Information about virus that shows itself as a folder

[jimdagys]

I picked up a virus from another computer on my USB memory stick. When I plugged the USB memory stick into my computer, it appeared as a folder and was named English.exe.
I already had a folder on the memory stick that was called English, and that folder became hidden.
When I right clicked on the English.exe folder, Properties said the folder was about 500kb. I was curious what was inside the English.exe folder , so I clicked on it. Oddly, it seemed to be an empty folder, even though Properties said there was 500kb inside. However when I clicked on the English.exe folder, it must have executed the virus, because all kinds of strange things happened ( new bogus icons appeared on the desktop that I couldn't delete, Firefox homepage hijacked to Chinese website, etc.) It seems that the yellow folder icon was actually a virus file. Fortunately, I was able to use the following tiny vbs software
http://www.mygeekside.com/downloads/2007/12/kill_amvo_virus_usb_en.vbs
to completely get rid of the virus (new bogus icons on desktop disappeared, homepage back to Google, quick Malwarebytes scan showed 0 problems).
Moral: Don't click on unknown folder (especially if there is an .exe in the folder name) because it might actually be a virus.

[netmask56]

Well your last para said it all - leave well alone and delete! If cat curiosity gets the better of you, you could at least right click and do a virus check on it. If still you 'wanted' to know what was in pandora's folder then right click and select assuming you have it 7-zip and it will open the exe style folder - well maybe... Personally I just delete these things and content myself with the thought "well I'll never know what that was all about!"

PS my cat has trained me well.....