Hope someone can help me out here. I downloaded a short .mpg file ( 4.2 MB) from Limewire, and scanned it with NOD. No virus indicated. I tried opening it, and it ended up being a short banner ad for a stupid adult site. Now I can't delete the file. I've tried everything I can think of, including safe mode, logging on as an administrator, all of the various file shredding programs, etc. When I click on delete through windows explorer, I get a progress bar showing up, but it just goes on forever with zero progress reported. Any file deleting program simply hangs, including hijackthis...I've done a complete system scan of my hard drive, and there are no viruses. I can't even delete the folder the .mpg file was downloaded to. Please help! The file in in my user profile, and now it's showing up in !Killbox as well since I tried using that program to get rid of it.

Leaves you with the following list of programs to try:

http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/(free)

http://www.ewido.com(>>now called AVG Anti Spyware<< free 30 day trial which still can be used and updated after the trial ended-the best in my opinion)

http://www.ccleaner.com/download/(free)

Spybot - Search & Destroy (FREE)
And if that can't solve it go here and get professional help:

Tech Support Forum

Cheers
FOTH

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"Never Argue With An Idiot. They Will Drag You Down To Their Level, Then Beat You With Experience"

not to sound smug, but this is a prime reason to have a dual boot system...deletion 'remotely' of a file like this is easy...

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So Long and Thanks for All the Files
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Beware of the big 3 insurance companies in Texas! Read your policies carefully (maybe you'll need a lawyer) Allstate, Farmers & State Farm are overextended and their 'coverage' is worthless...a true waste of your money Read This

CCleaner didn't remove it, and neither did any of the other programs mentioned. It doesn't show up as a virus or malware of any kind. I just don't understand what kind of a file this thing is that it won't go away.

I don't know if this will work, but someone recently posted it as a solution for a file they couldn't delete.

"Drag it to your desktop and delete it from there".

Can't hurt, might work.

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If it ain't broke, fix it till it is!

try hitting ctrl-alt-delete at the same time...this will bring up your task manager..take a looksy and see if you can identify a process using said file...

__________________


So Long and Thanks for All the Files
_____________________________________________

Beware of the big 3 insurance companies in Texas! Read your policies carefully (maybe you'll need a lawyer) Allstate, Farmers & State Farm are overextended and their 'coverage' is worthless...a true waste of your money Read This

It doesn't seem to matter whether I try to delete the file, drag it to the desktop, rename it...whatever...it just opens a window stating Windows is calculating time required to move/delete/recycle...no progress happens, just the green bar endlessly cycling...

By now it should be clear that this is some sort of malicious file behaving that way.

Hence you'll have to take your chance and seek help at the tech forum I gave you the link to...

Cheers
FOTH

__________________

"Never Argue With An Idiot. They Will Drag You Down To Their Level, Then Beat You With Experience"

if the file is being used, then there is a process using it...have you tried viewing the task manager yet?

__________________


So Long and Thanks for All the Files
_____________________________________________

Beware of the big 3 insurance companies in Texas! Read your policies carefully (maybe you'll need a lawyer) Allstate, Farmers & State Farm are overextended and their 'coverage' is worthless...a true waste of your money Read This

I have looked in task manager. There's no clear indication of any particular program using the file. I'd assume it would be a program like quicktime or something like that. Is there some way of finding out exactly what program might be using a particular file?