Today I found a trojan on my computer, C:\Windows\system32\DRIVER\services.exe.
It was running as an unhaltable system process; so, I rebooted in safemode and ran a full virus scan. About 20 viruses were found in compressed encrypted folders (folders usually skipped during routine scans). Among the list of malware was my run.bat file in my dllcache folder (inside my Windows folder).
The scanner, McAfee VirusScan 8.0 with the latest definitions as of 5am this morning, deleted my run.bat file!
When I rebooted out of safe mode, Windows asked me to re-activate due to alleged hardware changes, of which there were none. I reconnected my network connection and pressed yes to everything. The whole process was suprisingly uneventful.
I recall when the Windows XP Activation scheme was first announced, people all over Slashdot were saying it was really horrible. It really doesn't seem that bad.
A funny sidenote: Since the first time I installed XP, everything except the motherboard and processor has been swapped out for new equipment, and today was the first time the XP Activator I had a significant hardware change.
