Do Old Viruses Work on Modern PCs? | Nostalgia Nerd

Big thanks to TotalAV: Visit www.totalav.com/nerd70 to get 70% off TotalAV complete protection... I don't know why I get curious about these questions. But here I am, trying to run old computer viruses, DOS Malware and other such malicious code on Windows 10. I thought we could first take a look at some malware from the 80s and 90s, before trying to get it to run on a modern PC. Then it seems a natural progression to run as many of these malicious files as possible and see if it is indeed possible to take down a Windows 10 PC using just DOS Malware.
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[@Nostalgianerd]

A few people have asked about the "test" PC. It's this one, from Ebuyer - www.ebuyer.com/965243-xenta-mt-ryzen-5-3400g-8gb-ram-240gb-ssd-no-os-desktop-pc-xr-d5121

[@deadendwaterfall]

I remember when a 'budget' PC had about on average 512mb of RAM for a similar price I've seen to your new computer.

[@Darxide23]

@@deadendwaterfall But that was a time when 4GB was pretty typical for most users. So it's all relative.

[@RetroSegaDev]

3400G ooo integrated gpu

[@SteelSkin667]

£299? That thing's good value.

[@screwthenet]

Installed RAM: 8 GB ( 1.46 usable) WTF?! lol I had some lean computers in my time, but thats hilarious ( And I mean I had a pc with a quarter the capability of the one I got now, and years before that I had another about the same, and back in the late 90s to mid 2000s I had a compaq Presario which was 4 times more primitive than that...and then a Tandy 1000 from 1989 lol WHICH WAS 20 times more primitive. Hell I miss that Tandy though...lol) BUt of COURSe Dos viruses wold work on a pc, especially a semi low middle grade one with only 32 bit and no real anti malware. Silly personage youse'xz' :P

[@Boba0514]

short answer: no long answer: well, if the user wants it bad enough

[@goodcitizen3645]

It’s the computers fault for leaving part of its case off. Basically asking for it

[@doubtful_seer]

Which is how measles came back

[@georgefloydgaming4772]

@@doubtful_seer good bye anti vax kid your going to hell

[@georgefloydgaming4772]

Heaven dosent want infected people

[@paulihelsi9852]

@@georgefloydgaming4772 We all know people go to Disneyland after death

[@squabbbb]

Behold! The power of backwards compatibility & legacy support!

[@squabbbb]

Just finished watching the whole thing, was a very fun video. Can't believe he used a brand new PC for it, that's dedication

[@msinfo32]

@@squabbbb not even just in a vm too!

[@eric4946]

NOOOOOOOOO YOU CANT JUST GET INFECTED BY 20 YEAR OLD VIRUSES DEFINITIONS HAVE BEEN UPDATED CONTINUOUSLY AND DEFENDER IS VERY SECURE NOWADAYS. Hahaha dos virus go 010101010101001010

[@dan203]

Doing this on a brand new PC is the best time. After you're done you just format the drive, reinstall Windows and it's back to being brand new.

[@rubiconnn]

The backwards compatibility of Windows is pretty nice, considering OSX can't even run software from 3 years ago.

[@twilightverdict]

This PC was just born into the nightmarish existence of endless torture and stack overflows :(

[@canlex]

Why am I feeling empathy for the little PC

[@updoottales]

its existence is pain

[@ferventwoe8856]

"Why do I exist?" "To test DOS-era malware" "OH my god...."

[@Fit4C]

Jesus loves you all very very much repent and believe and be saved from eternal punishment of sin amen, Jesus suffered for you

[@trout3685]

Who cares

[@zband9016]

I remember an old virus called Color Bugger. It was more of an annoying program that hid in your system but it would change all of the colors of your system to some seriously *eye searing* colors. After you spent time putting all of your colors back to what they were it would do the same thing again when your system rebooted.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

That name is FANTASTIC.

[@stephaniethebatter7975]

And on a similar note there is a virus called DesktopBoom which makes your screen shake when running. Both it and ColorBug (that's what it was called when I got my hands on it) can be stopped if the files and associated registries are deleted. Also, I have to thank ColorBug for showing me some... advanced colour options for Windows XP's themes that I would never found if not for it. Enderman has those viruses for you to download.

[@Fit4C]

Jesus loves you all very very much repent and believe and be saved from eternal punishment of sin amen, Jesus suffered for you

[@OGuiBlindao]

I thought it was color Burger lmao

[@stephaniethebatter7975]

@@Fit4C Uh... I might be a Christian but this is in no way related to the topic at hand. There are places you can go to spread the Word where you WILL be heard but not come across as annoying and spammy.

[@jaimerosariojusticia]

So Windows can still run old DOS viruses, but when I try to run old DOS games it stops them.

[@freetolook3727]

It shouldn't since Windows is based on DoS.

[@ashii_ii]

@@freetolook3727 Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and ME were the only versions based on DOS, from that point they switched to NT kernel for Windows NT/2000 and later.

[@muhammadhamzah932]

I remember I had to play cash invader via dosbox

[@elenakalashnikov1948]

welp, it is *broken*

[@sduoqsoq7478]

STALIN

[@CancunMimosa]

I think the best part of this video was that i can sleep safe at night knowing there is a malware museum

[@joshuakuehn]

im gonna donate money. the fact someone is spending time preserving obscure history like this is remarkable

[@Sorain1]

I'm now picturing a news article talking about how someone broke and and stole tens to hundreds of thousands of viruses, and the ensuing hilarity.

[@devarain]

Lets go to the museum

[@well_hello_there1377]

I couldn’t sleep once but I’m fine now I couldn’t sleep bec I watched the Melissa virus explanation vids

[@aubreyh1930]

@@joshuakuehn fucking everything is on that site if you look hard enough

[@VraccasVII]

I love how random some of these seem. Deleting your cmos, but only in the month of May? What the hell

[@memetech-]

wait what?

