the obvious ones it missed. After that, I just reboot (If they have broadband I un-plug it till I'm done) and I install and run Spybot, HijackThis, and the rest of the normal tools.

I'll warn you if you do attempt to make one...it's frustrating on a whole new level. But the pay-off is great! The things you can do with it are almost limitless...with new development people are even getting sound to work! It has network support too! It's great...a real time waster just thinking about it all. If you're serious about it, best place to start is their official support forums

[kato2274]

You could make one of these boot disks:

Bart's PEBuilder

It's not your traditional bootdisk though...it's a CD first of all. Secondly, it doesn't boot DOS but rather WinXP! So you get a GUI with VGA and Mouse support plus more! I have mine setup with AdAware, and with some extra tools I can run a full scan on a system, including a large portion of the registry, and then go through and remove by hand the obvious ones it missed. After that, I just reboot (If they have broadband I un-plug it till I'm done) and I install and run Spybot, HijackThis, and the rest of the normal tools.

I'll warn you if you do attempt to make one...it's frustrating on a whole new level. But the pay-off is great! The things you can do with it are almost limitless...with new development people are even getting sound to work! It has network support too! It's great...a real time waster just thinking about it all. If you're serious about it, best place to start is their official support forums

yeah, I use one too almost everyday. it's worth it just for the file management utility. I can boot really f'ed up systems and back up data before reformatting. . . . . a truly great tool.