Viruses...

[PJ_69]

I have a question regarding viruses... I am currently using microsoft xp, and on it I download movies, music etc. I previously had a virus, which was not that deadley and it made me more think more of my security, and protecting my files. Anyway, my question is this, if I make another windows profile, and download all my stuff there, and get a virus, is it possible for it to spread into my second profile? OR the profile starts running slow due to some program, and starts freezing will it in anyway affect my other profiles? THe reason I ask this is because I wan't to keep downloading stuff and in case I catch a virus, I want to be certain it wont spread...

[[Gandalf]]

Yes, a virus will almost always affect your whole computer. To avoid this, create another profile, but keep the level at "user" or at most "power user" (if absolutely neccessary), not "administrator". This way if you do get a virus, it won't be able to do much at all.

[PJ_69]

Okay, thanks...One more thing..that I forgot to add, if my admin account does not use a password, will the virus that got into the user level account affect the non-password protected admin acount?

P.S whats with the pink?

[[Gandalf]]

About the pink... V3 IS FINALLY HERE.

If you do not set a password, the virus will probably not be smart enough to get into that account, so no. Still, it would definately be a good idea to set a password for the admin account.

[Tony]

if the user account is able to write to system files, the entire system will be affected.

if the user account is able to write to files that will later be accessed by the administrator account, the entire system will be affected.

[Im_Emo]

i had a virus once and it shut down my whole computer now it wont boot properly i tried just about everything.....now its sitting on the floor in a corner......lol......poor,poor computer*shakes head*

[codemage]

If your admin password is blank, you're vulnerable to getting hacked on-site, but less so with actual viruses. Not a good policy, at any rate.

@Emo : try putting the XP CD in, starting up the computer, and doing a repair.

[rdrake]

PJ_69 wrote:

Okay, thanks...One more thing..that I forgot to add, if my admin account does not use a password, will the virus that got into the user level account affect the non-password protected admin acount?

It doesn't matter what you do, Winders doesn't understand file permissions very well. On a more secure operating system, the virus will get denied errors to anything but that user's files, unless of course run as root.

How do you avoid having your files infected on Winders? Pray that you don't get a virus in the first place.

[War_Caymore]

Pray is mostly all you can do. I've experimented with several ani-viruses, bu he one i find works prety well is ANTIVIR. I don' know why it's named that but it has a red umbrella for the taskbar icon. So far, nearly nothing has entered the system and i run virus checks with NORTON and ANIVIR every month or so. So far, to count, 3 trojan horses, 1 trojan hydra. The hydra took me hours to find! All in 6 months. Not bad.

[codemage]

No virus protection solution works 100% of the time, and even the best usually leave your system vulnerable in the window between virus release and protection update.

The best products are all pretty effective, and far better than nothing. Choice comes down mostly to features and memory footprint.

The safest protection, however, is safe/smart computer useage.