ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE SLOWS ME DOWNThe Annoyance:Since I installed antivirus software on my computer, it takes longer to collect my email. The messages used to pop into my Inbox as fast as lightning, but now that my antivirus software is checking each message, it seems to take twice as long, or longer. The Fix:Yeah? So? And your point is? YOU DON'T NEED EMAIL TO GET A VIRUSThe Annoyance:One of the three computers on our network has no email. We use it only for Internet access, and most of that work is for the children's homework and school research. Because of the lack of email, I didn't install an antivirus program. But my 12-year-old son tells me no computer should be without antivirus software.
The Fix:In many families, the 12-year old is the resident computer geek, and your household is no exception. Your son is right. You can get viruses from other computers on your network, or from a web site. A VIRUS DISGUISED AS A DOCUMENTThe Annoyance:If viruses can exist only as programs, how come I picked up a virus from a Microsoft Word document? The Fix:The virus got into the document because the document contains Visual Basic Script (VBS) programming code used to create a macro. The macro is part of the document file, and because VBS produces executable code just like any other programming language, a macro qualifies as a program. Such viruses are called macro viruses. Be sure you configure your Microsoft programs to enable Macro Virus Protection. For example, in Word, select Tools Macro Security and choose a security level. If you don't use VBS and don't have to run VBS files, change the file association for .vbs files to Notepad. Then, if you open a document file that also contains a VBS file (which might contain a macro virus), it will open as a text file in Notepad (instead of executing its malicious code). Check your Windows help files to learn how to change file associations. VIRUS SCAN TAKES FOREVERThe Annoyance:I follow the advice of my antivirus software and run a complete scan once a week. It takes forever. Is there a way to speed this process? The Fix:You can shorten the time it takes to scan your system by preparing for the scan with the following steps:
Figure 7-5. Get rid of unneeded files before scanning your computer for viruses.Tip: If you hold the Shift key while you press the Delete key, the files are deleted instead of going to the Recycle Bin. If you forget to hold the Shift key, don't forget to empty the Recycle Bin after you remove the backup files. SELECT MAPPED DRIVES FOR A VIRUS SCANThe Annoyance:My computer has several mapped drives linked to shared folders on other networked computers. If I select Entire Computer as the target of my virus scan, those mapped drives are scanned, too. This increases the time it takes to scan the computer. The Fix:Because you certainly installed antivirus software on the other computers, it's a waste of time to scan individual folders on those computers when you scan your own computer. Select the local hard drive as the target of the scan, instead of the entire computer. Tip: If you map drives to remote drives, you can scan the entire network from one computer (see "Scan the Entire Network"). SCAN TWO DRIVESThe Annoyance:My computer has two hard drives and several mapped drives to remote folders. I don't want to scan the remote folders, but my antivirus software doesn't let me select both hard drives. The Fix:Isn't that annoying? The only solution is to scan the first hard drive, and then scan the second hard drive in a separate action. Of course, depending on the way you use the second drive, you might be able to skip the scan (or perform the scan less often). Many people use the second drive to hold documents (which makes backing up documents much easier). In that case, you don't have to scan it as often because you rarely find a virus in a document you created. SCAN THE ENTIRE NETWORKThe Annoyance:Even though I installed antivirus software on every computer, it's very time consuming to scan each computer. Can I scan the entire network from one computer? The Fix:Good thinking! Your antivirus software probably doesn't have an option labeled "Scan Entire Network," but you can manually set up such a scan. Share every drive on every computer on the network, and then map drives to those shared drives on the computer that does the scan. Selecting the entire computer in the scanning options includes all mapped drivesergo, you scan the whole network. If you don't want to share drives on your network, just create the shares and map them for the virus scan, then disable the drive sharing until the next time you want to scan the whole network. WHAT'S HEURISTIC SCANNING?The Annoyance:My antivirus software has an option to use heuristic scanning techniques. I have no idea what that means, but I read a tip that says it takes longer to scan with this option, and it's not absolutely foolproof. The Fix:Heuristic scanning analyzes an executable file that does not contain a known virus to try to identify whether it's a potential threat. This is a way to catch viruses new to the computer community. Each antivirus program has its own method for defining "suspicious" code during heuristic scans. Heuristic scanning is a guessing game, but at least it uses educated guesses. It slows the scanning process and sometimes produces false alarms. For example, a perfectly safe program can contain programming code that the antivirus software thinks is related to the way a virus acts. Still, it's better to be safe than sorry. SCHEDULE SCANS FOR THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHTThe Annoyance:I'd like to schedule my weekly scan for the overnight hours, so it doesn't interfere with my computer use. But what happens if the scan finds a virus and I'm not there to take care of it? The Fix:Scheduling scans at night is an excellent idea. The software, and any viruses it finds, will wait patiently for you to return to the computer and deal with the problem. In fact, programs such as Norton AntiVirus will automatically remove the virus or quarantine the file so that it can't infect your computer. Make sure you check the quarantined files (if your antivirus software performed that action) and delete them. WHAT'S WITH THIS CONSTANT UPDATING?The Annoyance:Almost every time a computer on the network dials out to the Internet, the connection is slowed for a while because the antivirus software is checking for updates. Do they bring out updates of the program every day? The Fix:It's not the program that changes daily; it's the virus information file. Antivirus software has two parts:
Because new viruses, or variants of known viruses, are discovered almost daily (in fact, sometimes hourly), the only way to ensure that virus checking is performed with up-to-date information is to keep a current copy of the virus information file on your computer. When you go online, the software checks the manufacturer's web site to see if either the virus information file or the software program has changed. If it has, the new file(s) are downloaded to your computer. ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM UPDATE REQUIRES A REBOOTThe Annoyance:My antivirus software checks for updates constantly because we have an always-on Internet connection. Sometimes all the computers on the network see a pop up that says an update has been downloaded, and clicking OK makes the pop-up go away. Other times, however, the pop-up says the computer has to be rebooted. Why? The Fix:Usually you need to reboot because the software program itself has been updated (the frequent downloads of updated virus information files are responsible for the regular pop-ups). When you're asked to reboot to incorporate the new features, it means your antivirus software is disabled, so you should restart the computer as soon as possible. TURN OFF AUTOMATIC UPDATINGThe Annoyance:Because we use a telephone modem to connect to the Internet and often have more than one person online at a time, the automatic updates of our antivirus software really make us less productive. Can we turn it off? The Fix:Yes, you can turn off automatic updates, but I'll tell you how to do this only if you promise to check for updates manually every day. Promise? OK. Your antivirus software used your Windows Task Scheduler to automate checking for updates. You can delete the task, and then use the menu bar in the software window to check for updates manually. Here's how to delete the scheduled task:
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