About Anti-Virus Software ......
Who
needs it? Anyone who accesses the Internet and who specifically accepts
and downloads attachments. Also anyone who might load data files from
other computers via floppy drives or home made cd's.
I
like Norton better than
McAffee. If
you think your anti-virus program missed something or you suddenly find Norton
disabled (i.e. won't open or stay open) try this online scan ..it's free from a
company called Trend Micro at this location:
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
, There you can "Scan without registering" if you are in a hurry, or go ahead
and register. Once you get to the scan itself you have to wait while it
downloads the latest anti-virus definitions and then you select your C drive,
tell it to fix whatever it finds and scan! Many times I have caught and
cleaned viruses that Norton missed.
A pre-installed version of Norton usually updates for free for a year and then it costs only $14.95 for another year of updates if you sign up online. Technicians I work with prefer it as well. It is not without it's problems though. In the past, some of us found our clocks wouldn't keep the correct time after we installed Norton. There was a fix for that and sometimes it worked.
Sometimes the Auto-Protect feature conflicts with other windows programs that start when you turn on your computer. Ultimately Norton runs just as well without the Auto-Protect feature installed in the registry. There are other ways to do it. And business networks sometimes have conflicts between various hardware and software programs. I have used the Norton Troubleshooter to fix those problems. Most of what I've covered in this paragraph are things I can help you with, or any technician can fix. But for those of you who like to do it yourself the links here may help. Do get a virus checker installed and working as soon as possible though. I will collect links here over time that will help you keep your computer safe.
My first "computer
illness" was the "I Love You" virus
( Spring 2000). There was no hope for me because the whole world
was hit before there was an anti-dote written by ANY anti-virus
software. But it wiped out every image file on my computer and created
problems that eventually resulted in cleaning my hard drive and starting over
with everything.
I