Undeletable files
 

I did a scan on my system the other day using McAfee VirusScan version 8 and it identified one file as containing a “potentially unwanted program” called “ScreenMates Joke”, at the same time telling me that there were no infected files. When I tried to delete the offending file it wouldn’t let me, saying that “the disk is write protected”, but when I tried to close the virus scanner it asked me if I wanted to do so without dealing with infected files, so sending me round in circles!

The file is of the type .CPY and is located in the folder C:\_RESTORE\TEMP\ (that's C-colon-backslash-underscore, a plague on these smilies!) which contains over 1500 CPY and CAB files which I can’t open in any case or at least haven’t found a way so far. In fact, I can’t even find the folder in Windows Explorer or using the search function in the start menu. It only shows up in the file structure in VirusScan listing to select which files to scan. I have managed to open it once, but only from within VirusScan. The _RESTORE folder (total size several hundred MB) also contains another folder named ARCHIVE.

Any ideas what they could be and how I can delete them? Also, is"ScreenMates Joke" connected with a known virus or can I safely ignore it?

I'm running Windows ME, if that is any relevance.

This is caused by the Windows ME System Restore. To be able to delete .cpy files you must disable System Restore first. Be aware that if you disable System Restore and delete these files, you will not able to recover if a crash occur until you enable it again. System Restore Disable/Enable.

- Turn off the System Restore function.
- Reboot the PC.
- Use your Anti-Virus to perform a full scan of all files and clean/delete.
- Turn System Restore back on.
- Reboot the PC.
- Create a new System Restore point.

Thank you for that ORAC - I'll try that when I'm feeling brave!