Folder Flooder, Random Folder Creater Virus
Mozelle Towers
Open the Program_Name folder, and then click the program's "uninstall" file to remove the program (if the file exists). For example, the file might be named Uninst.exe, Uninstall, or Uninstall Program_Name.
Note If you find a folder for the program that you want to remove, but you do not find an "uninstall" file to remove the program, do not delete the folder or the contents of the folder. If you delete the folder or the contents of the folder, you may adversely affect your computer's performance and operation. For example, Windows may not start, programs may not start, or programs may stop running.
It's definitely not a MS Windows thing. Trojan alerts usually comes from reads and writes to memory from a non-signed executable and folder name looks like a generated string, which means it is a 99% malicious software. My suggestion is to delete it and review all running processes for something unusual.
Each of these folders contained MRT.exe, which from what I have looked up is Microsoft's Malicious Removal Tool. However, when I looked at the exe's properties, I see no copyright nor Microsoft as the company (just blank).
So to answer the above questions, no one, I live alone and have no pets or children. No viruses, nothing in the Recycle Bin, default Quicken storage on this computer which I think is Documents/Quicken. Lots of files in there now as I've dug around opening old files, each of which seemed to then create something in that folder. I've not intentionally used MS OneDrive and going there now I see no files of any sort.
In the first Backup folder there are a bunch of files dated 7/11/2023 or later (the day after this happened) all of which relate to my opening various files that I found on the computer, all of which have transactions that either date to 2010 (a really old backup from the transfer) or May 2023 which have no transactions after January (as mentioned above, my fault, didn't do my accounts for a while due to computer problems).
New installations of Windows 11 default the Documents, Desktop, and Pictures folders to be subfolders of the local Onedrive folder. This is even true if you do not use, or intend to use Onedrive. This Onedrive folder is a local folder and if you have one, it doesn't mean you are using the Onedrive clould storage. But it is very confusing for the user and a sneaky thing for Microsoft to do because when the documents folder is referenced, it gives no indication that it is located in the Onedrive folder. It is very easy for the user to delete the "unused" Onedrive folder and then unknowingly delete their Documents folder. If you right click on your Documents folder and click on properties, you can confirm where your Documents folder is located.
It is conceivable to me that if a thumb drive was involved, you might have recently been accessing a QDF on that remote device. The automatic backup would have also gone to a BACKUP folder on that device. Just a thought.
Attackers are smart. They know this and have made it one of their use cases when creating new malware installer technologies that avoid any kind of corruption during installation. Their solution? Utilize TMP files and the Microsoft Windows Temp folder.
Take note that in these steps, the location of each file was not added. It should be clear that the TMP and Alternate file are in the Temp folder with the new Malware.EXE ultimately in the intended location.
Utilizing the Windows Temp Folder
There are several advantages to using the Temp folder. In some systems, the Temp folder is located on a RAMDISK. This makes write operations and file manipulations significantly faster compared to the usual disk file system.
Another advantage is that Temp folders have Read-Write access for the current logged-in user, solving any file system permission errors when the malware installer attempts to install the malware in a target location without proper permission. The Temp folder is typically used as a staging point once the malware installer or the malware itself has escalated privileges.
The OS also offers an advantage of cleaning up incomplete writes of temporary files in the Temp folder so, in the case of malware installation failure, the OS takes care of removing any traces of the files, preventing any part of the malware or a corrupted version of its main executable from being collected by analysts and researchers.
Well, those are the "Table of Contents" files created by OneNote 2007.
(ON 2003 created .onetoc files) I have found that it doesn't seem to hurt
OneNote to delete them. OneNote just recreates them as needed. The only
way to prevent them from being created is to NOT open any parent or
grandparent folder as a "Notebook" in OneNote. Since this is on a network
share then any user opening a folder as a notebook will cause this to
happen. While the help files aren't too very explicit about this, a
to treat as a notebook by "opening" it as a notebook. There is nothing
really special about these folders other than OneNote treats it as a top
level folder for a set of OneNote files.
