How to Locate Viruses Using the Attrib Command

Locating and Deleting Viruses

1. 
   Type in your directory's name. This will typically be the letter on the disk drive (e.g., "C:").
2. 
   Press ↵ Enter. This will change the Command Prompt's search location to your selected directory.
3. 
   Type attrib -r -a -s -h *.* into Command Prompt. The "attrib" command forces all hidden, read-only, archived, and system files to display in Command Prompt, and the "-r -a -s -h *.*" section of the command removes these attributes from non-legitimate files.

   1. Any legitimate system files won't have their attributes removed, and you'll see "Access Denied" listed to the left of them.
4. 
   Press ↵ Enter. Doing so will display all previously hidden system files' names.
5. 
   Scroll up to find your virus. If you know the virus' name, you'll simply need to scroll up to it. Otherwise, look for files ending in ".inf" and ".exe" that don't look familiar.

   1. Before proceeding, be sure to double-check any file names you suspect of being viruses by looking them up.
   2. Common virus names include "autorun.inf" and "New Folder.exe".^[1]
6. 
   Type del [file name] and press ↵ Enter. Doing so will remove the virus from your computer.^[2]

   1. For example: to delete the "autorun.inf" virus, you'd type in del autorun.inf.
7. 
   Close Command Prompt. The virus should no longer affect your system. You may even notice a slight increase in computer running speed or app response time.