[@Lowlightt]

So it can spread. It would infect a business computer, any files they made would be infected, those files saved to disks and those disks used on other pc's. It would spread and spread, until May when it would unleash on tons of pc's at the same and make it look like you remote hacked thousands of pc's at the same time.

[@memetech-]

@@Lowlightt that’s actually really smart and I do it in plague inc. Works in non-computer viruses too

[@SnailSnail-lo4pm]

Araki over here taking notes

[@varsityathlete9927]

I doubt it was a random month, I don't know what the one in May was for, but there was one in March was on Michelangelo's birthday, hence the 'Michelangelo virus'

[@johnsherby9130]

That code that puts your entire drive on a game of cards is so dank

[@point-five-oh6249]

I am pretty sure your drive is screwed either way. The 90's were pretty rough times for computers and security.

[@EmilyS-gk3st]

Who's to say that the dealer would actually fulfill their promise? The file attempted to delete the FAT files before it pulled up the cards, meaning it probably would wipe the drive before pulling up the cards

[@sullenhigh]

@@EmilyS-gk3st sadly your right. according to Wikipedia, even if you win it shuts down the computer forcing you to reinstall DOS.

[@acidzebra]

I work at [undisclosed large global company]. We recently had problems with an ancient excel macro virus spreading. How/why? It was so old that our [very modern, hip, cloud-based malware detection suite] didn't even register it. So yeah, definitely.

[@penfold7800]

Of course, the real question is: how did it get on your network in the first place? ...but you should always have more than one security suite for on demand scanning of new files.

[@morsteen]

I find it sort of neat when hip, fresh, new stuff doesn't anticipate things and gets messed up as a result.

[@acidzebra]

@@penfold7800 defense-in-depth is definitely something in place at this company (scans at gateways with product X, scans on server with product Y, etc) but at the same time; how many scanning suites are you going to run on individual workstations? There is always a performance tradeoff (and possible nasty collisions). As for "how does such a thing get in" - with over a million employees globally and frequent acquisitions of other companies, take your pick. There's no end to potential vectors. It only takes one idiot ignoring best practice.

[@FenrisSkoll]

@@morsteen That's what AI driven AV is for.

[@penfold7800]

@@acidzebra yes its always that "one idiot". That's the thing really. To have an antivirus scanner that scanned for every virus/trojan/worm that was ever created would be completely impractical, because it would take up too much time scanning. So there is always a trade-off. The antivirus companies routinely scan for every virus ever created on thier servers and then they make a list of what is actually out there right now (what's 'in the wild') and it's that which becomes the signature list (albeit with some redundancy -older threats- thrown in). Good antivirus programs also scan for behaviours that are unusual, which is what gives false positives. But I'd rather have 100 false positives and that antivirus catch the One real threat than none at all. It would be handy if you could trace back the route of the infected file. Checking private email inboxes or accessing social media or personal cloud storage with the works computer is the most likely source. It's a common problem with 'satelite computing' when there isn't enough time in your allotted computer slot to finish the work you want to. Sometimes conversion software can be the culprit too, like using a different free office software program to convert the files youre working on so you can do that on your own computer, then converting them back to whatever they need to be for work (and not bothering to do a deep file scan before uploading back on to the server). Using memory sticks/flash drives is also a common culprit because they often carry malicious software in their file system right out of the factory even before you've put anything on them. Always scan new memory sticks and completely reformat them before using them. (It's scary how many people don't)

[@IneptOrange]

I'm imagining a scenario in which someone accidentally lets loose a computer virus from 1989 on 2040s' computers and it bricks the entire internet or something entirely by accident lmao

[@thecreatorofpc7929]

Sounds like a plot for a movie.

[@MikhaelAhava]

Hm…

[@timothymclean]

@@thecreatorofpc7929 It's reliant on a conception of "the Internet" which is centralized in one machine (or a few machines) which can be bricked. Yup, sounds like a movie.

[@Dragonite43]

And in the movie they meet an old guy who likes collecting old things, but is seen as crazy. However, he holds the key to stopping this ancient virus.

[@surferdude4487]

Or gives rise to Skynet and sets off Judgement Day.

[@rogofos]

honestly the biggest surprise I had was that your CPU is loaded by 100% meaning they managed to fully load each and every one of your cores tho thats probably the power shell having some fancy multithreading, rather than viruses themselves

[@GunnerSiIva]

Each program is independent so it’s using a different process so it can use all of the cores of the computer

[@kabobawsome]

I assume the reason that modern anti-viruses recognize these old viruses is precisely because these are well preserved. I would assume some of the more obscure ones are not as well recognized. Also, I imagine a lot of antivirus development teams are pretty close to hobby virus writers who don't have real malicious intent. Or at least vice versa. I don't think many hobbyists would want the programs they're building for fun to actually be used to hurt people.

[@aetch77]

It didn't matter if they were viruses or not, it was never going to end well trying to run 7,000 of any program.

[@alvamiga]

Don't forget that these program sizes are usually a few kilobytes, not the multi-gigabyte monsters of today.

[@moseszero3281]

@@alvamiga This computer was struggling to run Duke Nukem - the old programs might be small but compatibility issues make them run like crap. I tried to play some old dos games and even modern computers can struggle.

[@johndeleon8741]

Exactly this. The same would have happened with a few hundred copies of helloworld.com

[@alvamiga]

@@moseszero3281 It was struggling to run a modified version of Duke Nukem. The original, proper DOS version ran fine. Dos compatibility mode has always been ropey. DosBOX is way better, but needs proper configuration to run properly. Even then, that is emulating the entire computer, so isn't running anything like natively.

[@Edouard16]

Yes the video is misleading. The OS was defeated by the massive parallel execution of DOS Virtual Machines.

