Virus

[thecanadianrail]

that is a very odd problem!?! you should set your security/anivirus to not search through railworks if this probmem persists.

[Kali]

A sound file would be an extremely odd place to put a virus; if you can't execute the file then the virus can't piggyback off that to get itself running.

[Hawk]

What anti-virus software do you use?

It could possibly be that your anti-virus thinks those files are virus'.

Did you look in the quarantine directory of your anti-virus to see if they're there?

[LoneWolfDon]

Yep, some anti-virus / anti-malware / anti-spyware programs can report back "false positives".
Also be careful that the anti-whatever program you're using is a reputable one as some of them can cause more problems than they fix, or some are even themselves a virus or spyware.
And/or, also be sure to go into the Settings of the anti-virus program and adjust some options accordingly. For example, you might want to have the anti-virus program prompt and ask you what to do if it finds what it thinks is a threat/virus, or to "quarantine" it, rather than automatically delete said files, as in the case of a "false-positive", it could then automatically delete a good file if you had the setting to do that. Or you could also set-up a white-list of folders/files that you trust.

After using Avast for the last couple of years (Before that I was using Anti-Vir, which was good for a while, but again seemed to get worse in performance and service over time), with some recent updates to it's engine, it seems it was becoming more and more "bloatware" (it seemed to be bogging down my computer sometimes, and only seemed to get worse with each new engine update), and I've also had a few "false positive" reports from it when I knew that the programs it was reporting as "suspicious activity / potential virus threat", were programs I trusted and wanted to run (Such as the Steam-client and some games in my Steam-Library).

I've just recently switched over to Microsoft's Security Essentials:
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

So far in my experience with it, it seems like a good free anti-virus / anti-spyware / anti-malware program that does the job well and so far no false-positives. Plus, it doesn't seem to slow my computer down, and so far hasn't conflicted with other programs or caused slowdowns (such as when playing RailWorks or some other games). So it looks like Microsoft's got their Security Essentials program done right. So if you're looking for a good, and free, anti-virus I think I'd recommend it.

[Hawk]

I also now use MSE after trying all the others.
It has some great reviews and seems to work fine, and uses very little system resource. One of the few utilities I use from Microsoft.

If you're using CCleaner, just remember to uncheck the box for MSE or it will delete the MSE history and MSE will continuously complain that your not secure. I found that out the hard way.

[LoneWolfDon]

Sorry to say that Noton's AV is a bloated piece of crapware and sometimes is the root of so many computer problems!

See if you can make the switch over to something like MSE.

If not, in the meantime, you can perhaps run a scan of your computer with some good utilities (with free versions available) that can help to check for and remove various malware:

http://www.superantispyware.com/
http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html

The next one is good, but a bit more technical:
http://majorgeeks.com/Trend_Micro_HijackThis_d5554.html

Once HiJack this generates a report, copy and paste it into the following site, then click on the "Analyze" button to help you check the results:
http://www.hijackthis.de/

Then you can use HiJack This to help remove any bad entries it might find.

[Toripony]

@b....

I can't help but wonder if all 11 of those were really viruses? Are you sure some (or all) of those "bad items" weren't just malware or adware (check your A/V's log)? Today, a pc user in the U.S. would have to be surfing a lot in Eastern Bloc countries to accumulate 11 viruses. I've seen two actual viruses on the 6 pcs (3 users) that I oversee in the past 2 years. A/V running on routers and servers across the U.S. has reduced virus transmissions here to near zilch.

Malware or Adware would not be deleting your RW files. However, I have encountered times when Win7's Explorer file manager stops "working". It seems after long file-work sessions, on rare occasions, the window just stops updating changes. I can delete some files but they are still listed. Try to delete them again, it says they don't exist. Or, I add files to a folder but they won't appear in the list.... but try to copy them again, it reports they already exist. It takes a reboot to fix and I have heard/read of others encountering this weirdness.

I hate to say this aloud and many will argue with me, but A/V products in the U.S. today are like life insurance sales... they are preying on your fears. The features from MS are all you need to keep Win7 working 99.9% of the time. The most worrisome pc problems I see today are cookies capturing your personal data/preferences and "wireless hopping" (other folks surfing for free on your wireless router; check your router log a few times a year).

[Hawk]

You do realize that unless you completely and thoroughly remove Norton, you could run into problems with two av products conflicting with each other.
Norton is a bit of a bugger to completely remove too, unless you use something like Revo Uninstaller, then use CCleaner.

You should never run two av products on the same computer.

[artimrj]

I use Norton Internet Security for many years now. No problems, complaints or virii. It came with my computor at work that has a 3 user license, so me and my wife get it for free. I use no other Norton stuff.

[LoneWolfDon]

Yep, only should have one main active Anti-virus program running on a single computer at any given time, otherwise they may conflict with each other, cause more "false positives" as they conflict, plus cause extra slowdown.

Also, before running any of those anti-spyware / anti-malware utilities I mentioned in my previous post, you should make a backup of your Windows Registry and/or make a System Restore checkpoint in case you accidentally removed a good entry and it messes something up, then you can reload in your System-Restore checkpoint or revert to your backed-up Windows registry.

Regarding Norton's AV: If it works good for you and you like it, then no worries, each to thier own choice.
Personally, I think it's "bloatware", tends to cause system-slowdown and can hurt overall computer performance, and have also seen it cause a variety of problems on some computers it's been installed on.

[steve_the_slim]

Use this to get rid of Norton completely:
http://us.norton.com/support/kb/web_vie ... N&ln=en_US

[arizonachris]

Norton is said to be less of a resource hog lately, but I refuse to pay for what I can get for free and works just as good if not better. I've been running Avast! for years now. It does throw a false positive now and then but usually will be fixed next day. That along with Malwarebytes, Spy Bot Search and Destroy, Ad Aware. I run CCleaner once a week, too. Do a Registry backup before you use that tool. Driver Sweeper is another great utility when changing drivers. Gets rid of all the bits Windows uninstaller leaves behind. REVO is great as well.

Cookies are nothing. They will not do any harm or remove files. It's odd what was happening to your RW folder.

Hawk needs to make a link to my Tech Support site so we don't get way off trains topic here. Or he'll be on us like a hawk! (yeah, I had to say it)

[Hawk]

There's a link in your sig to your tech forum, and this does kind'a deal with RW issues, so - I guess all is OK so far.

[WhiteKnight77]

I have been using the newest retail versions of Norton Internet Security for the last couple of years and it has shown to use less resources than previous versions. Then again, I used Symantec Corporate instead of NAV which had the complaints of slowing down a system.

I ran into a problem the other night where my PC crashed and ended up with a winload.exe error. Talk about a freak out. Windows would not start back up. Before the crash, I got a warning that there was an intrusion and a VLC pop-up was seen before everything crashed. The trouble is, spyware and malware makers are piggybacking their garbage on the VLC Media Player (open source) and the makers of VLC can't do anything about it. Once I got my PC back up and running the following day, I checked the logs from Norton and found a couple of programs I didn't recognize accessing the internet. I blocked them and looked for them where noted, but couldn't find them. The problem is, I am not using VLC on this PC (or my laptop) so now, I have to back up emails, documents and downloads (for a bunch of games including RW) and other stuff so I can reimage my PC to get rid of the garbage I picked up somewhere (I don't surf nefarious sites).

This is just a friendly warning to those with VLC installed or may think about installing it. It's still usable from what I have read, you just need to ensure that you get it from the developers and no one else.

[Hawk]

Thanks for the heads-p on VLC. I've been using it for several years, but I always get updates from the VLC web site and nowhere else.
So far I've not had anything come up in any malware scan or virus scan.