Process Essay - How to Recognize and Eliminate Macro Viruses

Process Essay - How to Recognize and Eliminate Macro Viruses depend starting up your computer only to see the image on the screen melt while eerie music plays. The hard fetch crunches away. What is it doing in there? Before you turn off the machine, most of your files engender been deleted. Your computer is the victim of a computer virus. But where did the virus mystify from? It may have been that game you borrowed or, more likely, it came from an electronic document. Most viruses soil programs, but newer viruses net pollute documents as well. This is the case with big instruction viruses that infect Microsoft Word files. In fact, the number of these viruses has increased from 40 in 1996 to all over 1,300 in 1998. Anyone who reads Word files created by others can be at risk. give documents spread easily and quickly, especially in environments where documents are shared. What is a macro virus? A macro virus is a program that infects documents and spreads by copyin g itself. When a document containing a macro virus is open(a) on your computer, the virus copies itself into something called the global template, which is used to save Word settings. at a fourth dimension this template is infect, all documents you save will contain the virus. If you distribute an infected document, the virus will spread even further. Besides making copies of themselves, viruses can have other harmful effects. They can delete or transfigure document contents, change Word settings, set passwords on your documents so that you cant read them, or delete all of your files the next time you start your computer. How can I tell if my computer has a macro virus? Many viruses are so good at application program their tracks that you may not even realize they are t... ...e all macros establish in a document. Unless you need to use the macros in a document, you should hinder them. Make the normal.dot file read-only. This file is where viruses reside in an inf ected system. A virus cant copy itself into this file if it is read-only. Here is how to do this in Windows 98 - First suction stop the Start thrust, then hotdog Find, and then click Files or Folders. - Type normal.dot into the Named box and then click Find Now. - At the bottom of the window should be the normal.dot file with an photo next to it. Click on this file with the right mouse button and then click Properties. - Check the Read-only box and click OK. Preventing macro viruses is leisurely compared to the amount of time and frustration involved in removing them. For more entropy on macro virus prevention, read the Macro Virus FAQ at http//www.look.com/mfaq.html.