4th July 2002
Who dares to take on the deadly computer virus? Lockergnomie Thomas Lange: "As an Internet technician working for two major ISPs for over four years, I have seen my fair share of viruses. I have purposefully loaded virus files onto my computer numerous times - and twice, during times of user moments, contracted viruses onto my various computers. One was easily fixed by simply deleting a Winsock file and restoring the correct copy. The second time, I contracted a virus by errantly trying to 'listen' to a mp3.vbs file acquired over a file sharing program (my brother actually did it on my computer). I didn't even bother to find out which virus it was (besides being only as good as the most recent virus update, many antivirus programs will only watch what comes in through e-mail). Instead, I simply moved my computer back through time, using a SCANREG command with a boot disk. At the DOS (Command Line) screen, 'scanreg /restore' will allow you to choose various dates from the past to set your Windows 9x registry back to that time. Of course, you will have to reinstall any programs that were installed in the interim. NOTE: This will not help if you get a virus that damages the hard drive." It will not disinfect other files, though. My addition to this tip would be to download the appropriate free tools from any one of the major antivirus sites (and use a free online scanner).