XP safe mode reboot with RRP/TS?

A family member that lives pretty far from me (several hours drive) has been infected with spyware and I wanted to help them out remotely if it was possible. The malware can't be removed when booting in normal mode and has to be removed in safe mode.

However, talking this person through the steps to do this is very painful. They are old and just don't understand computers. I have remote access to their router and computer via RDP.

It is possible to modify the boot.ini file to force a computer to boot into safe mode with networking.

Does anyone know if RDP is started when booting into safe mode with networking?

I don't want to boot it to safe mode and be denied remote access to the workstation. Then I'll really have to drive down there to fix it up. :(

RDP doesn't work via safemode - that's kinda the idea, that services don't run that are not "needed".

What you could do would be to install UltraVNC and create an icon on the desktop for them to click - centre it and make it obvious!

Then you log in via DRP, use msconfig to boot in safe mode w/ networking and you should be ok.

I've found a program that will do it. 30 day trial, but it works fine. :)
http://www.vncscan.com/

Thanks for the reply.

You Phish long time!

Hey Telnet starts with networking in safe mode. You can use msconfig to set the pc to boot up in safe mode with networking.

I would not rely on RDP - I believe you can get it started, but it will not be reliable.

Yep - it is possible to alter the boot.ini to start remote desktop when the PC is in safe mode - however starting the service and connecting to it seem to be two different things.

That program that I linked to above does basically what I wanted to do except that it uses VNC as the remote tool instead of RDP. (it creates a backup of the boot.ini and then adds the safemode w/networking option)

Wolfetone: If I had tried your idea first, it would have worked perfectly!

Though, I must say that the http://www.vncscan.com/ tool isn't bad at all for a situation such as this.

It kind of reminds me of the gencontrol tool that slarty wrote some time ago which remotely installs VNC (if you have admin and the default shares enabled). http://www.gensortium.com/products/gencontrol.html

Or, I've also done the manual remote install of VNC using psexec...

Anyway, the virus is now gone and I didn't have to drive 3 hours out and then back. I was able to do it here and there as I had time. :)

Thanks again everyone.

Welcome Phish, glad to be of help - just did the same thing myself a month ago! :D