How To Protect Your Computer From Viruses For Free

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Introduction

Viruses are a sad fact of life. They can be 'harmless' (if that's the right word to use) by being an annoyance, or can result in substantial data loss. This page explains a decent anti-virus strategy you can use to seal off most of the usual virus-entry methods into your computer. Best of all, all of these tools are freeware, and so there is really no reason for you not to be protected!

Ways Viruses Can Get Into Your Computer

Email and Internet downloads. Of course these are not the only ways viruses can come in, but they are probably the most common currently. A good defence strategy has to cover these entry methods and cover the others less-obvious ways.

Email viruses depend on the scripting capabilities built into Outlook and Outlook Express. Bugs and features in these clients, coupled with their popularity means they are targetted often by virus writers. A full discussion is not necessary here, but I mention this because we have to control how Windows handles script files.

Antivirus Software

Our first free tool is AVG Antivirus. This freeware antivirus tool is available for free for non-commercial users. If you qualify, register on the website and download AVG. While you are there, consider signing up to their newsletter. Upon installation, AVG will run continiously in the background, keeping an eye on the files you access (or try to) while you work. It scans email too. AVG has protected my computer from nasty viruses quite a few times now.

Scripting

In Outlook or Outlook Express, go to the security tab in the options and set them to use the 'Restricted' Internet Zone. Now go to Internet Explorer, go to the security tab in the options and disable everything! Things like 'Active Scripting', JAVA, ActiveX, etc should all be disabled.

Scripting 2

Sometimes scripts just slip through due to bugs or whatever. We want to make sure that the default way Windows handles scripts is not running them! The simplest way to do this is to have the file associations set to open the scripts in Notepad. There are two programs that I use simulatenously to add an extra layer of defence. ScriptSentry from Jason's Toolbox is a program that you can use to set all scripts to open with it. Once ScriptSentry is opened, it tells you what the script can do (like saying that the script can edit the registry; very neat), and then give you the option of opening the script file in Notepad or actually running the script. The other program is Script Defender from AnalogX. Script Defender works by intercepting all attempts to open a script file. There is no reason not to use both programs as they complement each other.

Upgrade, Update, and Keep Vigilant

Upgrade to Outlook Express 6.0. This version has enhanced security features that can disable auto-execution of attachments and allows you to set other good options. These enhancements alone are worth the upgrade.

Also, AVG continously updates its virus database - about once every 2 weeks. Download these updates as they are released. New viruses are always appearing and your antivirus software has to know about them!

Finally, a touch of paranoia shouldn't hurt. If you are not expecting an attachment from someone, tread carefully. Have AVG scan it before you open it. If it is an Office document, it can have a virus built in, and Office 2000 and above ask you before opening a file that has scripts in it if you want to disable scripting. Say yes, and if you see that the scripts (and the file) are legitimate, you can close Word or Excel (or whatever) and then open up the document with scripting enabled.

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