A program or piece of code
that is loaded onto your computer without your knowledge and runs
against your wishes. This program usually infects your computer through
email as an attachment. Though it can arrive as well from infected
programs on Floppy Diskettes and CDROMs by piggy backing on desirable
programs. Infections can occur to the
Boot sector
programs which are necessary to start your computer, other software
executables which are used to start programs,
Macro's which are
small programs within a document or spreadsheet that perform certain
functions and the system
registry, which
contains all of the configuration settings for you Windows based operating
system, by adding lines to start programs such as the MSBlast
worm which was recently
released into the wild. Viruses can also replicate themselves.
All computer viruses
are manmade. A simple virus that can make a
copy of itself over and
over again is relatively easy to produce. Even such a simple virus is
dangerous because it will quickly use all available
memory and bring the
system to a halt. An even
more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting itself across
networks and bypassing
security systems.
Since 1987, when a virus infected
ARPANET, a large network
used by the Defense Department and many universities, many
antivirus
programs have become available. These
programs periodically
check your computer
system for the best-known types of viruses.
Some people distinguish between general viruses and
worms.
A worm is a special type of virus that can replicate itself and use
memory, but cannot attach itself to other programs.
What MS Windows Service Pack is
installed on my system
To determine the level of MS
Windows 2000 and XP Service Pack installed on your computer system perform
the following action.
Using the mouse position the
cursor over the My Computer icon on your desktop, if you are using Windows
XP with the default Taskbar configuration click on START and find My
Computer in the Taskbar menu, then press the right mouse button (Right
Click) and a menu will be revealed, select PROPERTIES from this menu by
pressing the left mouse button (Left Click).
An alternate way in which to
get this information is by pressing START moving the cursor to SETTINGS and
when the next menu appears move the cursor over CONTROL PANEL and press the
left mouse button (Left Click) on the following windows find the SYSTEM icon
and press the left mouse button twice rapidly (Double Click).
Once the Properties window
appears you will see on the GENERAL tab some system information. Listed
under "System:" you will see what Service Pack is installed. If no
Service Pack is listed then no Service Pack is installed.
For Windows NT 4.0 the Service
Pack Level is shown during boot up on a Blue Screen usually in the top right
corner of the screen.
Unfortunately there is no way
to determine this information on Windows 95, 98 & Me.
Current Service Pack Levels
are.....
Windows XP Home & Professional
= Service Pack 1
Windows 2000 Server and
Professional = Service Pack 4
Windows NT 4.0 Server and
Workstation = Service Pack 7
Why is my system running slow?
There are a number of factors
which can produce slow system performance. There a two common reasons
however. These are Fragmented files in the file system and
insufficient memory (RAM).
Fragmented files can be
resolved readily by running the Defragmentation utility provided with most
Operating System.
To access this utility on MS Windows based systems perform the following
actions. Using the mouse, position the cursor over the My Computer
Icon and press the Left mouse button twice rapidly (Double Click), Windows
XP users with the default Taskbar configuration press START find the My
Computer icon and press it. When the My Computer windows opens find your
primary hard drive, usually indicated by the name "Local Disk (C:)"
Using the right mouse button click on the icon and select with the left
mouse button PROPERTIES this will bring up the properties windows for the
select drive. Once the properties windows is open select the TOOLS
tab. on this tab you will find at least two utilities, "Error Checking" and
"Defragmentation". It is suggested to run the "Error Checking" before
"Defragmentation". When running error checking select "Repair
Automatically" and if available "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad
sectors" Then start the utility. Once "Error Checking" is completed
then start the "Defragmentation". Depending on the operating system
you may have an analyze and a defragment button, select the defragment
button and away it will go. The amount of time needed to perform this
action is dependent on the amount of data to be checked.
As for memory (RAM).
Insufficient memory will cause a significant increase in the use of the
systems Swap or Page
file, AKA Virtual Memory. Every little program you run takes memory
(RAM). All of the icons which represent active system programs in the
system tray are taking
memory. Using Virtual Memory takes longer because the hard drive is
slower at accessing data than real memory (RAM). Also in relation to
fragmentation the swap file used in virtual memory can become fragmented,
further increasing the access time. For performance reasons Microsoft
recommends that the swap/page file be no larger that 1.5 times the amount of
real memory (RAM). If the page file is being over used then increasing
the amount of real memory (RAM) should increase performance and decrease
page file utilization. Also removing programs which you don't use
often from the system tray would free up more real memory. Programs
like MS Messenger , AOL Instant Messenger and Spyware are
candidates for performance inhibitors. Don't run the messenger services at
startup instead put an Icon on your desktop and start them when you need
them. As for Spyware I would suggest downloading, installing and
running an application called
Spybot.
Other areas of performance
decrease include the Processor and the Hard drive itself. The
processor may be too slow to use with certain programs and the hard drive
may be starting to physically break down.
What is Spyware?
Spyware is Internet
jargon for Advertising Supported software (Adware). It is a way for
shareware authors to make money from a product, other than by selling it to
the users. There are several large media companies that offer them to place
banner ads in their products in exchange for a portion of the revenue from
banner sales. This way, you don't have to pay for the software and the
developers are still getting paid. If you find the banners annoying, there
is usually an option to remove them, by paying the regular licensing fee.
Why is it called "Spyware" ?
While this may be a great concept, the downside is that the advertising
companies also install additional tracking software on your system, which is
continuously "calling home", using your Internet connection and reports
statistical data to the "mothership". While according to the privacy
policies of the companies, there will be no sensitive or identifying data
collected from your system and you shall remain anonymous, it still remains
the fact, that you have a "live" server sitting on your PC that is sending
information about you and your surfing habits to a remote location.....
Real
spyware...
There are also many PC surveillance tools that allow a user to monitor all
kinds of activity on a computer, ranging from keystroke capture, snapshots,
email logging, chat logging and just about everything else. These tools are
often designed for parents, businesses and similar environments, but can be
easily abused if they are installed on your computer without your knowledge.
These tools are perfectly legal in most places, but, just like an ordinary
tape recorder, if they are abused, they can seriously violate your privacy.
As for Spyware's impact on
your computer.
As the amount of spyware installed on your computer increases the
performance of your computer will decrease. Each piece of spyware
loads itself on computer startup and takes a piece of
RAM memory. This
memory is no longer available to run the programs you want to run and will
cause your system to begin to run slow. See Why is my
system running slow? for an explanation of what is happening to
your computer. I would suggest downloading,
installing and running an application called
Spybot. this will find and remove most Spyware. it will also
immunize against further installation of known Spyware. it is not
perfect but will help you stay in control of your computer.
In many
XP installations you can't start the Recovery Console because it won't
recognize your password. This registry edit causes the Recovery Console not
to ask for a password. This works for both XP Home and XP Professional.
Start | Run | Regedit
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Setup\RecoveryConsole
Set the DWORD SecurityLevel value to 1
Exit Registry and Reboot
