Steam Virus?

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

So last night I downloaded Missing Information Mod 1.6 from a file-sharing site that was linked to me directly from ModDB. I played around with it last night and got tired and went to bed. This morning, I was poking around on YouTube when I got an Avast virus warning. Surprised, I minimized Google Chrome and took a look at it. It was worm found in my Steam folder. I assumed perhaps it was either a false-positive or a small virus that I got from the mod. But strangely, the virus was simply in my Steam folder labeled, “Steam.exe.”
Just to be safe, I deleted it.

Later on, I went ahead and decided that I wanted to play some Half-Life and clicked on the icon for it on my desktop. It asked me what program I wanted to read it with instead of just launching it. Immediately, I checked my Steam program on my toolbar to see if the game would work if I launched it from my library – it did. Regardless, all my steam icons weren’t working properly. Yet, everything works in the steam-library and nothing there seems to be malfunctioning. So then I was a little nervous and suspicious of a possible virus. But I figured that maybe I deleted a false-positive and screwed up some icons on my desktop by doing so.

But about an hour later, my Steam Icon lost it’s image for no reason and became a white generic icon. I tried to search for it, but to no avail; it said it couldn’t be found. So now I’m doing virus scans left and right and so far have found nothing. I’m honestly confused and afraid to do anything that might jeopardize Steam. I doubt it’s anything, but my PC is acting sort of strange as of today, making all sorts of noises and what not, so I’m kinda nervous.

Any suggestions on how to thoroughly check my Steam for viruses, because apparently Avast can’t find anything as of right now (Search is still going on – taking forever.) Anyone know what it could be or have experience this?

#2

Apparently Avast has been falsely detecting Steam as a virus. I saw some discussion on it on another website yesterday. You might just want to try ditching Avast altogether and trying another AV like MSE instead.

#3

Ohh, well doesn’t that just fucking solve all my problems – thank you so much.

#4

Use Malwarebytes.

#5

just don’t use an av ffs

#6

Well if you’ve been deleting stuff inside of your Steam folder, and the only application that’s having issues is steam I’d suggest re-installing it. It would take a while for the games and whatnot but this way if there IS a virus hiding withing your steam install, then problem solved. And on the topic of avast, I use it and I just scanned yesterday and it had no problem with my steam install.

#7

Yesterday AVAST! claimed steamerrorreporter.exe was a malware when EP1 crashed.
The thing is, EP1 has never ever worked for me… It instantly crashes whenever I try to load a map. (avast or not)

#8

dw ep1 was the worst in the hl series.

#9
#10

Yeah, I’ll have to look into another program, any suggestions?

#11

AVG is a decent freeware one. (There is also a paid version, but I dunno what extra benefits that gives)

McAfee is basically a virus itself.

#12

Well, didn’t notice that double post. My bad.

#13

I would recommend using Microsoft Security Essentials(MSE) and common sense. If your using windows 7 it will appear in windows update if no antivirus software is present on your computer.

#14

I have XP, and I’ll look into some programs later.

#15

I can vouch for Microsoft Security Essentials. Makes me wonder why I ever paid for an AV in the past.

#16

Well If your going to pay for anti-virus I can vouch for Kaspersky. It’s never thrown up any false positives, HAS caught threats before they do damage. Plus the performance load is unnoticeable. Don’t buy direct though, buy a CD from Amazon which has 3 PC’s for a year at half the cost of their site.

#17

AVG Business + Malwarebytes Pro = set

#18

gah, malwarebytes is good but annoying, apparently EVERYTHING is considered malware to it, because it blocks stuff every time i close google, get out of a game, or even close minecraft

#19

That’s just to let you know it’s working.

I use MSE, and rarely do a malware scan because I’m paranoid and don’t go to websites that are unknown. Unless I’m on my phone.

#20

Steam.exe is what Steam uses to network itself. You shouldn’t’ve deleted that.

Reinstall your steam and next time know what the .exe DOES before you delete or have it sealed onto a virus database.

On a side note, most of the steam folder can be deleted, the client the next time its launched will download the essentials that are needed for it. I say “most” because some components need to be kept for it to function properly… i.e. your steam.exe.

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