John
I heard about that nasty bug that is coming out tomorrow. I have good security, and my computer is fully updated. But how do you get the virus? Is it from opening emails or surfing the web? If I turn my computer and unplug the internet all day will that stop it?
Answer
You will NOT "get" the virus on April 1. On April 1, the variant C of the Conficker virus becomes active.
What does that mean?
1. It only concerns you if you already got it, you will not get infected particularly on this day. Variants A and B are already active.
2. variant C is hard to get infected with (though it is the most dangerous). It gets to you when your Windows autorun feature detects an infected pen drive, stick drive or portable drive.
3. even if Conficker C gets active on April 1st, it doesn't necessarely mean it will do something. Also, Conficker won't delete your files, grab personal info. Conficker will connect your computer into a massive virtual supercomputer made from millions of infected computers, which is called a 'botnet'. These are usually used to do big stuff, like hack government passwords, etc, but having a botnet virus (like Storm, Conficker or Kraken) won't disrupt your normal computer activity.
As a normal user, you have nothing to fear. At worst you internet connection may become a bit slower. The danger is that the Conficker botnet is thought to be made of over 9 million computers, which, if used for Denial-of-Service attacks, could cutoff a big country like the US completely off Internet.
How to tell if you're infected? Conficker prevents you from accessing antivirus sites, like kaspersky.com, bitdefender.com or patch sites like microsoft.com, msdn.com. Also, Conficker disables Windows Update to prevent patch install (Microsoft offers patches against Conficker since the middle of the month, if you're ok now, chances are you've already patched so you're good) and also disables your utility antivirus as well as Windows Defender and deletes Restore Points (if you're using the Windows Restore service).
You will NOT "get" the virus on April 1. On April 1, the variant C of the Conficker virus becomes active.
What does that mean?
1. It only concerns you if you already got it, you will not get infected particularly on this day. Variants A and B are already active.
2. variant C is hard to get infected with (though it is the most dangerous). It gets to you when your Windows autorun feature detects an infected pen drive, stick drive or portable drive.
3. even if Conficker C gets active on April 1st, it doesn't necessarely mean it will do something. Also, Conficker won't delete your files, grab personal info. Conficker will connect your computer into a massive virtual supercomputer made from millions of infected computers, which is called a 'botnet'. These are usually used to do big stuff, like hack government passwords, etc, but having a botnet virus (like Storm, Conficker or Kraken) won't disrupt your normal computer activity.
As a normal user, you have nothing to fear. At worst you internet connection may become a bit slower. The danger is that the Conficker botnet is thought to be made of over 9 million computers, which, if used for Denial-of-Service attacks, could cutoff a big country like the US completely off Internet.
How to tell if you're infected? Conficker prevents you from accessing antivirus sites, like kaspersky.com, bitdefender.com or patch sites like microsoft.com, msdn.com. Also, Conficker disables Windows Update to prevent patch install (Microsoft offers patches against Conficker since the middle of the month, if you're ok now, chances are you've already patched so you're good) and also disables your utility antivirus as well as Windows Defender and deletes Restore Points (if you're using the Windows Restore service).
How to install software on extrernal hard drive so that it works on any computer?
Rolando
How can I install software on External hard drive so that it works on any computer? As if I take it to one computer and plug the hard drive to the computer via USB and open the program from the external hard drive on that computer.
Thank you for your help.
Answer
Normal software normally gives problems when you use it on a different computer, because it usually keeps certain parts it needs on the computer you install it with, like for instance registry settings, even when you would install this software to an external hdd. Software that doesn't have this restriction is called portable software. Some newer software is designed to be portable, but there also may be software not indicated as portable that factually is portable just because it's self-contained, meaning it only needs it's own files and no installed extra's like the registry settings i mentioned. Some software can be made portable with a simple configuration-change like for instance choosing to keep it's initialization file in it's own installation map.
