VIRUS REMOVAL

The MTX virus is a nasty one. It began infecting systems in late 2000, however the biggest danger at that time was that virus checkers only learned how to detect it in October 2000, after many systems were infected. McAfee VirusScan is one of the problems - it cannot clean this one (see comments below)

No virus checker to date (March 2001) is capable of detecting and cleaning all variations of this virus. So it is important for you to know how to clean your system if you become infected. Here is the process for Windows 95/98.:

1. Download FIXMTX.EXE (supplied by Symantec SARC)
2. Open a DOS window and run the file "fixmtx" using this command line " fixmtx c:\ "
3. The program will scan all files in the specified directory (C:\) and clean any files that it can.
4. Unfortunately, MTX can damage some files beyond repair. These files are commonly:
   1. C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WSOCK32.DLL
   2. C:\WINDOWS\WININIT.EXE
5. If these files are damaged beyond repair, you must restore them from a backup, another machine, or from the original Windows 9x CAB files (on the CD or perhaps stored on your hard drives).
6. Reboot system and repeat step 2 to ensure there are no further copies of the virus. It may be a good idea to delete any .EXE files from your email attachments directory, since this is where you caught this virus.
7. Finally, update your virus checker and do a full scan to double check - you should keep up-to-date virus definition files on your system at all times!

Done, hopefully everything went well.

COMMENTS

In about 15% of infections, the system will be damaged beyond detection and repair. You may find your system fails to operate correctly after removing the virus, and a Windows re-install over the current OS will not help. You will need to format your hard drive and start over. This usually is necessary when other viri or problems have occurred on your system prior to MTX. Generally Microsoft Windows OS's require a complete reinstallation every 18 months for the average user. Unfortunately Windows seems to fail simply by being used, regardless of type of use or abuse.

If you are a McAfee Virus Scan user, then be very cautious! It does not clean this virus - but it thinks it does! If your virus checker detects MTX, it's probably too late, and you will need to follow the removal instructions above. McAfee will tell you it failed to clean, and says to delete the infected file. If you delete, you may kill your computer. Only the FIXMTX tool above will clean the virus, without having to delete all infected files.