My friend sent me a link over msn and when I try to save it it creates a file that is a 'shortcut to MS-DOS program'. When I double click it it asks me if I want to run it or cancel it. It describes it as pic2038.pif. Can anyone tell me what this is? I am thinking its not a virus since a very good friend sent it to me.
2006-11-24 08:39:49 · 7 answers · asked by lucy m 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Internet
Yeah, I got one from my best friend too. Fortunately my drives were in NTFS with the Data execution prevention option on. NTFS makes most DOS-program unable to do their "job" on the drives. Data Execution Prevention halts all programs detected as potentially harmful by Win XP.
Anyway, what happened was that I just clicked on the link and the same pop-up appeared and I clicked on 'run', but MSN and Internet Explorer got shut down immediately. Then Norton Firewall asked me for approval for some strange programs to access the internet. I approved all of them to try to see the "picture". Nothing showed up.
I lost the link from MSN to reopen the file after MSN got shut down too. When I asked my friend to send the link again. He got awfully puzzled and told me that he didn't send me anything. But he also mention something about receiving the same file a few days ago with nothing showing up.
I did a file search to look for that file on my hard drive and found it in the temporary internet files folder. Clicked on it to find out what it does, but to my disappointment, the file doesn't work. No response at all. I did a right-click to check on file properties and realised that the program is "disabled" by windows security because 'file may be running from another computer'.
Thereafter, I did an online search on google and realised that it's a potential "Malware". You can use 'Prevx' program to get rid of it from download.com
2006-11-27 00:11:48 · answer #1 · answered by ljfeng 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's just a type of file that opens with MS-DOS.
It stands for Program Information Files which esentially defines how MS-DOS programs should run it.
TopView was the originator of PIFs which were inherited and extended by DESQview and Microsoft Windows, where they are most often seen. You won't be able to use these programs (unless you bought them 15 years ago) because they are slightly dated.
If you cannot just open it in MS-DOS (by selecting 'yes' when it asks about running it), I would recommend asking your friend to send you a jpg version.
It is not uncommon for viruses to be in a '.pif' format due to the way it handles the code. Despite the fact it itself is not an executable program, it handles certain extensions in a special way.
Good Luck.
2006-11-24 17:14:47 · answer #2 · answered by Vendatta Ace 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Its an image file format created by IBM. You might try a search for pif viewer!
2006-11-24 16:42:45 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is a virus. The bell should ring that the site is named as an image, while when you load it, instead of an image being shown on your explorer, it requires you to download a file.
2006-11-26 07:01:10 · answer #4 · answered by Alex K 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This can be a virus. delete it, and run a full system scan.
It is possible that your friend is not aware that this is a virus. Or even can be that you think he/she is sening it to you... but might be that a virus in his/her PC is using the msn to send links with virus.
If it is not a virus can be a picture format (http://ccs.mit.edu/pif1.html)... but that format is rarely used in this times...
2006-11-24 16:46:29 · answer #5 · answered by b4contact 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi there,
If you need a recent version of Winrar. Here is a free download: http://bit.ly/1p3P0eq
The best program you can use to decompress all the different kind of files is Winrar.
2014-07-22 20:42:38 · answer #6 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
dont open it....it is a virus and it makes automated messages on ur msn list....just delete it and you should be safe....
2006-11-25 23:39:23 · answer #7 · answered by Art V 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