OK, it's been reported everywhere: Surely you've heard of the "Love Bug," which sends you a message called "IL*VEYO*." (I've replaced the letters "O" with asterisks so this email won't trigger virus filters that might think that this note contains the actual bug--- it does not!) If you click on the Love Bug's attached file, you set off a chain of events: the virus/worm messes up many, many files on your hard drive, tries to install a password-stealing application on your system, and then mails copies of itself to everyone in your Outlook address book. It's bad.

It affected far more people than "Melissa" did a while back, in part because Melissa limited itself to the first 50 names in an address book, and in part because --- this is my guess--- people open the mail wanting to believe that someone secretly loves them!

Within 24 hours, the Love Bug had been cloned as a message called something like "Joke for you" with an attachment called VERY_FUNNY. Soon others appeared: The Mother's Day worm appears as an email verification of a purchase of a diamond necklace for Mother's Day; the fake invoice attachment is called Mothersday. There's another variant with the subject line "Susitikim shi vakara kavos puodukui," and an attachment called Susitikim. And so on; there'll be many more clones before it's run its course.

While there are email worms/viruses that auto-run, the Love Bug (and its clones and knock-offs) aren't like that: *You have to click on the attachment* to make anything happen. Thus, this kind of infection is *totally* preventable with no tools, antivirus apps or anything else: Just never, ever, ever open any file you don't recognize or about whose contents you are not 100% sure.

For example, the Love Bug and its clones both involve attachments whose filenames end in "VBS" meaning they are Visual Basic Scripts: clicking on the file will run the script. But even if you had no idea what a "vbs" file was, the rule should apply: Don't open any file, ever, if you don't know what it is or what it does.

"Don't click" sounds almost too simple to be an effective remedy, but that's really all it takes to stop this kind of worm/virus in its tracks. For example, I was sent five copies of the Love Bug by various people, but because I never run any unknown files on my system, I didn't click on the script and so my machine wasn't infected. Easy as pie.

There are many kinds of files besides .VBS that can run on your system, or that can contain hidden macros or scripts that can damage your files: The safest practice is simply to delete *any* unknown files you're sent; don't even try to figure out what they are.

If that's too draconian and you don't want to delete them immediately, still don't open them: Instead, write back to the person who sent it to you and ask them what it is. (If that person's system is infected with a worm/virus, they may not even know they're sending out the file!) If the attachment is valid, they'll tell you what it is and what it does. Likewise, if you get a supposed invoice from a company you never deal with, write to the company and ask them to send you a plain-text invoice, or to phone you (if your order was real, they'll already have your phone number and credit card info; if they can't phone back or don't have your card number, you'll know they're frauds.) 

Finally, keep your antivirus apps up to date, and use them to manually scan any file you're curious about *before* you open it, even if someone tells you it's safe. (They could be mistaken, after all.)

If you don't have an antivirus app, you can get a pretty good one for free (see item #1)  from here: http://www.cai.com/products/inoculateit.htm

Some people are recommending that you disable scripting in your browser and on your system as a way to defeat these worms/viruses. That works, but also has many other side effects. For example, a number of anti-virus apps depend on scripts to update themselves; and many, many web sites use scripting too. Turning of scripting can help you avoid one kind of worm/virus, but can end up causing you a world of hassle and grief elsewhere.

For a host of worms/viruses of the "Love Bug" sort that depend on a degree of user participation to do their damage, all you really have to do is keep your guard up and decline to click on any unknown attachments; and you'll be safe.

Click to email this item to a friend
 http://www.langa.com/sendit.htm

return to top of page

3) How To Shrink Your Start Menu...

Man, you folks are great! Two weeks ago, I described a reader's desire to convert his too-tall Win98 scrolling Start Menu into a Win95-style Menu that opens out into multiple side-by-side columns. I asked, "Now, about that multi-column trick---any ideas?" (See http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-04-24.htm#3 )

Many, many of you took the time to track down the solution and to send it along. Thanks to all who wrote! Here are some of the answers:

Re: Doug Graybill's Start menu problem, have a look at http://www.woram.com/regtips.htm  and scroll down to "A Scroll-Killer for the Programs Menu."---John Woram

I should have known John would have an answer---if it has anything to do with the Windows Registry, he's the man to ask. In fact, John literally wrote the book on the Registry, both for Win98 ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558285911/langacom ) and Win95 ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/155828494X/langacom ) Check 'em out!

In reply to your question, check out this site, WINDOWS 98 ANNOYANCES: http://www.annoyances.org/cgi-bin/ce-showtopic/004_009 ---Bob Armstrong

That's another great resource, and they have an excellent book, too: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565924177/langacom

Get X-Setup from http://www.xteq.com . X-Setup is a SUPPORTED (& free) replacement for TweakUI. One of the options is the old multiple column start-up menu which I use.--- JW

X-Setup is a cool tool indeed. It has so many options it may be a little daunting at first, but it's both powerful and free--- what's not to like? 8-)

In W2k you can go to Start->Settings->Taskbar&Start Menu and click to bring up the start menu properties. On the advanced tab there is a click box to "scroll the programs menu." Unchecking this should do the trick.---Lee Langston

Thanks, Lee. I'll be including more info on Win2K in the newsletter as more people switch to it, too.

But note that there can be problems with the multi-column display. In fact, these problems were why Microsoft switched to the scrolling menu in the first place, as this note explains:

Fred, I remember that Win95 used to wrap to multiple columns by default when the start menu became loaded. Microsoft changed that behavior with IE4.x and Win98. The reasoning for the change, and how to revert to Win95's default, are explained in the following link. Given the nature of the UI as presented below, I think that a reg hack, if one exists, would be ill-advised and likely counter-productive. Your suggestion to delete shortcuts or to use folder consolidation within the menu or on the desktop appears to be the optimal solution. See http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q125/6/33.asp  -- Bob Harrell

Thanks, Bob, and to everyone who contributed.

So: The multi-column view isn't a panacea, but if you want it, now you know how to get it.

In the next issue, I'll present some additional tips for *speeding up* your start menus--- regardless of whether you use the multi-column or scrolling view. Stay tuned!

Click to email this item to a friend
 http://www.langa.com/sendit.htm

return to top of page

-------------( Please Visit This LangaList Sponsor!) ------------

You're reading this---
and so do over 1,000,000 others each month!