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Hey Mike. Welcome to the now PRUNED, evidently, Cranky's Tree of Madness & Fun. I was going to say that I'm the resident oddball of the group, but after meeting everyone, I guess I'm just the oldest.
If you have a suspect file, & evidently a virus can come in on ANY type of file nowadays, here's what you do:
If you just don't want to take any chances, left click on it once, it'll highlite it, then you can hit SHIFT & the DELETE key on the computer. This will delete it from your computer rather than sending it to the recycle bucket if you just hit DELETE by itself. Now, unless you have an erase utility on hand, the virus will still be there so you can get rid of it all the way by doing a thorough defragmentation of your drive or saving a few files, that'll wipe it out.
If you think you want the file, right click on it. A menu of options should pop up including anti-virus scanning. Click on the SCAN for Virus option, & your program will go to work on it, reporting if its safe or not. Now, this isnt 100% safe, but its close with the better software like Norton's, Dr Solomon's, McAfee's.
This all applies to computers running Windows 95. For windows 3.1 or DOS, ask someone else.
More tips:
Update the virus definitions on your anti-virus software as often as the company recommends. Its as simple as going to their web site & downloading the definition file. Maybe once a month.
Check your e-mail for viruses. Check your net provider or anti-virus company for late news on virus problems or hackers (they're called lamers by the cool net people now).
Don't accept files from strangers. Block people that seem really odd or give you trouble. Report offenders to your net provider with as much info as you can on them. Not to sound paranoid, but someone has been running around causing trouble...
Change your passwords on mailboxes & other things periodically.
Be careful about downloading files from sites that seem unprofessional or sloppy, hobby sites, freeware sites, WARES (pirated) software sites, stuff like that.
Run a virus scan of your computer every week or 2. Make the file scan definitions as wide as you can stand. The more files you scan the longer it takes, but the safer you'll be. Do it just before you shut down.
Just hang around with these guys, you cant go wrong with this bunch! I think...
Anyone else have suggestions?
Well, have fun. The net is just like the world, it isnt totally safe, but when you get things figured out it's cool!
Later. Live forever y'all.
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