Disturbing file on my C:\

Hey, I was just looking through my root directory and found a file called “cheaters.log”

I opened it and saw the following:

Windows renabled
Windows renabled
Windows renabled
Windows renabled
Windows renabled
Windows renabled
Windows renabled
Windows renabled
Windows renabled
Windows renabled

Anyone know what on earth that could be from? Is it reminiscent of any sort of virus? I don’t have any anti-virus software running at the moment, so I’m hoping it was left there by some dumb program…

I’d guess that it has something to do with online gaming. Like maybe you were playing a game and the game was recording (and, one would hope, banning) users who used cheat codes in multiplayer games. Although the “Windows reenabled” thing is certainly puzzling.

If you check the date/time stamp on the file (in Windows Explorer, click File->Properties), that’ll tell you when it was created or last modified. This might give you a clue of what program might have created it (e.g. if the file is dated in August, and August is the last time you played Unreal Tournament).

I wouldn’t panic, though, it doesn’t sound virus-like to me.

I believe Counterstrike has a cheaters.log file, but it’s only installed at the office, so I can’t verify it. Do you happen to play that game?

It’s almost certainly Half-Life Counterstrike.

I have the same file. Counterstrike or maybe punkbuster.

True Senor.

Say, if you input “cheaters.log” as a HTML address exactly like that the ‘keyword’ search should show some websites that talk about it’s various forms.

One way to check if something might be a virus is to simply do a search for the “suspicious” file name or text string. If it’s something related to a virus, you’ll probably get a slew of top results leading to anti-virus sites.

I did Google searches for both “cheaters.log” and “windows renabled” and didn’t get receive any results that go to anti-virus sites.

Yep, I tried the Google thing and didn’t turn up anything. I do play C-strike, so that looks like where the file is coming from. Thanks guys.

i just looked at mine.

i’ve only been playing counterstrike for maybe three weeks, so i don’t have too many games under my belt.
i only have about 20 “windows renabled”'s in my file. do any of you who have played for a long time have a whole bunch? maybe it adds one “windows renabled” to the log every time you exit a game of CS.

just a WAG…

It’s not related to games played, because I only have a few, despite many games.