Just like you can get a virus, so can your computer. Computer viruses range from simple, mischievous programs that might display stupid messages to really dangerous ones that can wipe out all the data on a drive. How does your PC get infected? Well, you can get a virus from any number of sources, including the Internet, email attachments, and opening a file that happens to be infected from a floppy disk or other removable type of media (like a CD drive). caution
To protect yourself, you should get and use a virus scan program. Checking System Security with Windows Security CenterNew with Windows XP Service Pack 2 is the Windows Security Center. You can use this feature to get an overview of the security of your PC. You can also turn on any Windows features such as a firewall for Internet safety (covered in Chapter 8). caution
To view the status of security on your PC, follow these steps:
Using a Virus Protection ProgramWith a virus protection program, you can periodically check your system for known viruses, scan incoming files, and be warned before any infected files are copied to your system. Popular antivirus programs include Norton's AntiVirus (visit www.symantec.com for more information) and McAfee VirusScan (visit www.mcafee.com for product information). Antivirus programs each work differently. Most are started automatically when you start Windows and then scan your computer at a set interval. You can also set them up to scan every file you open. Finally, you can start and run them at any time by double-clicking the program icon for the antivirus program or by selecting it from the Start menu. Figure 17.10 shows the disk and file virus-checking options for Norton's Anti-Virus program. Figure 17.10. Use a virus program to periodically check your entire system for viruses.For instance, you can set up the program to scan all floppy disks inserted into your system and all files that are downloaded to your system, including email attachments. Check your particular antivirus program's manual or online help for information on setting virus options. caution
Handling an Infected FileWhen you scan for viruses, the program identifies any files that have been infected by any viruses it recognizes and usually offers you the option to repair the file if it can. In some cases, infected files can be "cleaned" by your virus protection software; in others, the files will have to be discarded. For really lethal viruses, you may have to reformat your hard disk and start over from scratch. In this case, you will be glad if you backed up your data (covered earlier in this chapter). caution
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