April 13, 2001

In the last year, there have been around 9,000 new viruses added to the antivirus definitions list and there is no sign of things getting better or slowing down in the foreseeable future.  Why do people continue to write these viruses and cause problems?  Why is there air?  Who knows, people seem to get kicks out of the most far out things but viruses are not to be taken lightly.

I still have problems getting people to backup their data and keep their antivirus definitions up to date.  Again, I will say it, do not take viruses lightly.  Make sure your antivirus program is always running.

If the program finds a virus, the first thing to do is write down the virus name, and then let the program attempt to clean the viruses it finds.  If the files can't be cleaned, put them in quarantine.  Do not stop there.

Now, you need to delete the files in quarantine if they are just e-mails or attachments.  Do not delete any Windows system files, i.e.. files with a .dll extension.  If you have any questions, call me.  The next thing to do its go to either the Norton web site  or the McAfee site, look up the virus and find out what other steps need to be taken.

The antivirus programs are not always 100% and they usually can't undo problems created by viruses, they can only get rid of the virus files so you need to find out if the virus did anything to the Windows registry or configuration files and undo the damage.

Also please note:  When you have a dependable antivirus program don't be paranoid about viruses.  Don't pay any attention to e-mails you receive warning about viruses.  Some of them are bogus and tell you to delete files needed to make your computer run.

Just trust the antivirus program to handle things for you.  For the most part and for most people, this is sufficient to take care of viruses. 

You don't always have to open an e-mail or attachment in order to get a virus. Some of the newer viruses will get you when you check for new mail, you don't have to open anything.

Another e-mail floating around recommends you make an address book entry with bogus address so if a virus gets into your computer and sends itself to people in your address book you will know because you will get a returned message saying the address wasn't valid.  These types of viruses don't send one e-mail at a time and wait to see that each one goes OK, they do a mass mailing.

Some viruses only reply to people whose messages are in your inbox and most don't even send e-mail to others.  Some viruses will send themselves to people in your address book and select someone from your address book to put in the From area so it will look like someone else sent them the virus.  Here again, don't lose any sleep over it and just ignore these e-mails and let the program take care of it.

I've always made a practice of backing up my customer's registry files when I visit.  I've had several occasions where we would have had to format and reinstall everything after a virus because the viruses have corrupted the registry and won't allow programs, such as antivirus and virus cleaning programs, to run so I've used the backups to reinstate the computer to running condition. 

Some of the newer viruses will also corrupt the Windows ME restoration files so even if you restore to a different date before you got the virus it will still be in the computer.  The bottom line is you can't be too careful but you also shouldn't let viruses make you paranoid either. Click here for our first virus discussion.

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