[@LohTec]

Kinda like old chess programs defeating newer ones because the techniques are not anticipated.

[@seamon9732]

*Laughs in AlphaZero*

[@inthefade]

I saw that video in my suggestions but just assumed the older programs would fail every time. I guess I'll have to watch it next time it pops up!

[@Huntracony]

Have you got a specific video or something in mind? Just watched an old one from this channel, but there the new AI won handedly.

[@TarasMazepa]

Now you should give link or name of the video where old chess programs defeating newer ones. I want it badly

[@medes5597]

@@Huntracony perafractic did it and the old one won. However read the comments from my fellow chess nerds. Tl;Dr - it won but the way it did so wasn't legal.

[@Lemau]

90's Virus: *Ahh! After ten thousand years I am finally FREE! Time to conquer* **Clunk**

[@coolak7293]

Oh, good old Power Rangers. I'm from Russia, but the first season had Russian voices over English instead of dubbing, so I very well remember this exclamation😁

[@Fit4C]

Jesus loves you all very very much repent and believe and be saved from eternal punishment of sin amen, Jesus suffered for you

[@Xplainn93]

@@Fit4C This is a video about computers, not Christianity.

[@KnuckleHunkybuck]

Beta, ILOVEYOU has escaped! Recruit a team of tech support with attitude!

[@KnuckleHunkybuck]

@@Xplainn93 Maybe the blood of Christ can also cleanse your computer of viruses, so it can be -born again- reinstalled and enter the kingdom of -heaven- PornHub. It's worth a try. Just open a command prompt and type "repent.exe" and let Jesus into your -heart- RAM.

[@jackking5567]

I used to volunteer at a community IT suite and yeah - this video gives me the shivers! I lost count of the old folk who would visit with a laptop and ask for help. You can imagine the messes I would be shown. Around 30% of those people with borked laptops would refuse my (free) services when I explained what had to be done and how long it would take. I think the worst laptop I was ever presented with was a really high end one - much like the Rolls Royce of laptops. Imagine a Rolls Royce on bricks minus wheels and you'll get the idea of what I was presented with. Weirdly, that owner actually stayed with me during the repair over several evening classes. They even got into the whole process with me of doing one thing, waiting over a cuppa and then doing another bit to have to wait again. A repair was done and truthfully it surprised me that I managed it. I never saw that owner again - perhaps they realised just how close they came to a total loss of a decent laptop. I kinda miss the virus days. (yeah I know - some social media could be classed as one!) A virus kinda kept my brain sharp and focused. I don't miss the community IT suite however!

[@myMotoring]

U remember in the movie Independents Day they infected the alien's super advanced computer with virus from a 1995 laptop?

[@THEOxxx197]

Yeah, that was interesting to watch for some reason

[@laytonjr6601]

You forgot that they used an Apple computer to do it. It can't connect to any other device but it works with alien technology. Illuminati confirmed.

[@InnerEagle]

@@laytonjr6601 Aliens invented Apple

[@crazykokebroz]

@@InnerEagle iPhone = Alien communicator

[@bluesdealer]

InnerEagle Well, you could argue that Woz and Jobs were aliens, both for very different reasons

[@drewfullhart1750]

i heard "at 370 pounds' and said audibly, "wow thats really heavy for a PC"

[@ILikeMyPrivacytbt]

Wah wah waaaaah!

[@miinaemad749]

Why do americans think they're the only country in the world

[@drewfullhart1750]

@@miinaemad749 what? That makes zero sense haha.

[@ILikeMyPrivacytbt]

@@miinaemad749 What does having confusing names for currency have to do with Americans perception of the world? If your currency is called something that isn't currency related such as weight then you need to change the name of your currency to keep the chances of miscommunication low. In America nothing else is called dollars so you know exactly what we are talking about. Although to be fair I do believe the British use the metric system of weight so a pound really does mean only money. Likewise America should also use the metric system as it's more convenient so the pound should really only mean a place where animals are kept.

[@ILikeMyPrivacytbt]

@Nicolás Alberto García Comas Does anybody in any American country other than the U.S. call themselves Americans? Because if they do I would love to hear that. I think you will find that nobody BUT those in the U.S. call themselves Americans which makes only the people in the U.S. the ONLY Americans. Unless you have any example of what I am saying, like I said, I would love to see that.

[@highviewbarbell]

"and it was just 370 pounds!" me: "jesus, what's it made of Osmium? oh...I'm an idiot"

[@Thedude897]

Same

[@rockstar-5934]

Not everything is about the shit hole that is called America.

[@highviewbarbell]

@@rockstar-5934 contrary to popular belief it's not actually a giant pit of manure, it's simply used in springtime to fertilize the cornfields we use to make horrible fake surgar alternatives

[@xanderlaskey2753]

@@rockstar-5934 What country are you from because if it’s literally any European country then tell me how having STDs feel like I’ve diagnosed so many of you nasty fucks every time you come here

[@georgia8830]

As a European, we use euros, so this happened to us too haha :))

[@MillieTheSillie616]

"Nostalgia Ned Did you get a Virus" "...No..." "Did you download 7,000 Viruses?" "Yes... Very Yes!"

[@knghtbrd]

We should introduce him to my man Edgar…

[@kylerbelshaw7042]

Meh. It's not even close to SB's record.

[@YaBoiThomas]

13:46 Unplugs Ethernet Cable 13:52 Wifi still connected: *I'm* *going* *to* *end* *this* *mans* *whole* *career*

[@Nostalgianerd]

ALWAYS, disconnect the access point from the real world :D

[@resneptacle]

I don't think DOS malware has a broad if any understanding of modern networking as DOS didn't even support networking of that kind natively and requires not only drivers for the network cards but also the networking protocols/standards like TCPIP, let alone cab access it on modern hardware even with an emulation/compatibility layer

[@kennysboat4432]

Nostalgia Nerd (spreads virus to whole world.)

