With the increasing use of the internet and external hard drives, virus attacks are now far more common than ever before. One of the most common viruses found is the autorun.inf file. The most prevalent mode of infection of this malware is through USB flash drives. This malware generally creates multiple copies of itself in each drive as a read only and hidden file. The only way to get rid of autorun.inf file is to delete it completely using the command prompt window and running through the requisite syntax for each drive partition.

The autorun.inf file is a worm which spreads all over your partitions by creating a copy of itself and usually comes from USB flash drives. It won't let you access your drives by giving you an autorun menu when double clicking on your c: or your usb flash drive.

How to Delete the Autorun.inf File

This is the standard procedure to delete the Autorun.inf file. Normally when a virus infects a windows system that causes a drive opening issue, it automatically generates a file named autorun.inf in the root directory of each drive. This autorun.inf file is a read only, hidden and system file. Moreover the folder option is also disabled by the virus. This is deliberately done by the virus to protect itself. autorun.inf will initiate all the activities that the virus performs when you will try to open any drive. You just have to delete this file and restart your system to correct this problem. Follow the below set of commands in order to show and delete the autorun.inf file:

1. Open Start > Run > type cmd and press enter. This will open a prompt. On this prompt window type the following commands.

2. type cd press enter

3. type attrib -r -h -s autorun.inf press enter

Please pay attention to the spacing: no space between dash and the letter & let a space after the r h and s

4. Type del autorun.inf, press enter

If the system returns a "file not found" message - check the spell for autorun.inf

5. if you have a g drive: type g: and press enter. Now please repeat steps 3 and 4. Similarly repeat step 5 for every hard disk partition.

Restart your system and your trouble will be fixed. However, the program that caused the problem is still in your computer.

Make sure you're connected to Internet and download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. When installation begins, follow the prompts and don't change the default settings. When the installation is done, ensure you leave both of these checked: Update Malwarebytes' and launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware . Then click Finish. MBAM will automatically start and you'll be asked to update it before performing a scan. If an update is found, the software will automatically update itself. Press OK button to close this box and continue.

On the Scanner tab:

Make sure to select the "Perform Quick Scan" option. Then click on Scan. The next screen should prompt you to select the drives to scan. Leave all drives selected then click on the Start button. The analysis will begin and "Scan in progress" will show at the top. It might take some time, so be patient. When the scan is done, a message box will say "The scan completed successfully. Click 'Show Results' to display all objects found". Click OK to close the alert box and continue with the removal process. Back on the main screen, click on the button named "Show Results" to see a list of any found malware. Ensure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected. When removal process is completed, a log report will open and you may be prompted to restart your computer. The log file

is automatically saved and can be opened by clicking the Logs tab in MBAM. Note: If MBAM encounters a file that is hard to remove, you'll be presented with 1 of 2 prompts. Click OK to each of them and let MBAM proceed with the process. If asked to reboot the computer, please do so immediately. Failure to restart will prevent Malwarebytes from removing all the malware.

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