Virus situation and questions...

[SnowLeopard2008]

Let's say you have this hypothetical situation:

A person runs an program (that would put a virus on a XP/Vista PC) on a Windows 7 (important) PC. Would the virus still be attached to the computer if it didn't 'fully' run? For instance due to the compatibility issues between XP/Vista and Windows 7, the program turns up an error and a missing file dialog. Would the PC still be infected with the virus?


The reason I ask is because my friend ran into this situation and he wants to know if his PC is infected with the virus. He ran Windows Defender and everything seemed okay.


EDIT: MY friend just told me an additional bit of info. He ran the program from his USB drive.

 

[r.j.s]

It may be, it just depends on what it was able to accomplish before the error.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

It may be, it just depends on what it was able to accomplish before the error.

Yea, but before I got and install some free anti-virus software on his PC, what else can I do to make sure it's not infected?

 

[r.j.s]

All you can ever really do is scan with antivirus and anti-spyware, both should be running anyway.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

All you can ever really do is scan with antivirus and anti-spyware, both should be running anyway.

Okay, thanks! I'm going to go ahead and and scan his system.

 

[Consultant]

Some virus / worms on windows run via rootkit which cannot be detected by many anti-virus software.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Some virus / worms on windows run via rootkit which cannot be detected by many anti-virus software.

Really? Thanks for the info though. I wiped my friend's system and put back Vista. He apparently had some problems with installing Norton on Windows 7.

 

[steveza]

If you need Windows 7 compatible anti-virus use the link to your preferred provider from this page http://www.microsoft.com/windows/antivirus-partners/windows-7.aspx

 

[ravenvii]

Really? Thanks for the info though. I wiped my friend's system and put back Vista. He apparently had some problems with installing Norton on Windows 7.

Norton sucks horribly even on Windows, though. It's worse than a virus if I said so myself.

Use a free alternative, such as Avast!, you will have a much better experience. If you really want to pay money because it makes you feel safer for some reason, NOD32 is awesome, as well.

 

[bartzilla]

Really? Thanks for the info though. I wiped my friend's system and put back Vista. He apparently had some problems with installing Norton on Windows 7.

That's your problem. You need to be running a real virus scanner on Windows, not a Symantec revenue generating service.