Hi, Saturday, December 4, 2004, 10:54:20 PM, Shel wrote:
> Good advice, and good pointers. > It might be a good time to mention that some adware and spy programs come > attached to useful programs that one may DL from the net, and that removing > the adware or spyware may cause the main program to stop running. yes, indeed. They rely on the fact that practically nobody reads the 'agreements' that you have to click through to install the software. The agreements include stuff like allowing yourself to be bombarded with crap. Before you download anything, check up on the web to see what experiences other people have had. Another thing I should add is that when you've identified something you think is a virus, or trojan or whatever, don't just delete it. Instead rename it from (say) priam.exe to priam.exe.bob. This stops it from running, but means that if it turns out to be something useful, and not a trojan, it is easy to recover. When you're confident that you haven't made a cock-up, then you can delete it. As you do all this, think about Ariadne and Hansel and Gretel. Write notes about what you've done so you can find your way back if you get lost in the labyrinthine forest. -- Cheers, Bob
