Moir/Frisch re: Prefetch

[nailer]

Thanks for reply..yes I also suspect malware. These files appeared early Dec
and I started using this new laptop mid-Oct. If they were Windows created,
they would have been there from beginning. And as per Mr. Moir, it should be
Windows to Windows, internal. Why the frequent need to access the internet?
Also caught IEXPLORE.EXE once trying to install something just at shutdown.
Not sure if I caught it in time.
Agreed Norton can be pesky, but it's alerted me to strange movements from
this folder and wont rest till I know what's going on.
Any more comments? Thanks

[Robert Moir]

nailer wrote:
> Thanks for reply..yes I also suspect malware. These files appeared
> early Dec and I started using this new laptop mid-Oct. If they were
> Windows created, they would have been there from beginning. And as
> per Mr. Moir, it should be Windows to Windows, internal. Why the
> frequent need to access the internet? Also caught IEXPLORE.EXE once
> trying to install something just at shutdown. Not sure if I caught it
> in time.
> Agreed Norton can be pesky, but it's alerted me to strange movements
> from this folder and wont rest till I know what's going on.
> Any more comments? Thanks

I'd consider just deleting the contents of the prefetch folder and seeing
what happens when it gets rebuilt. Simple but effective.

[nailer]

Have deleted the entire folder several times and it just gets rebuilt,
seemingly tracking everything that appears on the screen. Norton's alerts say
that IEXPLORE.EXE wants access to the internet to connect to a remote
computer and gives the IP address. This doesn't sound like legitimate
activity. Am out of the US and unable to contact Microsoft or HP by phone.
As of recent, am having strange shutdowns: screen goes black while there's
still quite a lot of CPU activity going on(more installing??) Then it shuts
down.
Do you have more comments/advice?

"Robert Moir" wrote:

> nailer wrote:
> > Thanks for reply..yes I also suspect malware. These files appeared
> > early Dec and I started using this new laptop mid-Oct. If they were
> > Windows created, they would have been there from beginning. And as
> > per Mr. Moir, it should be Windows to Windows, internal. Why the
> > frequent need to access the internet? Also caught IEXPLORE.EXE once
> > trying to install something just at shutdown. Not sure if I caught it
> > in time.
> > Agreed Norton can be pesky, but it's alerted me to strange movements
> > from this folder and wont rest till I know what's going on.
> > Any more comments? Thanks
>
> I'd consider just deleting the contents of the prefetch folder and seeing
> what happens when it gets rebuilt. Simple but effective.
>
>
>