I was just thinking, is there any of creating a decent system of programs that would clean up a computer (and keep it clean), e.g. antivirus programs? This would come in handy as an "emergancy cleanup kit" (or, at least that's what I'd like to do).
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There aren't a ton of portable programs that do this (yet) but lots of people keep the installs for AdAware, Avast/AnitVir/AVG, etc on their drives for just such an occasion. Along with Portable Firefox so they can access the internet on said PCs.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
AVG runs off a USB drive? I like it's 100% virus detection, but didn't think that it'd run off a portable drive. Or do you mean the installers for them? I've already burned a CD with the installers to a dozen or so such programs, which would serve as the "kit" that I mentioned, but I would like to be able to scan something for viruses and whatnot when such a tool isn't available.
I meant installers... not installs...
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
That's what I figured. I suppose I could install such a kit to a folder on my hard drive, then burn it to a CD. I wonder if such programs would run fine off such a medium?
I recommend you go to www.portablefreeware.com to find the cleaners you can use but i have a kit on my drive for cleaning spyware from customers systems and it works great. do a google search for stinger, it's a stand alone antivirus app that detects about 50 of the well known viruses. you could also put ad-aware on your drive (install first and then move the folder over) works great. also i use diskcleaner from www.diskcleaner.nl they have the zip version and it cleans a lot of unecessary files from the drive.
(UPDATE...1-30-06...It appears that the new release of AntiVir, version 7, is not portable...anyone else notice this?)
AntiVir will install to a USB drive.
If you have AntiVir, Ad-Aware, and HijackThis installed on your USB drive, and the latest installer for Stinger you mention, you can address most problems.
For a full-fledged fix, I usually temporarily load my USB drive up with the latest installers for:
AVG AntiVirus (along with manual updates as they are usually huge)
Ad-Aware
SpyBot
Spyware Blaster
Microsoft AntiSpyware (2000 and XP only)
CWShredder
ZoneAlarm
HijackThis
IE Privacy Keeper
Firefox
and then run the update function that most of these have.
I've been able to use quite a few tools to help me cleanup friends and families computers. Some I've found by googling the net while others I've just tried and found that they work! I must admit that I'm not an expert at figuring out if an app still writes to the host computer. Here is my security suite:
AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic
Ad-Aware
Spybot-Search and Destroy
Ewido_Micro
A-Squared (Trojan Scanner)
F-Secure BlackLight Beta (Rootkit remover)
CWShredder
Stinger
AVAST Virus Cleaner tool
minireoval_coolwebsearch_smartkiller
Regcleaner
MRU-Blaster
Plus a bunch of standalone apps from Gibson Research (GRC).
The following apps can't be considered portable since I had to create a .bat file to register some .dll's and .ocx files before I start the application:
CCleaner
EULAlyzer
I've also created a .bat file that calls wget.exe to download updates for Ad-Aware, Spybot, CWShredder. It also calls the AntiVir updater to update those definitions.
As you can see, I have all I need to help clean a computer. I also have the installers for all of the above so I can install these apps to friends and families computer so they can continue to keep their computers clean!
This is perhaps a more extensive list for advanced cleanups (I do spyware and virus removal for a living basically, these are most of the tools i use)
Ad-Aware SE (will run from portable drive)
Brute Force Uninstaller (merijn makes this, nice scripting utility)
CW Shredder (using this less and less now)
Ewido Security Suite (This WILL work portably, though live protection will most likely be disables)
HijackThis (obviously)
A-squared HijackFree (better than hijackThis)
Autoruns (even better)
Look2Me Killer (using this less as well)
McAfee GuiScan Wrapper (from BartPE, basically a GUI frontend for the command line scanner included in mcafee's definition updates)
Process and File Killer (from sysinternals)
Spybot S&D (this also will work portably, though I seem to be the only one to be able to get it to work, let me know if you know how I did it)
In addition to these, i keep a trial installer of spysweeper handy, as that will clean up anything these dont, and CCleaner, to get everything polished after the scans.
