Has autorun.inf affected my USB?

Has autorun.inf affected my USB?

Not all autorun.inf files you see are viruses or are infected because in the first place, it is only a text file and viruses don’t infect text files. Autorun.inf is used to automate a CD or a DVD usually if it is an installer. You normally see this file in a setup CD.

Its main function is to automatically start a program that will initiate the installation. But if you see this file on a USB flash drive then be cautious. It is probably one of those autorun viruses that infect external storage devices like USB flash drives and external hard drives. It can also infect your computer when you insert a USB flash drive that is infected with an autorun virus.

The virus does different things depending on the author. As what I saw on the hard drive in our office before that got infected by an autorun virus, the virus renamed the folders and added an extension name. The folders were also made hidden. I also saw different files that have ASCII symbols and others are generic names composed of letters and numbers.

If you saw an autorun.inf file on your USB flash drive and your AVG antivirus detected it as a virus but it cannot remove it, try using Sophos Virus Removal Tool. Install it on your computer and scan it. Before starting the scan, make sure your infected USB flash drive is already inserted because there is no option to select a drive.