AVG SysWOW64 dilemma

H

henrygrins

New Member
Hello all-

Let me start from the beginning. I have a Mac Pro (I know you're thinking why is he posting here then? but allow me to explain further). I installed Parallels 4 and then Vista Ultimate x64, which has given me no problems until today, when I decided to install AVG Free. I know that AVG sometimes gives false positives when scanning for viruses, but I chose to heed it's annoying warnings when it came to the "SysWOW64" folder. It kept on listing these little nonsensically-named EXE files (f3wkdi.exe, etc) so naturally I assumed that this was a little trojan renaming and installing itself. Long story short, I decided that I'd gain the upper hand on this nogoodnik by changing the permissions for the SysWOW64 folder, thusly cutting off the virus' air supply, so to speak.

Thanks to Google, I now know that the SysWOW64 folder is in fact a legit Vista x64 folder, that it is used by Vista to call 32 bit DLLs, etc. However, the damage has been done. The virtual machine blue screens on startup, and won't even boot in safe mode. I just ran the Vista x64 startup repair, hoping that it would reset the permissions, but it didn't work. From the command prompt, is there any way to change the folder permissions manually?

Thanks in advance!
 
Hello Henry, welcome to NST

Probably not. Can that folder be found on your Vista disc? You may be able to reset them by replacing the folder with the version on the disc. Refer to xcopy for copying a folder and its contents from the command line "xcopy /?".

You could also try cacls. Assuming your Vista drive is C: when you've booted from the Vista disc:

Code: 
cd /d c:\windows\system32

Try listing the folder's permissions with the following:

Code: 
cacls <path to folder>

If they look famillar, than you may be in luck. Use "cacls /?" to get command-line help with changing the permissions.

You could also try system restore if you've got a restore point. Seeing how its a system folder that may fix it since system restore's job is to save system settings for later recovery if case need be.
 
Back
Top