I have Ubuntu 14.04 and Windows 8 installed on my system. I was doing a clean up on my friend's USB pen drive, which he said had lots of viruses on it. I have Wine installed on my system, and I happened to double click on an exe file -which I knew was a virus- out of curiosity. And it seems that the virus has infected many crucial Windows files, which makes it difficult for me to boot to Windows now. Is there any way I can do a safe clean up from Ubuntu? I would have removed and reinstalled Windows using the Ubuntu installer if I could but I don't have the Windows installer program.

2 Answers

Yes!

You can clean windows viruses from Ubuntu without booting into your Windows.

But I am not sure this would help you as you said you can't boot into windows anymore. But worth trying :)

There are many such antivirus software available, one of them which I prefer is: ClamAV

You can install ClamAV via Terminal with:

sudo apt-get install clamav

(Its also available in Software Center)

And you can Install clamtk (for graphical interface) from the deb file here: Dave M clamtk

While installing, select the version v5.09 (trusty-backports)

Or you can install it using the following commands: (but here it is Outdated)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:landronimirc/clamtk -y
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install clamav clamtk

After Installing , Update Virus Definitions : sudo freshclam

Then search for clamtk in your dash and you will get it.

Note : you might need to enable “backports” repository to get updates, so follow : How do I enable the “backports” repository?

you can try Avast!

1. Download the .deb file of avast linux edition from here : avast Linux Home Edition
2. Install it : just double click on the *.deb file and you can install it.
3. Register for free 1 year license her : Avast Registration
4. Launch and scan your files!

You can get lot of similar anti viruses for Linux .

As GSM-S said, you might have to boot into any Windows installation Media and try "repair my computer"

Suggestion : Don't play with viruses out of curiosity!

Try an antivirus on ubuntu. Then run the repair disc that came with Windows 8.