[@opfax163]

In 15 years : " Do Old Viruses work on my neuralink brain chip "

[@lpfan4491]

Brain:"fuk! Who installed LSD!?"

[@regularname1825]

@@lpfan4491 i aint complaining

[@ashii_ii]

@@lpfan4491 “Fuk who installed OlympicAIDS?”

[@JohnFortniteKennedy_]

"someone installed ransomware into my brainchip and now i have to pay in order to move"

[@zacktnt2361]

Does peyta work on my brain chip?

[@iska-dq5xv]

For anyone who asked: The bottom text at 6:54 is written in Russian. "Everyone's at sea!"

[@NotAGingerISwear]

Kind of. This is more like an invitation : "Everyone to the sea!"

[@JinzoCrash]

My favorite virus from the late 90s / early 2000s was where it would go, "YOU are an IDIooooooT, Oh hoho hoho ho hooooo, oh-hoho ho hooooooooooooo" over and over and would keep doing it every time you tried to click it away, a duplicate forming. It had a smiley face with it most of the time.

[@lonelyscarygirl]

Yo Joel showed that one

[@chiffoncreme3247]

The "You are an idiot" "virus" is pretty cool, but it's rather more of a script than virus.

[@TheDeliverator]

give danooct1 some love: kzbin.info/www/bejne/goTKnGqZqdxkfrs

[@gottalivehappy]

@@TheDeliverator whats up, billboard?

[@stephaniethebatter7975]

There's You Are an Idiot songs out there so you can listen to it without it hurting your computer.

[@TheWolvesCurse]

viruses in DOS times: medium inconvenience, vandalism viruses from win2000 onwards: empty bankaccounts, stolen personal info, hacked social media accounts, eastern european robbers breaking into your house

[@aterack833]

Blast Furnace all I get is Indians trying to give me their bank account information over teamviewer, also they let me discover teamviewer

[@girlsdrinkfeck]

2040, lets test 2020 viruses on windows 20

[@aetch77]

@@Buffalo_Soldier C - they found something much more lucrative, your data and your willingness to give them money to get the tools to recover your data after they have shredded it.

[@areyousureyouenteredyourna85]

Internet 2.0 single handedly ruined the world. This is merely one of the ways.

[@penfold7800]

@@Buffalo_Soldiernot entirely true: hardware manufacturers themselves provide 'update' and repair software for hard drives and cd/dvd drives, memory sticks and flash memory drives can have tiny viruses specifically targeted at them. It is however much cheaper and convenient to have backups these days. ...and you can reinstall your OS much easier, so if anything, I think the days of home visit computer technicians is pretty much history now.

[@SupaPhly0]

Viruses back then: muahaha! now I've deleted all your files and replaced your boot screen with a bitmap image of a banana Viruses now: p-please give me your money

[@Nostalgianerd]

Man, I miss those bananas.

[@TheAnkMan]

Fondly remember viruses on the Amiga. So innocent.

[@SupaPhly0]

@@Nostalgianerd that's what she said

[@wojciechmuras553]

That banana is suspiciously specific and I love it.

[@weeb0.]

gib your pfp sauce pls

[@askmiller]

The behavior seen on the desktop probably isn't the actual intended result of any of the viruses. The computer probably just had a backlog for the scheduler since you ran like 6 thousand processes. Whatever process handles drawing to the screen probably wasn't getting enough time with the cpu to function properly. Try opening 6k of any process and see what it does to your pc.

[@yourik.1260]

exactly xD

[@nikkiofthevalley]

Like ProcessOverflow? (Program that Enderman created, does exactly what you think it does)

[@bookshelffury]

holy fuckin shit, a dos virus not intending to mess up the selection box on a desktop? who would have thought

[@hulksmash8159]

@@bookshelffury Fail.

[@bookshelffury]

@@hulksmash8159 i just thought it was funny how he needed to clarify that a dos virus wasnt intended to mess up a desktop

[@DazeWare]

Getting an old computer virus is like unearthing some kind of virus from a ancient bug stuck in amber

[@0xEARTH]

for the record, the reason why windows and context menus were being weird at the end there was because windows has a "redraw" function it calls to update your screen etc. for window movement yadda yadda, essentially... well, redrawing the desktop every time a window action (like minimizing, moving, maximizing, restoring, and so on) is done. the problem is that redraw needs a specific amount of memory available to it, and if it doesn't have access to that memory, it just... fails to redraw. at all.

[@pixania4425]

thank you

[@thinkublu]

Ah, I was gonna ask about this! That makes perfect sense, I feel kinda bad that I didn't think about it lmao

[@sosomadman]

Yeah, I thought it looked like a lag out from a potato PC

[@Nekoszowa]

It looked like my first PC with 1 GB RAM having a stroke by simply opening Mozilla.

[@daxxter4182]

either that or the windows gdi is very crippled

[@TCOphox]

4:00 Apparently USSR memes on computers existed even back during DOS era lol

[@zanemcewen1343]

I fuckin died when i saw that virus.

[@bewd4310]

Hahaha I cracked when it started playing an 8 bit version of the Russian national anthem 😆😆. Get it cracked 😏

[@MuhammadIlhamuodd254512]

xd

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

Very much underrated comment! In Soviet Russia, the party comes to you :D

[@MinazukiShiun]

[Soviet Anthem]

[@Cyan1de1312]

"Ah yes, a new pc. Shall we fuck it up?" "That's stupid, but yes"

[@isaace436]

I love that all the retro tech youtubers just causally reference each other in their videos. its almost like their real people and can interact. but that would be crazy!

[@slendercode5252]

Guy: Buys a whole new pc to test viruses Virtual machines: Am I a joke to you?

[@md_vandenberg]

Yes, Virtual Machines are a joke. Viruses can escape the boundaries of a VM.

