The "etc" folder..anyone know what'tis?
 

I was with a group of people the other day, talking about Spybot, Ad-Aware and some other stuff along that line, and some guy says there's a better way and he's not had the first pop-up.

He contends whenever you boot open the "etc" folder and delete everything there except what it takes to run the system. Anyone know anything about this folder and what it is for, and does it come off logical to do what this guy was telling me?

Thanks, BuddyB

Re: The "etc" folder..anyone know what'tis?
 

which etc folder did he say? The only one I can think of is c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc , but you don't want to delete everything in there...

Re: The "etc" folder..anyone know what'tis?
 

You're on it, and right. I don't want to delete everything in there. Question is, how can I spot the good stuff, and separate it from the bad stuff. And, what is this folder for and about.
Thanks, BuddyB

Re: The "etc" folder..anyone know what'tis?
 

Really, just don't fool with it at all.

etc contains the hosts file, where you can add IP address to hostname mappings, so you can customize things there. LMHOSTS does the same thing, but for the Network Neighborhood.

Basically, there's nothing to mess with there. Sometimes, people map known spamhosts or ad servers domain names to 127.0.0.1, to block those ads. But, that's about it, and there's really no point to doing that, even, as there are way to many ad servers to fool with blocking.

Re: The "etc" folder..anyone know what'tis?
 

Appears to be sound advice. Point heeded. Thanks for the input.
BuddyB

Re: The "etc" folder..anyone know what'tis?
 

im pertty sure adaware doesnt run on a unix/linux box.. ive only ever used it on windows..
unix/linux systems contain a /etc folder.. you can delete everything in there if you like
but it will not be pretty. matter of fact you get to do an unscheduled failure simulation
with active restore from tape or the like via ufsrestore.

kinda like the redneck computer virus. "% rm -Rf /* <CR>" or "%rm /lib/ld.so.1"
either is a bad day in the end. sounds like someone was pulling your leg. :mrgreen:

Re: The "etc" folder..anyone know what'tis?
 

They might have been pulling his leg, but there is indeed an etc folder in Windows, like I said above. Next time you're near a Windows machine, check it out.

Re: The "etc" folder..anyone know what'tis?
 

Yup, and there's a reason for that, isn't there? :mrgreen:


Seriously though- the guy talking about the etc folder was either joking or spewing nonsense from his Southern Orifice. As Alex said, the etc folder in Windows only contains a few networking-related files, which should be left alone. The only exception to that in terms of spyware/adware/viruses is the "hosts" file. Malicious programs can add entries to your hosts file which will alter/cripple your browsing by messing with URL-to-IP address mappings. If such entries have been added, they should be removed; the only entry in the default hosts file is:

127.0.0.1 localhost


Having dealt extensively with malware issues both here and in my "real life" job as a computer consultant, I can definitely say that although there are many places malicious programs do get their hooks into your system, I've never found the etc folder to be one of those places.

Re: The "etc" folder..anyone know what'tis?
 

i did check this out.. in my case (W2K) it was located in
C:WINNT\system32\drivers\etc
hosts lmhosts and so on were found. even the comments were very unixesque.. thats
scary. microsoft incorperated a littlebit of a unix style architecture under its
transparent skin during the late 80s and early 90s.. (they copywrighted lmhosts LOL)
even the comments look like they're straight out of a programmers personal $HOME/bin directory..

Re: The "etc" folder..anyone know what'tis?
 

Yup. Reason for that is the bulk of Microsoft's original TCP/IP code actually came from BSD.