21st May 2001
You know all that hoopla about viruses being spread via Microsoft e-mail clients? Well, you may be wondering what all of the fuss is about. It has to do with the fact that these e-mail clients directly support the execution of scripting files, thereby making them vulnerable to the wrath of any virus-laden scripts that someone kindly sends your way. Microsoft has attempted to address this with some patches here and there, but they're not entirely effective due to the wide number of product versions in use. Howver, there is another way to ensure that these scripts never see the light of your inbox. (You may want to start taking notes!) You can change the default action for dangerous file types to Edit versus Open. To do this, open Windows Explorer and click Tools - Folder Options (or View - Folder Options for older versions of Explorer), then select the File Types tab. Next, select the file type from the list, then click the Advanced tab to display the list of actions currently associated with the respective file type. Simply select Edit from the list, then click the Set Default button. You can also change the Edit action to set a default application to be used for editing the file, such as your favorite text editor. Some of the file types you'll want to pay particular attention to are .VBS, .VBE, .JS, .JSE, .WSH and .WSF. Simple...? Compared to repairing the damage from a virus... absolutely!