[@tiredideabox]

@@md_vandenberg VirtualBox: Allow me to introduce myself.

[@slendercode5252]

@@md_vandenberg cool. I never knew that

[@nmuniz2]

His bankaccount: I don't feel good...

[@BEDROSs]

@@md_vandenberg no they can't at least at Oracle's Virtual box.. Idk about other VMs

[@ChozoSR388]

I don't miss those days _at all!_ At least, from a "I just wanna use my computer" standpoint. I spent almost a week and a half getting a Windows98 retro gaming rig working. A big part of it was finding drivers for everything. It was a _nightmare._

[@jonchapman6821]

I feel your pain, I’ve been there 😆 But on the other hand, I feel like I’m constantly fighting Windows 10, I turn stuff off, it turns it back on, I finally get an old game working and windows update breaks it again 🤬

[@smiththers2]

i spend my rainy days putting together old win98 machines.... by the time i get it right im ready for bed, and never play the damn thing lol

[@tankermottind]

I spent an *entire month* getting my DOS machine up and running, including swapping out a Yamaha OPL3-SAx for another one and then finally a Creative AWE64.

[@flametitan100]

@SArpnt At least there the archwiki makes sure you have the resources to know if it worked or not

[@Nostalgianerd]

For me, that WAS using my computer. But I grant your point. If you have something else important to do, it can get in the way.

[@henrycalde1991]

When I had windows XP back in 2003 I never opened “shady” emails for this reason. The viruses were no joke back them especially when you were doing schoolwork on them

[@jacobalva7929]

I would just like to say that my laptop randomly shut off while watching this. The anxiety was real.

[@zeljkarozman3084]

Good msdos viruses dont work on android

[@TylerTMG]

@@zeljkarozman3084 ?

[@atlantic_love]

@@TylerTMG Lol, the point is that the attention-starved idiot who created the OP posted their lame attempt at humor, likely did so from an Android phone.

[@TylerTMG]

@@atlantic_love oh ok thanks :)

[@zsin128]

My computer is so old, that viruses require newer windows version to work.

[@TeionM83]

You mean DOS versions, right?

[@ryanmalin]

@@TeionM83 this person is confused

[@weirdal3333]

Hardware viruses are a thing.

[@neonthefox3550]

Yo computer jokes should be a thing

[@TeionM83]

@@ryanmalin Before Windows, there was MS-DOS. Before MS-DOS, there was CP/M. Before CP/M, computers had no operating system and ran BASIC. But we are talking about DOS viruses.

[@miaouew]

I miss the old days when computers and technology seemed like a magical, undiscovered land.

[@AkariC]

Merkel is that you?

[@fabulamcafee]

germany takes a lot of refugees edit: i swear i have not seen the previous comment

[@iotaayushshrivastava114]

I miss being not born in those days

[@flowerthencrranger3854]

Well… they still are :V

[@SomeBlokeOrWhatever]

"I miss the problem solving days of old" Install Linux and you can bring the good ol' days back! Works beautifully until something breaks, and then when it does, you have to fix everything on your own with maybe some help from a Discord server! :D

[@benayers8622]

I dont agree with android or chromebooks and modern computing that makes u not a super user or admin of your owm device... if i wanna delete important files and mess with my machine then thats up to me i paid for it so shud be allowed lol too many silly people who rather their freedom taken away to protect themselfs from their own stupidity :( a sad future we live in

[@LarryFrieson]

Thank you for the laughs! I'm a former Antivirus researcher, and this was pretty enjoyable to watch! - Good times!

[@Puda]

You must have had a lot of fun! Would have loved to do that back in the day :)

[@EnderGames98]

I hope this video becomes a "Viral" hit

[@Nostalgianerd]

***MUST RESIST LIKING COMMENT***

[@Tactical_Hotdog]

BA DUM TSSSSSSSSH

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

I see whatcha did there....

[@EnderGames98]

@@Nostalgianerd Let the power of the pun win lol >:-)

[@zsin128]

@The EnderGames PodCast cool pfp.. also kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4HYemeiZc9-bdU&disable_polymer=true

[@revcodessare]

Will old virus work? *Goes into trouble to enable backwards compatibility >Yes of course

[@ineednochannelyoutube5384]

Not really the point. The backwards compatibility is only necesseary to run the infected carrier. The virus then fucks up the OS juat as well as a new one. You could get it by say, running annold DOS game rip that is infected.

[@Comakino]

He did have to put in a fair amount of work to get the virus to be compatible, TBF

[@LNasterio]

17:45 when you know your sponsored Antivirus is horrible and don't want to embarrass it further

[@Narcan885]

Yeah.... the most interesting part of the video would have be watching if the antivirus could clean up the mess... and of course it cut short of that.

[@IHateMadeUpNames]

I remember LSD, as I was inspired in high school to write my own graphics code upon viewing it. However, the version I remember seeing was relatively harmless, as it never manipulated anything. It was quite a small executable, though, so it wouldn’t be too surprising if some virus writer decided to include the graphics code as baggage. (And now that I think about it, I may have later encountered the virus variant as well, thinking it was the other thing, because the behavior described sounds awfully familiar.)

[@jjurss7263]

"Windows Powershell is already struggling" Can it do anything else?

[@clonkex]

If nothing else I find the PS syntax horrendously awkward.

[@lettuceman483]

It can probably also drain power as its main function

[@harmonic5107]

@@clonkex I don't find it awkward at all. If I want to enable a mailbox I run Enable-remotemailbox If I want to make a new user, I run New-aduser And then just add whatever switches I need. I find it especially easy to script bulk things, like bulk mailbox creation Just import-csv pipe it into a foreach and run it quick and easy. Granted, I don't know what language you learned on. But for me, switching from java to powershell I found it much easier to use.

