Hello,
I use a program from BitDefender that installs a malformed autorun.inf file that prevents any and all windows based programs from altering the file.
The program can be downloaded from here: http://labs.bitdefender.com/2012/04/immunizer-v3-launched/
and here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/BitDefender-USB-Imm...
I have all my USB drives protected using this program. The issue that I am having is Portableapps will not run with this file installed on the USB thumb drive or USB hard drive.
Where is the setting in Portableapps to allow the program to run when I am using this custom autorun.inf file from BitDefender.
Thank you
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Likely, what this program does is store a corrupted .inf file on the drive. Unfortunately, an .inf file is actually an INI file and the PA.c Platform uses the Windows APIs to read it as it starts up to display the name of your drive in the UI. So, it calls the Windows API to read from the INI and the Windows API either hangs or crashes which prevents the PA.c Platform from running.
Mind you, this corrupted .inf file won't do anything that you're intending it to do.
First of all, autorun.inf is no longer used by Windows to permit Autorun or Autoplay from USB drives. Windows 7 and 8/8.1 have never supported USB Autorun/Autoplay at all and Windows XP/Vista had it disabled by a hotfix years ago. Autorun.inf files these days are completely safe as the Run= and Open= lines are ignored on USB drives. The only thing that they can be used for is to name the drive (which is handy so you don't get an all-caps 11 char name on FAT32) and to change the drive's icon. That's it.
Second, any virus on a PC can easily delete and then recreate the malformed autorun.inf file without needing to alter it via INI APIs, so it doesn't really protect against anything either.
Essentially, this tool is outdated and protecting against something that all modern Windows OSes are immune to already. Mind you, that doesn't mean that USB viruses don't still update the autorun.inf to take advantage of those handful of unpatched XP/Vista boxes. But they're likely being spread by people running the files directly (since they masquerade as documents and other innocuous looking things). So, you're safe ditching it to use the PA.c Platform.
I'll take a look and see if there's a way to detect the corrupted file and ignore it at the platform level to catch anyone that happens to still be using this tool, too.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Hello John,
The malformed .inf file can not be removed, renamed or altered. The only way to remove the file is answered in the FAQ which states the following:
Q: OK, I need my drive back or I need to create an autorun.inf file. How do I remove the autorun.inf file you have created?
A: You can't delete the file on a Windows-based PC. Instead, we suggest that you boot from a Linux Live CD or use a Mac OS X system to simply delete the file.
http://labs.bitdefender.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/FAQ.txt
Thank you
While it is true it uses a couple tricks to prevent Explorer from deleting the file (similar to those used by file 'lockers' that attempt to password protect files on USB drives that I have also analyzed), it can still be removed if you understand how the different Windows tricks work. The older version of Immunizer was more basic... just a hidden folder called autorun.inf that prevented creation of a file of the same name. So, none of these tools are the cure-alls they advertise themselves as.
It also doesn't change the fact that autorun.inf is no longer an effective infection vector since Windows XP/Vista were patched to disable autorun/autoplay from USB on August 25, 2009 and Windows 7/8/8.1 have never supported. So, this immunization is basically a solution to a problem that was solved some time ago.
It's also important to note that some tools will alert on the autorun.inf whenever you plug in as some antivirus tools consider all autorun.inf files on USB drives suspicious/infected. You can remove the autorun.inf file and the platform will not put it back on upgrade to deal with these situations.
Finally, I tried the Platform 12.0 Beta 2 release and it worked with the corrupted autorun.inf created by Immunizer on my FAT32 drive. The only issue was an error message saying "File access denied" as it starts up and tries to read the drive name from it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Autorun.inf has been a unpredictable big mistake from the beginning for Windows, now every kinda of virus has exploited it as much as possible. That's why Windows 8 won't use it, and if you can't delete something, there's always Unlocker or IObit Unlocker for that matter, or if fails, you can always backup and format. I use Panda USB Vaccine and it never has given me this kind of issues.
Hello,
Am I missing something?
If the autorun.inf file is irrelevant, then why does Portableapps even care if the file is present?
As I have stated in my original post "Where is the setting in Portableapps to allow the program to run when I am using this custom autorun.inf file from BitDefender."
If this setting is not present, what method is available that will allow Portableapps program to run when I am using this custom autorun.inf file from BitDefender.