Virus Hunter
It is getting harder to keep up with the new computer viruses these days. You cannot even count on your antivirus protection to catch everything, and sometimes it cannot fix all the viruses it does catch, especially if the virus has corrupted your registry files deep within your operating system.
Over the last year or so North America has been hit with many viruses that have captured address books and contact lists from email programs. These viruses have then emailed themselves to everyone on the various lists. (Usually in the last week of the month). The emails may ask for your advice, and will include attachments. The extensions on these attachments are usually .scr or .pid. Or it may be .exe, which is an executable file or program. DO NOT OPEN THESE. .
You should keep your address book anywhere other than your email program.
In fact, most of us doing online business do not send attachments,
We paste our messages to the body of the email so we are sending out safe content.
It is all right to open attachments you recognize as long as it is from someone you know and you check the extensions. If you do not recognize them, then delete them. Then empty your deleted items folder.  This is fine for the most common types of viruses. Others will be harder to get rid of. Your awareness is the first line of defense.
Most viruses can be removed from your computer. It is a tricky business to remove all traces of a virus from your hard drive, and removal should be done by a professional, although an experienced user will be able to get direction online for handling virus removal. As a last resort, you may need to reformat your hard drive and reload your operating system and programs.
You should back up your documents and anything you do not want to loose when you have to start over again. You can usually restart your computer in safe mode and save or send your files to an external source. This will make it much easer to get back up and running if you need to start over.
Try and keep your operating system, browsers and email programs updated, this may give you a little edge when you have to fight off a virus. As you can imagine, there is lots of information on line about viruses and it would pay to familiarize yourself with the latest tricks to avoiding them.
 Anyone who has been around computers for any length of time has gone through the chore of starting over many times. It is as much a part of computing as say, clicking a mouse.
 George Horton
      www.kcnb.ca