A nice collection of free portable software can be found here:
http://portableapps.com/apps
Below site also has some (i think) portable usable (although it's hard to be sure when it's not indicated to be portable that it wil work on all pc's because it may have hidden dependancies like standard windows dll's or registry settings) utilities like a cool system info utility:
http://www.mitec.cz/
A good example of selfcontained and therefore portable software is the utility photoview on mitec.cz. This utility has limited documentation but it can be used to explain the principle of selfcontained software and also why one shouldn't to quickly asume software is completely portable when not indicated to be portable. In the case of this utility i thought i read something about it being portable but i can't find it anymore, but given it's simplicity i think it's reasonable to assume it's portable, at least for the biggest part. Maybe the preferences may get lost when you use it on a different computer, not sure. When you download this utility and extract the zipfile you get basically 2 relevant files: photoview.exe and gdiplus.dll. Photoview.exe is the main programm-file, and gdiplus.dll is a library with functions used by photoview.exe. This gdiplus.dll file is normally also present in the c:\windows\system32 map so it normally could use that dll instead of the one kept in it's own map (when both are present the one in the map with the utility is used). But if you would happen to use this utility on a computer that hasn't gdiplus.dll it wouldn't work unless you keep that dll in the same map as photoview.exe.
PS: there is a slight difference between portable software and software that wil work on different computers. Take for instance the utility photoview i mentioned earlier. IF this utility would write some comfigurationsettings to the registry (i don't know) you wil loose those settings when you use it on a different computer, but that's not a big deal. However by doing so the utility would alter the host-computer, and portable software is supposed not to be doing that. Now is this potential registry alteration also no big deal but one should keep in mind that using a not explicitely portable utility on another computer can leave tracks on that other computer. Also using portable applications on computers that are not yours wil significantly enlarge the risk of a viral infection. 1 method to counter this is to use the portable software on a write-protected medium but then it of course can't safe any info like configuration settings.
Normal software normally gives problems when you use it on a different computer, because it usually keeps certain parts it needs on the computer you install it with, like for instance registry settings, even when you would install this software to an external hdd. Software that doesn't have this restriction is called portable software. Some newer software is designed to be portable, but there also may be software not indicated as portable that factually is portable just because it's self-contained, meaning it only needs it's own files and no installed extra's like the registry settings i mentioned. Some software can be made portable with a simple configuration-change like for instance choosing to keep it's initialization file in it's own installation map.
A nice collection of free portable software can be found here:
http://portableapps.com/apps
Below site also has some (i think) portable usable (although it's hard to be sure when it's not indicated to be portable that it wil work on all pc's because it may have hidden dependancies like standard windows dll's or registry settings) utilities like a cool system info utility:
http://www.mitec.cz/
A good example of selfcontained and therefore portable software is the utility photoview on mitec.cz. This utility has limited documentation but it can be used to explain the principle of selfcontained software and also why one shouldn't to quickly asume software is completely portable when not indicated to be portable. In the case of this utility i thought i read something about it being portable but i can't find it anymore, but given it's simplicity i think it's reasonable to assume it's portable, at least for the biggest part. Maybe the preferences may get lost when you use it on a different computer, not sure. When you download this utility and extract the zipfile you get basically 2 relevant files: photoview.exe and gdiplus.dll. Photoview.exe is the main programm-file, and gdiplus.dll is a library with functions used by photoview.exe. This gdiplus.dll file is normally also present in the c:\windows\system32 map so it normally could use that dll instead of the one kept in it's own map (when both are present the one in the map with the utility is used). But if you would happen to use this utility on a computer that hasn't gdiplus.dll it wouldn't work unless you keep that dll in the same map as photoview.exe.
PS: there is a slight difference between portable software and software that wil work on different computers. Take for instance the utility photoview i mentioned earlier. IF this utility would write some comfigurationsettings to the registry (i don't know) you wil loose those settings when you use it on a different computer, but that's not a big deal. However by doing so the utility would alter the host-computer, and portable software is supposed not to be doing that. Now is this potential registry alteration also no big deal but one should keep in mind that using a not explicitely portable utility on another computer can leave tracks on that other computer. Also using portable applications on computers that are not yours wil significantly enlarge the risk of a viral infection. 1 method to counter this is to use the portable software on a write-protected medium but then it of course can't safe any info like configuration settings.
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