What are these files all about?

I've just realised there's a Netgear folder in my root drive on my PC. I certainly never put it there and it's appeared since I installed and have been using my new Netgear router.

In the folder are the following files:

MDM_Progress.js (4.17KB)
MDM_Util.bak (360 bytes)
MDM_Util.js (18.4KB)
MDM_Util.log (zero)

Anybody know what these are or what they do?

".js" usually means a java script file
".log" is usually a text log file
".bak" usually a backup of a file before changing it in some editors

did you run any programs from a CD to configure your netgear route? If so it is likely it put some files on the harddisk so it could remember any settings/record what happened in case of errors

MDM_Util.exe seems to a program name used netgear to configure routers, so sounds very likely related to that

Might be worth checking on netgear forums

You don't need any software on your PC in order to use a router. You must have installed the CD that came with the router to get any stuff on your PC. You needn't have done that; better to set up router manually. You could just deinstall it to hopefully get rid of the folder you found.

I can tell you both emphatically that I did not use the Netgear CD to install the router; I installed it totally manually. I agree entirely with what you advocate.

I have, however, subsequently browsed the CD (some weeks ago) and, on it, looked at guidance notes about the router. So maybe those files got loaded as a result of that?

I know next to nothing about the use of Javascript files but could they have been automatically loaded on the Netgear software's assumption - a wrong assumption, as it happened - that I was going to install the router from the CD?

With a lot of talk around at present about yet another trojan virus affecting thousands of PCs, I did wonder whether these were suspect files. My antivirus hasn't come up with anything, though.

Am also wondering whether I could simply now delete that Netgear folder. There's nothing else in it and it's sitting directly in my root partition, rather than being in, say, Program Files.

I've done a Search on my PC for a MDM_Util.exe file but not found one (unless it happens to be a hidden file).

Edited by deleted (Wed 18-Nov-09 17:57:20)

In reply to a post by meditator:

I have, however, subsequently browsed the CD

Have you got autorun enabled? That might be the culprit... (long while since I've used a Windows machine, so can't remember where to find the setting).

I'm also wondering whether I could simply now delete that Netgear folder.

Probably, but try what I do- rename it and see if anything screams

javascript is usually used on web for dynamic webpages (menus etc) - sometimes webpages are used in CDs for documents/menus etc.

If when you put in the CD something came up on the screen (probably allowing you to setup and configure router, read manuals go to Netgear website) - then yes it could very easily have installed the files - I always turn off autoplay so such things can't do things in background

Yes, I normally have Autorun enabled.

I'll try renaming the folder and see what happens. But it might take a very long time indeed before anything 'screams'.

Do they have associated file access times? Perhaps they haven't been accessed since you first ran that CD.

If the folder's called Netgear and you have no Netgear s/w on your PC, like a wireless adapter, you can safely delete it.

In reply to a post by meditator:

... With a lot of talk around at present about yet another trojan virus affecting thousands of PCs, I did wonder whether these were suspect files. My antivirus hasn't come up with anything, though...

If in doubt about "suspect" files in future, use Jotti's Malware Scanner to double check.