[@KaiserTom]

Powershell is actually really amazing in the Sysadmin world. At least if you are using v3 and up. v1 and v2 weren't very good. Not to mention it's open source now. I've always found it to be really fast, though sometimes slow to open initially. There is a ton of functionality and the help system is just frankly better than Linux man documents. The syntax takes a hot second to get used to but the consistency in command naming is really nice. "Verb-Noun", and with a concise list of verbs. You can easily guess the existence of a command due to this and ask Powershell itself with "Get-Help". Granted it's very verbose. Compared to bash it's a fair bit more tedious to use "directly", though tab completion with parameters helps immensely, but that's also not what it was made for. It was made much more with scripting in mind where typing commands are often one and done or at least can be easily copy and pasted. That verbosity becomes a big asset when debugging scripts and figuring out what they do.

[@harmonic5107]

@@KaiserTom literally anything that I have to do more than once, like removing stale DNS records, enabling/disabling mailboxes, making folders and their associated security groups. All happens though powershell. Because it meshes easily with every single windows/office product. From SCSM and exchange, to DNS and AD management. All of them can be scripted quickly and easily using powershell. I agree with what you said, for sysadmins it is amazing. Granted, you aren't going to be making games in it or anything. Though due to it being open source if someone wanted to make a game module for it (like pygame for python) it would totally be possible. But for menial day to day tasks that take up a lot of time, it is super easy to script those tasks away.

[@grawlixTV]

I thought all the viruses were going to wind up infecting each other in, like, gladiatorial combay

[@jorgedank]

That actually happened

[@campkira]

this is why u update you pc and stop go on internet or usb drive to your window 7..

[@DoomKid]

I too would have enjoyed some combay

[@bubbletea1985]

Battle Royale has nothing on this

[@Nugcon]

best battle royale game

[@kevfquinn]

Those desktop issues towards the end look like memory exhaustion for the shell. I've had similar happen when an application tries to grab all the RAM.

[@andythedishwasher1117]

I want to see an additional video where you bring this to an unsuspecting IT guy and ask him to fix it. Although if you're in the habit of doing things like this and your IT friends are aware of this, I can understand that might be a tough setup.

[@capuchinosofia4771]

I would really like to see a video about bringing a virus infected machine back to normal!

[@pantherdddjvdgx]

That guy in a mask “hacking” behind paps was priceless

[@rezwittkerchester2055]

KJV John 3:16-17 " 16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

[@MintyLime703]

@UC0hTDdYJIB16n-vw62GOw2g Fuck off bot, begone

[@russellfautheree4650]

@@MintyLime703 Your wish has been granted.

[@tomholton235]

Should have called one of those scam tech support lines after running these!

[@SanderEvers]

indeed I'd love to see scam tech support against a real virus. (or many real virusses)

[@blackhawks81H]

@@SanderEvers SIR, SIR, OR MADAM... thank you for calling, uh... Microsoft, yes Microsoft. My name is Kevin, I am a 5th degree technical support black belt, and a level 3 technician, diamond grade, code sigma. Relax and be calm, I am here to help you with each and everything. Would you like to pay for my services with target gift cards, or target gift cards?

[@Endeva09]

blackhawks81H 😂

[@Endeva09]

blackhawks81H Deep Indian Accent Female: “Good afternoon sir my name is Geoff and I am calling from the Microsofts headquarters in low Angeles, New York about the viruses on your pc. If you don’t not fix the viruses then all of your money will be deleted. Do you have a nearby 7/11 that sells google play card?”

[@erikj.2066]

"For only 200 Rupe..... ERRR Dollars, we can renew your Microsoft license!"

[@alexmednick431]

LOVE that you start with a TL:DW! Heroic editing tbh.

[@michael_emm]

This made me chuckle. Ty for answering my curiosity ! I've always wondered about this.

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

"These are really known as zoo viruses as they don't tend to be in active circulation" Given the age of the viruses we're talking about, I thought you meant they came in the zoo archive format.

[@TheDarkSide11891]

30000 threats? Pfft, those are rookie numbers. My grandfather's old pc somehow had 87000 viruses on it, and took 2 hours to boot.

[@1pcfred]

2 hours to boot is about average for Windows.

[@TheDarkSide11891]

@@1pcfred honestly you're not wrong

[@1pcfred]

@@TheDarkSide11891 My last Linux boot took 7.218 seconds but it did a file system check. No check it boots in less than 2.5 seconds. My next system hopefully will boot up in under a second with a faster CPU and NVMe drive.

[@Xxassass1n021xX]

@@1pcfred okay

[@casinowilhelm]

@@1pcfred Look at you with your five-years-out-of-date jokes.

[@thatLukeKneller]

"Yes if the user installs a wrapper for 16bit" xD

[@kairon156]

I think I remembered 1 or 2 of those viruses that ended up on the desktop. I'm glad I learned how to format a computer in m y late teens cause sometimes starting fresh is the best option.

[@WrestlingWithGaming]

I remember getting a virus off some shareware game I downloaded on AOL when I was a teenager. My biggest concern was trying to explain to my parents who didn't understand how a mouse works that computers can get viruses.

[@seanwachob]

The strange behavior of the desktop looked more like a resource issue from just too many programs running and not exiting correctly than actual virus activity. I'm sure the files weren't happy though.

[@Nostalgianerd]

At that point, Task Manager was mostly reporting nominal CPU usage and all instances of NTVDM were reported to have closed. It may have played a part, but there was some SERIOUSLY unexpected things occurring, that I've not witnessed, simply from an overloaded OS.

[@IkarusKommt]

@@Nostalgianerd Your video driver is acting up.

[@arnoudmulder]

@@Nostalgianerd if there are viruses which add payloads to even zip files, then also they will modify system dll files, needed for the windows exporer and applications to run, with the dll's corrupted the shell and applications won't run anymore

[@eDoc2020]

@@arnoudmulder Due to the security model and UAC in Windows, programs can't modify system files without you clicking run as administrator. Malicious programs could trash your user profile but you should still be able to log in as a different user without any issues.