If anyone else has anything else, please let me know, I like having tools that make my job that much easier
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Hello TGStarfire,
I didn't realize that Ewido Security Suite works from the USB. Thanks for the info. I'll have to add it to my suite. As for Spybot, I think all I did was install it to my computer, then copy the files to my external drive. I use a .bat file to download updates for Spybot (as well as other definitions files) and install/copy updates to my external drive.
If you want to use a .bat file to update your cleanup kit, then here's one you can use as a template to create your own. You'll need to download unzip (I found a copy here: http://www.mame.net/downmain.html) and Wget (http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html).
This updater will download the following:
Ad-Aware SE Personal defs.ref file.
Spybot S&D definitions update
avast! Virus cleaner tool
cwshredder
Ewido definitions update
Call to updater for AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic
**** Start Copy ****
@ECHO OFF && Color 1A
::******************************************************************
:: Update_Defs.bat
::
:: Download and update important definitions files.
::
::******************************************************************
::** CHANGE LOG **
::** **
::** 21/Dec/05 C. McCrea Created. **
::** ** ::******************************************************************
Title Welcome to the definitions download utility %username%...
:start
:: Find your current directory path.
echo set mycurrdir="%CD%">"%CD%\locate_log.bat"
call "%CD%\locate_log.bat"
:: Find the directory path up-one from the current.
cd %mycurrdir%
cd..
echo set uponedir="%CD%">"%CD%\locate_log2.bat"
call "%CD%\locate_log2.bat"
cd %mycurrdir%
del %mycurrdir%\URLs.txt
@echo off
if exist %mycurrdir%\uzip\ goto removed
goto download
:removed
RMDIR /S/Q %mycurrdir%\uzip\
goto download
:download
Echo.
Echo Building your definitions file...
Echo.
del %uponedir%\"Lavasoft\Ad-Aware SE Personal\defs.ref"
del %uponedir%\"Virus Tools\cwshredder.exe"
del %uponedir%\"Virus Tools\aswclnr.exe"
echo http://www.spybotupdates.com/updates/files/spybotsd_includes.exe >> %mycurrdir%\URLs.txt
echo http://download.lavasoft.de.edgesuite.net/public/defs.zip >> %mycurrdir%\URLs.txt
echo http://aumha.org/downloads/cwshredder.exe >> %mycurrdir%\URLs.txt
echo http://files.avast.com/files/eng/aswclnr.exe >> %mycurrdir%\URLs.txt
echo http://download.ewido.net/ewido-signatures-full-%date:~10,4%%date:~4,2%%... >> %mycurrdir%\URLs.txt
Echo.
Echo Downloading the defintions...
Echo.
%mycurrdir%\wget.exe -w 30 -t 4 -o BtchDwnld.txt -i URLs.txt -N
Echo.
Echo Unzipping your Ad-Aware defintions file...
Echo.
md %mycurrdir%\uzip\
unzip %mycurrdir%\defs.zip -d %mycurrdir%\uzip\
call %mycurrdir%\"spybotsd_includes.exe"
move %mycurrdir%\"uzip\defs.ref" %uponedir%\"Lavasoft\Ad-Aware\"
move %mycurrdir%\"cwshredder.exe" %uponedir%\"Virus Tools\"
move %mycurrdir%\"aswclnr.exe" %uponedir%\"Virus Tools\"
call %uponedir%\"AVPersonal\INETUPD.EXE"
call %mycurrdir%\"ewido-signatures-full-%date:~10,4%%date:~4,2%%date:~7,2%.exe"
RMDIR /S/Q %mycurrdir%\uzip\
del %mycurrdir%\defs.zip
@echo.
@echo the updates are complete...
@echo.
del %mycurrdir%\URLs.txt
del %mycurrdir%\"locate_log.bat"
del %uponedir%\"locate_log2.bat"
del %mycurrdir%\"spybotsd_includes.exe"
del %mycurrdir%\"ewido-signatures-full-%date:~10,4%%date:~4,2%%date:~7,2%.exe"
:exit
pause
cls
cd\
cls
**** End Copy ****
Awesome, thanks for the batch file. Ill put this to use right away!
6GB QuickiDrive
PStart
1.5 GB of portable application Goodness!
6GB QuickiDrive
Ceedo / PStart / Xoblite
1.5 GB of portable application Goodness!