What you have to do is separate the folders you want to use as
They can be on separate shares or just in separate branches of the folder
structure under a single share. Then you have to make darn sure that NONE
of your users gets the bright idea of "Opening" one of the folders being
used by the other program as a OneNote "Notebook."
Important: Some malware camouflage themselves as OneNote Table Of Contents.onetoc2, particularly if they are located in c:\windows or c:\windows\system32 folder. Thus check the OneNote Table Of Contents.onetoc2 process on your pc whether it is pest.
To start itself at system boot, the virus saves a copy of its DLL form to a random filename in the Windows system or system32 folder, then adds registry keys to have svchost.exe invoke that DLL as an invisible network service.[32]
The Newfolder.exe Virus is one of the more dangerous viruses that hides files in USB files and disables things like Task Manager, Regedit, and Folder Options. The virus creates .exe files that mirror your existing files, leading to the virus taking up as much as 50% of your storage space, along with other nasty side effects, which can cause your computer to experience a drastic loss in speed and efficiency.
Email is a crucial communication tool in our daily lives, but unfortunately, it is also a prime target for spammers. Spam emails can be annoying, time-consuming, and harmful. As long as junk emails remain even slightly effective (0.0001%), spam will continue to flood inboxes in massive quantities. Regrettably, the email protocol was created without considering the possibility of sending unsolicited emails, leading to the absence of a 100% protection mechanism. Although it's impossible to eliminate spam completely, you can surely reduce its impact by automatically filtering most unwanted emails to the Outlook spam folder. This will turn a torrent of junk into a manageable trickle.
On the Blocked Senders tab, you can see email addresses that are already blocked, add more senders to the list or unblock a particular sender. All messages from blocked senders are considered spam and automatically moved to the Junk folder.
In desktop Outlook, there is no built-in Report button. As an alternative, you can use free Microsoft Report Message and Report Phishing add-ins. Or you can submit a report through the Microsoft 365 Defender portal.
How to mark an email as not junk in OutlookLegitimate emails can sometimes be mistaken as spam and moved to the Junk folder. It is important to remember to check this folder occasionally, as no filter is perfect. If you set your Outlook spam filter to the High level to prevent as much junk mail as possible, it is recommended to check your spam folder frequently. Checking it at the end of your workday is a good practice to ensure that you have covered everything.
Note. Emails classified as spam and moved to the Junk folder are automatically converted to plain text format with any links disabled. When you move a message out of the spam folder, its links will be re-enabled and the original message format restored, unless the Junk E-mail filter identifies the links as suspicious. In such cases, even if you move the message out of the Junk folder, the links will remain disabled by default.
I was wondering if I should simply change my email address instead of fighting this never ending dispute with my mail boxes (also sent to my icloud folder)
Perhaps then the spammers would stop until they discovered my new email address. Of course, my good customers would be furious but would get a notification of my new address.
Great article. I'm finding that, despite changing the setting to "No automatic filtering", my Junk folder is still filled with suspected emails. And, no, there are no email addresses in my Blocked list.
I have the same problem. I don't want any spam filtering at all, but every day perhaps 20 emails end up in the Junk folder including several important ones that are not junk. Like Steve, I changed the setting to "No automatic filtering" and there are no email addresses in my Blocked list but it made no difference.
The new add in forwards emails as attachments (these sent emails are not kept in the "sent" folder) and then moves the email to the appropriate folder (junk or inbox depending on the report type). You can only do this one email at a time now and its slow. This add-in does not contribute to personal safe or blocked senders.
Thanks Nichole.
I'm doing just what you suggest by "Quick Step" forward. Maybe if I forward the dozens I get, it'll help. I set it to permanently delete but then my forwarded message in in the sent folder!
So I thought I'd be smart and set up one rule to permanently delete a message in the sent folder with the subject "Fwd: spam". Doesn't work on its own though, I have to go to "run rules". I don't get why. If it works when I say "run" in this folder, why doesn't it do it on its own? There are no other rules that I've set up.