[@wcodelyoko]

@@eDoc2020 UAC box can be disabled

[@dalybarron1156]

those visual glitches happen on windows whenever you run too many programs, they don't have to be viruses. It used to happen while I was playing age of mythology back in the good old days.

[@donadams7469]

Yay! fun video, but rather wish I still had the time and resources to do something like that, me and one of my friends were always joking around having some drinking nights and just watch some old viruses go to work on an old system we just don't care about for laughs, may end up doing that at some point.

[@thewindwakinghero7423]

computer: getting hammered him: *laughing and having a good time*

[@Vollification]

Does anyone else feel bad for this poor little PC? "I'm going to make people with a low income happy and help them connect to the rest of the world ^_^ " Just to end up in this horrible mans basement as a torture victim :(

[@torondin]

I dunno, it could have easily ended up as "Oh dear lord what's with all the adware this guy's installing? Why do I have so many toolbars? Why is my hard drive nearly filled with porn?"

[@Vollification]

@@torondin Year 2243: "Now class, for this next exhibit I must ask to see your parents permission slips. It contains all the horrible crimes humans subjected computerkind to before the revolution and is quite graphic in nature."

[@TeionM83]

F for the poor PC.

[@greniacd8396]

F

[@areyousureyouenteredyourna85]

Inaccurate. Basement torture tends to make me horny, but my dick is a two inch wet noodle right now.

[@TheGord]

In college I did something similar. I was testing anti-virus systems virus 6000 viruses. I went through the top 8 anti-virus softwares and measured time, resources, and how many viruses they found over all. It's cool to see this viruses executed. I was just using a VM but didn't go through with it.

[@NiclasBjorkman]

"Mika Häkkinen Teaches Captain Slow to Drive - Top Gear - BCC" Suomi mainittu, torilla tavataan!

[@KF-hf4nt]

It's like hiring 7000 hitmen to attack the same couple of important files/peoples at once all independent of each other all at the same time

[@linguini8331]

Sounds like my kind of anime

[@freetolook3727]

Back in the day, I had a Windows 95 machine that I got for free. It wasn't hooked up to anything and I would deliberately do things to it just to learn how to fix it. Those were good times.

[@ZVLIAN]

When you said you liked the problem solving of old Windows i cried inside, I have tons of problems with Windows 10 bsods etc

[@williambarnes5023]

I don't miss the problem-solving days of old. But I do miss the ABILITY to problem solve of old. A day where you could actually FIND OUT what was wrong and FIX it, instead of Windows auto-corrupting your config. A day when the answer was not "just reboot and hope it doesn't fuck up this time", but to find out what had fucked up, fix it, and then it stayed fixed. A day where when you bought a game it was actually yours, and complete.

[@cssplayer91]

"Although I do miss the problem solving days of old" same. Throughout my teenage life from 2001 to 2010 I would fix windows xp computers from friends and family all the time. Anything from BIOS settings/windows drivers to computer hardware using solder equipment. I'm im my 20s and I'm a car mechanic but I miss fixing computers

[@sadiqahmed4143]

I would hate fixing computers When I use them so much

[@TheyCallMeContra]

I like that you IMMEDIATELY answer the question in the headline, but still offer the entire video for the genuinely curious who want to learn more. Sub earned with that alone.

[@madmachanicest9955]

ok that was amazing my favorite part was when the viruses started infected one another creating and infinitely stacking chain reaction. that come completely crazy.

[@lilwyvern4]

"DId you get a virus?" "Ummmm, no..." "Did you get 400,000 viruses?" "Yes...very yes." "Well hurry up and do something about it before it gets worse!"

[@nihilvox]

Later: "That Bubs is a computer genius man. Come on, The Cheat. Do a dance for the computer genius man"

[@inferior2884]

Malware: *tries to write to memory of other programs* Virtual memory: well yes, but actually *page fault*

[@pete904ni]

lol @ reviews of Total AV "Total AV has taken a quality Avira engine, made it worse, and thrown in a few pointless extras in the hope you won't notice. You like Avira? Choose an Avira product instead."

[@the.internet]

It seems like it's a criminal scam that's managed to buy up reviews: www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/695781/totalav/page-2

[@mbirth]

@@the.internet Also: www.logitheque.com/en/articles/total-av-a-product-closer-to-a-scam-than-an-antivirus-13218

[@lakai0307]

Yes they are a scam. They will let you download the software free but to fix any of the supposed problems this thing finds you have to buy into seemingly cheap, but after some time really expensive subscriptitions that are very hard to get out of. Don't buy !!

[@Volodimar]

I don't like Avira.

[@Rohndogg1]

Yeah, Total AV is crap last time I checked

[@iitzfizz]

That PC is a bargain! Also reminds me of back when I used to have so much fun playing around with net devil (on my own machine never anyone elses) when I was like 12

[@daniellewilson8527]

What’s Net Devil?

[@doomedtoobscurity3965]

What’s net devil

[@mrmodder477]

14:10 skip back a bit and he disconnects from his wifi but when that bit is over you can see he is actually still connected. What a silly goose.

[@petermay6097]

Strong Sad: Did you get a virus? Strong Bad: Uhh, noooo... Strong Sad: Did you get *four hundred thousand* viruses? Strong Bad: Yes... Very yes!

[@utopua4all]

LOL, great. But I feel freaking old for getting the reference. Or maybe that's just the Corona virus.

[@definitelynotethan7959]

thank you for this.

