Using Linux to repair Windows XP or Windows 7 on any PC
 

I'm very new to Linux. What I'm looking to do is to use Linux to help me remove malware and etc. from any Windows based computer. We are currently using 32-bit Dell computers with Windows XP SP3. New computer orders are 64-bit Windows 7. Previously, I have used Ghost to create images, but it is getting harder to have all the different images saved and other criterias. My plan is to create an USB Linux boot with the Windows software to remove malware, trojans and all the others. I currently have an 8Gb USB flash drive to use for this project. I was looking at Puppy Linux, but I think there is something messing whether it be with puppy or me. I am not limiting myself to just this project. This just happens to be one selected and approved by my bosses. Since we are using both platforms in this school district -- Macs and PCs. I would like to evaluate how Linux could help me do my job. Eventually, I should be able to use my laptop with at least a dual boot environment. Any information would be gratly appreciate. All of the information available is confusing to an extreme newbie.

Correction to my post.............. I'm not limited to the 8 Gb flash drive. Thanks!!!!!!

as i know windows software will not run on linux paltform (except by using wine)

as much as i hate to say this, sounds like trying to use a screwdriver to pound in a nail or a hammer to put in a screw
for a live cd type environment with windows type stuff you would want bartpe http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
but you havnt really said what the computers are for
if they are computer lab computers have they installed deep freeze?
http://www.faronics.com/en/Products/...Education.aspx
this will prevent malware/viruses from doing any real damage since everything gets reset to a default state on reboot

as for linux you would only have to create bare minimum 2 images, the 32 bit image and the 64bit and find out if there are equivelent linux softwares to what is currently used and put together a proposal of just plain replacing windows alltogether and seeing if it gets approved since in the long run it will save on having to put together such a spyware/malware removal boot disk and the time of regularly USING such a tool

Quite a large fraction of repair and malware removal etc. in Widows XP involves manipulation of the registry. (I'm not sure regarding the same topic in Windows 7).

Many of the Windows programs for examining and manipulating the Windows registry will run in Wine, but they would use the artificial Windows-like registry maintained by Wine.

I don't know whether it is possible to configure Wine to use the actual Windows registry from the Windows system you are trying to repair. I'm trying to do some things similar to the OP's request so I have many of the same questions.

There is a Linux program chntpw.static that can be used for manipulating a real Windows registry. It is an important tool to include in your kit for repairing Windows computers. But for many operations it is very manual and tedious and command oriented. A GUI version would be much nicer, but I don't know of one. The portable Linux binary as well as the source code are available in the .zip file at
http://www.pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpass...rce-100627.zip
which is a link from the page at
http://www.pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

It can be done with linux but I would look at Barts PE or UBCD4Win or Vista PE with the tools and drivers you want built in.

The best method I know of removing malware and viruses from a Windows computer outside of wiping the hard drive and starting over, is from another Windows computer. When you run a virus scan software on a local computer, any viruses active in memory will scan the process tree and see the virus scanner before the virus scanner will see the virus. Now the virus has time to hide.

Take a known clean computer with an updated virus scanner installed. Reboot the target computer in safe mode with networking enabled. Connect to the administrative C$ share on the target computer and map the drive to the scanning computer. Since the virus scanner is not in resident memory on the target computer, if there are any resident viruses on the target computer that can survive even safe mode, it will only see that there is file access to the hard drive. It will not be able to detect the virus scanner as it is running on the remote system. This will clean off any known viruses from the hard drive. Now reboot the target computer and reinstall the virus scanner and allow it to scan again so it can check the resident memory and registry keys.

Using Linux to repair Windows XP
 

Last week, I was able to use my Puppy Linux flashdrive to retrieve user's data from a hard drive that would not boot. Now I need to play with Puppy Linux and WINE to hopefully achieve what I think would be a very useful tool for my environment, which is a county school district. I support 80 data entry PCs -- which are either Windows XP SP3 or Windows 7.

I plan to look at BartPE for imaging, but I hate to re-image a computer if I just need to run antimalwarebyte.

Can anyone tell me a good place to start with learning Linux. Technically, I'm a COBOL programmer doing PC software/hardware repairs. I would like to learn other software languages or programs to do my job. Since this district is trying to move to current technologies, I need to learn as much as possible.

Thanks!!!!

The best book I ever read on Linux (it has been a few years though) was CompTIA Linux+ Study Guide from Sybex. Up until that point all the Linux manuals were written by what seems to be Windows Guru's that learned Linux. This was the first book I ever read about Linux that was from the actual perspective of running Linux, not viewing Linux like it is Windows.

Secondly, get a Linux box up and running, play with it, break it, try to fix it, break it again! Write silly programs in BASH. It does not matter what you write, make a simple game written in BASH if nothing else. BASH is so compared to DOS in that is runs commands, but unlike BATCH DOS scripting, BASH is more like witting programs in BASIC. FAR more powerful than DOS ever wanted to be!

Using Linux to repair Windows
 

Thanks, joec@home. I appreciate the infomation. It is not easy starting started in a new environment when all of my expertise is in mainframe programming.

Are there any other materials I need to look at to help me with today's technology programming?

Thanks, again!!!!

Linux books free to read online:
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
http://tldp.org/LDP/Bash-Beginners-G...tml/index.html
A load of stuff here: www.linuxtopia.org ; just click into the links..
:)

Bla bla bla .....

Well, I would certainly recommend you to use Windows registry repair tool for removing malware or viruses from any Windows baed computer and not the Linux. Since registry repair tools are prepared for that only and thus will remove viruses from your system and it will run smoothly again.

Hi

What I'm using is a working combination of MiniPE-XT bootable CD with Windows and a USB drive with MalwareBytes portable

good luck

You might want to look at Trinity Rescue Kit. It's designed precisely for rescuing Windows boxes. I've used it myself for a friend's computer.

http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.ph...g=en&locale=en