Freeware:
Tips, Tricks and Commentary:
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This Excel Workbook contains code which will remove the Laroux virus from your Excel environment. When you open this Laroux Virus Remover utility, an Auto Open procedure will run which will check for the presence of any macro module(s) named Laroux. If a Laroux module is discovered, this utility will immediately remove it, announce the file name from which the module was removed and prompt you to save the file without the Laroux module. By the way, if a dialog box appears asking if you want to enable macros when this Laroux Virus Remover file opens, you must click on Enable Macros if you want the code to work. If the modules are protected, the utility of course can't help you. Also if addins are present, the message box won't put up the names of the workbooks containing Laroux, but any Laroux modules will still be removed, and you will still receive an announcement to that effect. Once the Laroux remover utility file is opened, you will see a button which you can use to automatically save the file into your XLStart directory so that it will always be present in the background, checking each file you open to make sure it does not contain a macro module named Laroux. Laroux really doesn't do any damage, especially in Excel 97. In Excel 95 it evidently did more harm by inserting a module with no name, and if the user clicked on that sheet tab, Excel would crash. I think it has probably been blamed for much more damage than it has actually done. Nonetheless, it is annoying to think that modules are being created willy-nilly without permission!! With the introduction of Excel 98 for the Macintosh, the Laroux virus will operate on the Macintosh, contrary to earlier reports. And even in earlier versons of Excel on the Macintosh, while the virus could not spread, it would lie dormant until the host file was sent to a PC where it could again spread. So while the virus could not spread on a Macintosh, the Mac was acting as a carrier. April 14, 1998 - Deals with the Laroux E variant. May 4, 1998 - Sets Calculation to Automatic (sorry). June 24, 1998 - Deals with the NEGS variant. July 12, 1998 - Deals with the CAR variant. March 14, 1999 - Deals with more variants, and is easier to edit. December 16, 1999 - Works with Excel 2000. T C Solutions, Inc. FreeWare products are free for any use by individuals or organizations, as long as the products are not modified in any way, and then re-distributed. They can not be sold as commercial products, or commercially distributed with any other products. Download the
Laroux Virus
Remover Excel Worksheet If you have trouble downloading the Excel Worksheet because of the configuration of your computer or your network: Download the
Laroux Virus
Remover ZIPPED Excel Worksheet File If you discover variants of the Laroux virus, which this program can not remove (or any other Microsoft Excel Macro virus), please send it to Mardee Rochelle Note: We have received numerous messages from individuals who beleive that their Excel workbooks are infected with a virus, when, in fact, the problem is that the workbook contains too many distinct number formats (see Microsoft PSS ID Number: Q163678). This can happen when multiple sheets are combined in a single workbook. Upon trying to open such a file, Excel 95 would present a dialog box stating that the document contained "Too Many Differnet Cell Formats" but would open the file anyway; Excel 97 and 98 present the same dialog box, then NOT open the file. The only solution seems to be keeping a copy of Excel 95 handy to open the file so you can simplify the formatting. In conjunction with this problem, if one or more of the sheets combined into this workbook was part of a workbook which was contaminated with Laroux, then the custom number formats in the resulting workbook may be attributed to a Laroux worksheet, so the name "Laroux" may appear in the file, even though the workbook does not contain the virus. |
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