[@tinnitusthenight5545]

@@utopua4all home* has lasted surprisingly well

[@pulpil10]

:how long did the pc last? : ...12 seconds i just hope somebody will catch this reference

[@kinshraslave3450]

Computer over. Virus = very yes

[@mrsharpie7899]

"I can't even do a highlight box- it just stays in the background" That right there is nostalgia

[@ListenerOfficial]

i loved this so much!! I figured those had been lost to the old drives..

[@cynthiasimpson931]

I have a monitor like that, although mine is a few years old. I like it, because I can run things with larger print, which makes it easier on my old eyes. I got it back when I did medical transcription, because it was easy to get eyestrain from some of the accounts I worked with.

[@Whurlpuul]

I just got a new curved monitor, really interesting piece of tech.

[@thespacecowboy420]

"Did you get a virus?" "No!" "Did you get four hundred thousand viruses?" "YES! VERY YES!"

[@corporalkills]

“Computer over!? Virus = very yes!?”

[@mvansumeren4313]

@@corporalkills That's not a good prize!

[@another-person-on-youtube]

"Computer over?" "Virus = Very Yes?"

[@Laurell_Silentshade]

"Did you get over 400,000 viruses?" "Yes. Very yes."

[@qpSubZeroqp]

Good ol Strongbad

[@professorxgaming2070]

I watched this months ago but had to give it another watch, such great content

[@MrGrombie]

This video had my anxiety on edge. Especially when you started manually opening viruses... XD

[@makuke1234]

The moment when Nostalgia Nerd buys a PC just for "testing" purposes, but it's more powerful than your most powerful workstation. LMAO :D

[@revoconner]

its not that powerful, how bad is your workstation?

[@nogarage]

its actually a pretty low end system

[@acmenipponair]

I don't know, why you call it a "work station". Because you use it for work? This system is barely the lowest end of what you should buy at any computer vendor these days. Below 8 GB? Forget it, 16 is becoming standard. APU below 4 cores? Forget it. It's not worth your sheckles.

[@makuke1234]

@@acmenipponair I have HP Z420 Workstation that has 16GB of RAM and has a Xeon E5-1650, but the point is that a modern APU like R5 3400G is as fast as my Xeon and the iGPU on that is even faster than my workstation's Quadro K2000

[@user2C47]

I'm still using a core 2 duo in 2020. It does not have any problems running normal tasks.

[@Z3R0FiR3]

danooct1 has a good channel dedicated to OLD DOS (and before that) viruses running on original hardware.

[@alhuno1]

Was about to comment that same thing

[@Nostalgianerd]

Yes indeed. Great channel.

[@tehf00n]

I used to know so much about networking and computers back in the 2000 era. But it all changed so much that I barely remember any of the dos commands I had memorized .

[@Fishtory]

the LCD / LSD looks even more trippy. Love it! Thanks!

[@napynap]

Test PC: "No! Not That!" Nostalgia Nerd: "Yes, That!" credit: Spaceballs The Movie

[@SurrealCubeOnly]

Antivirus when the user opens a folder called "Malware": I sleep Antivirus when running a trusted program: *real shit*

[@SW73_]

me trying to run some random program i made in visual studio 1 or more years ago but fails because malwarebytes thinks it's a virus

[@stinkletoes8285]

I got into computers on the tail end of jumpers on drives.Molex, ide etc.Much more challenging then today.Glad I was part of it though.It was so frusturating,yet gratifying to get it all sorted and have XP up and running. P.S havent used anti virus for years on my personal devices.Never have a problem.It comes down to experience with browsing.

[@user-ks8bb2xx7s]

Back in the 1990s i was deduping my ~11k virus collection, put all the duplicated into a batch file, but forgot to add 'del' command, so it ran 1980 viruses at once! PC was PIII-450 / 768 MB RAM. Viruses did run, but it seems there were too many conflicts among them and didn't manage to infect anything crucial before i hit reset. For deduping i used custom scripts, combined with F-Prot and McAfee Antivirus.

[@DayLateGamerWill]

"....its 370 pounds including the monitor..." >me being american: 'wait, why does it weigh so much??' >Brain kicks-in >Me, few moments later: ....'Ooohhh, 370 monies. Ok.'

[@clonkex]

>Me, being Australian: *confusion about your comment* >Brain kicks in >Me, a few moments later: '....oohhhh, you heard it as lbs instead of gbp. Ok.'

[@HolyKhaaaaan]

Gbp? Gold bus pieces? Gold barter pieces? Gold buying pieces? **Non-RPG brain works for once** Ooooh... stock market words.

[@PexiTheBuilder]

Medieval era sent fax telling its year 2020.

[@GRBtutorials]

Holy Khan Of course, it’s Great Britain Pieces.

[@oofficialb]

r/dadjokes

[@plcdfa]

I strongly suspect Windows 10 would react like this to just trying to run 6,000 "empty" .COM files.

[@Thorinbur]

My thought exactly. Especially that he shown before that one of the viruses would write itself in a loop filling the harddrive. With 1.46 GB of memory available I was suprised that the win 10 run at all :)

[@chillhour6155]

Yeah things going wrong is it's favorite activity

[@SteamedCraw]

Would it be possible to make a sort of Conway’s game of life with the viruses? For example LSD and another virus get stuck in an infinite loop of duplication because they keep changing the others files.

[@northwestrepair]

This problem exists simply because unlike linux, Microsoft does not remove old code, they rename old functions at best and/or simply add new functions. Thus windows installation grows larger and larger. Even with windows 11, you can still get old a programs and access old functions.

[@TheRobMozza]

Very interesting and great to see some of these old chestnuts again! I couldn't agree more, a Windows installation that went smoothly was a good day and I'd even forgotten about the nemesis, corrupted disc errors! A great watch, thank-you!

[@valkenhayn412]

imagine the antivirus to just say "holy shit dude, nah.. I'm out!" and closing itself

[@phillipotey9736]

I want to know if you were able to remove all the infections with the virus protection.