[BKB]

I need help in restoring a key file that's required to boot up into Windows.
I'm using Win 98 SE and when I ran my anti-spyware program it showed the spyware called "BetterInternet" appearing in the Wininit.exe file.
I hadn't seen this adware before and selected the option to quarantine the file.
I realized my mistake when I tried to boot up again.
Since the Wininit.exe file was removed from C:\WIN, the computer just stops at the point where the wininit.exe file is called. It says press any key to continue and then shuts down.
The Wininit.exe file is sitting in the anti-spyware quarantine files and I remember it was a zipped file about 17KB.
I don't know why it was a zipped file, maybe the anti-spyware stores it in quarantine that way.
I'm using my backup computer now which is also Win 98 SE, and I copied the Wininit.exe file (40.9KB) from the backup computer to a 3.5 disk.
Is there a way I can restore the Wininit.exe file using manual commands before the computer looks for it and then shuts down?
Can I copy the Wininit.exe file from the 3.5 disk to C:\WIN in the disabled computer? There must be a way to do this.
Is there a recommended way to do this?
I'm a novice so I simply don't know a great deal about it.

[Advertisements]

Try booting to command prompt only then type scanreg.exe /fix then press enter

[Retired Tech]

Try booting to command prompt only then type scanreg.exe /fix then press enter

[BKB]

I tried your suggestion but that didn't seem to do any good.
As before, when the computer boots, and when it gets to the c:\windows\wininit.exe line it stops and prints a line of gibberish and then
prints press any key to continue and then after a few seconds it shuts off.
The wininit file isn't where it should be becuse it's sitting in the spyware program quarantine files.
When the bootup looks for wininit.exe there's nothing there.
I've saved the wininit file from my backup computer to a 3.5 disk.
Can I go to a command prompt on the disabled computer and manually transfer the wininit.exe file from the 3.5 disk into C:\win so that it'll be there when the computer boots?
I don't know the commands to do that.
I also have a startup disk but I don't know the procedure or if using it would help.

[Retired Tech]

Try This

http://www.geekstogo...98-95-t479.html

[BKB]

I decided to try something less drastic.
I was able to figure out the proper copy command and copied the missing wininit.exe file from the 3.5 disk to the hard drive in the disabled computer.
It's a good thing I had a backup computer to copy the wininit.exe file from.
I used the startup disk to get me into a dos prompt on the disabled computer and then used the command:
copy A:\wininit.exe c:\windows\wininit.exe

This put the wininit.exe file back where it belonged and the computer seems to work fine now.
I reran the spyware program and it still shows the wininit.exe file as spyware.
However, I believe this is a false positive reading.
There shouldn't be anything wrong with the wininit.exe from the backup computer.
However, the spyware program thinks wininit.exe is spyware but it really isn't.
If I'm correct about this, then one should be very careful about quarantining or deleting files just because a spyware program flags it as spyware.
Once the spyware program had quarantined the wininit.exe file, and the computer was shut down, the computer couldn't be booted up into windows again.
I appreciate your time.

[Tyger]

You did exactly what I was about to advise you to do. The old winint file may be corrupted and that may be why it was labeled as spyware.

[BKB]

What's odd about the whole thing is that both wininit.exe files(from the main and backup computer) got flagged by the spyware program as spyware.
This never happened until the most recent update of the spyware definitions about two days ago.
Previously, I've never gotten this message.
I've gotten a false positive before with this spyware program when it flagged 50 registry lines from some older chess software as spyware.
It associated the valid registry lines from the software as "BonziBuddy" spyware.
I've never had any of the "BonziBuddy" symptoms.
This older software has nothing to do with the internet and doesn't have "BonziBuddy" in it.
When I quarantined the flagged lines, the chess software wouldn't work.
When I restored the lines, the program worked again.
It seems the spyware program(SpyFerret) casts a wide net and sometimes flags valid things as spyware.
I'll wait and see what happens but so far things seem to be working ok again.
I'll just have to remember to be very careful before sending something to quarantine and not checking out exactly what it is.

[Tyger]

All what you said in your last post is why they reccomend you use the expertise of the malware forum to remove malware and not just go off on your own. I'm not saying this to scold anyone, just to let people know why. I'ved had (rare) occasion to use malware programs but other people told me to tread very lightly.