hijackthis

I sent the above to a tech who has not responded. She had me send this to M.S. My question is am I doomed to look at this folder forever. If you rt click it and click on 'delete' a warning comes up that,"If you rename, remove, or in any way alter this folder, you may damage some of your programs. I spent a week getting straightened out but have this folder to try to deal with. Is anyone familiar with this situation and a way to resolve its removal w/o damage.

Hello, Could you tell us what folder you sent to whom - More information would be of great help here. Kind regards,

Most likely when a message like that comes up upon trying to delete a folder, it means it's usually something that is related to your Operating System or something in your C:\Windows\System32 folder or a similar folder name, depending on what Operating System you are using. An important piece of information that can help us with your problem is what folder are you trying to delete, where is it located and what is it related to, for example a program?

tallin, they started off by saying this

I sent the above to a tech who has not responded.

That sounds to me as if they might have meant to include more information prior to what is said in the quote but for some reason didn't, however why I am even mentioning that, I am not sure, I am very tired! And since you live in the same Country as me, why are you up so late?

When concerned about simply deleting a folder (or file), a trick I use all the time for files and folders I don't recognize, or don't know what they do anymore, is simply rename them. If the file, folder, or a file inside the folder is needed, you will get some sort of file not found notice, and you simply rename it back.

This has to be done in such a way that you can easily remember what to name it back to if necessary. So what I do is append the word "delete" and today's date to the file/folder name.

For example:

Old filename: FileName.xyz
New filename: FileName.xyz-delete-1-27-08

Old folder name: FolderABC
New folder name: FolderABC-delete-1-27-08

If something breaks, I don't have to guess what the old name was, and can easily rename it back, and be good to go. If all is fine, I leave it for a week or two (sometimes months if the file/folder is buried deep in the drive somewhere and I forget about it) to see what happens and make sure all my programs still work properly.

Whenever I stumble upon the file or folder again, I can see by the date how long it has been with this name, and easily determine if it is safe to simply delete it.

When concerned about simply deleting a folder (or file), a trick I use all the time for files and folders I don't recognize, or don't know what they do anymore, is simply rename them. If the file, folder, or a file inside the folder is needed, you will get some sort of file not found notice, and you simply rename it back.

This has to be done in such a way that you can easily remember what to name it back to if necessary. So what I do is append the word "delete" and today's date to the file/folder name.

For example:

Old filename: FileName.xyz
New filename: FileName.xyz-delete-1-27-08

Old folder name: FolderABC
New folder name: FolderABC-delete-1-27-08

If something breaks, I don't have to guess what the old name was, and can easily rename it back, and be good to go. If all is fine, I leave it for a week or two (sometimes months if the file/folder is buried deep in the drive somewhere and I forget about it) to see what happens and make sure all my programs still work properly.

Whenever I stumble upon the file or folder again, I can see by the date how long it has been with this name, and easily determine if it is safe to simply delete it.

From what I've seen of your expertise I'm surprised you haven't beensent an invitation to Tech Classroom.

Enigmas Chick wrote:
And since you live in the same Country as me, why are you up so late?

Hi EC,

I am up early, not up late.

thanks for your concern.

kind regards,

I'm usually long winded and thought the issue might be something you all have seen that I did not give details. 1-I've had problems like "windows has ecountered problems and must shut down. 2-M.S. email support gave me several things to perform 3- one was sending her a log I guess is created by hijack this. 4-perhaps she will write Monday but it has been awhile and this yellow Folder is on my desktop which is labeled hijack this. 5-As I said, it says you cannot rename it, remove or delete it with out a warning box,"Any of these may cause damage to your programs. I seem to have stabilized with a lot of work. It would be a shame to disturb what seems to running ok. but no one wants that folder on the desktop. 6- Should I try removing it in safe mode and with the registry backed up? I appreciate the idea to rename it but that is not an option . I hope this has been more helpful and will lead to a soution. xp sp2 Dell Dimension 4600 768 RAM, 268 Ghtz , pentium 4

I appreciate the idea to rename it but that is not an option .

Oh? Why not? Right click on the folder and select rename.

I know my messages a bit scrambled but if you re-read them you will see, wnen you click to rename or delete there is an error message that says this may cause trouble to your programs.

And as I tried to explain above in great detail, if it causes troubles, rename it back! But I suspect you will have no problems at all.

I hve to admit I was a little chicken to do so but I'll never learn so here goes. I'll do it in the morning when I have time to adjust to any problems and let you know what happens. I really do understand the name and rename and thank you.

I either did not understand or it did not work. I renamed the existing folder folderABC in spite of the warning. Then Opened a new folder on the desktop and named it FolderABC - delete-1-27-08 After clicking, there was nothing in the new folder. I restored the deleted folder from the recycle bin and renamed it highjackthis so if there is damage it is too late. I have a feeling it will be ok. though. I know I screw up didn't I?

Huh?? I'm not sure what you did - Sorry, I sure thought my instructions were clear.

All you needed to do was rename the one folder. That's it! Nothing else! No creating new folders, not deleting files, no restoring files. All that was needed after renaming that one folder was to sit back, wait, use your computer normally for a few days, and see if something yells at you because it could not find a file under that old folder name. I suggested renaming that same folder by appending the word "delete" and the date to the end of the file name so you could ensure you got the original file name correct, if you had to go back.

And note there would be nothing in a brand new folder - you just created it.

You restored what deleted file? You never mentioned deleting any files.

I don't think you hurt anything here - simply because I think that folder is a harmless remnant from a past HJT scan log save.

Again, if you are still worried, you can still rename the offending folder. Pick any name you want, just make sure you remember the old name. Then use you computer as you normally would for a few days and see what happens.

There is nothing wrong with being "a little chicken" about such things - but that's the point of my trick - you can be chicken about deleting a folder, but temporarily renaming it is much more benign, and easily undone.

Beyond that, I urge you to develop and stick to some sort of backup routine so you can preserve a current copy of all your critical files. No matter how careful you are, stuff happens. Also, there is no shame in taking the computer to an expert.

Digerati wrote:
Also, there is no shame in taking the computer to an expert.

I am glad of that as I do it all the time

Since it seems rather weird that you'd get that message when trying to delete a folder related to HijackThis, do you have the same problem when trying to rename, delete or move any other files or folders?