Increased Virus Activity and Debug errors

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cracker Jacks
  • Start date Start date
C

Cracker Jacks

I just upgraded to WinXp from Win98. I am very pleased with it's performance
over Win98 however I have had a couple of issues come up.

The first is I have increased virus activity. I do use virus protection
which it does warn me. With Win98 I hardly ever got a virus through to the
system.

The second issue is I get a bug error in IE 6 quite often when I am browsing
web pages.

Both of these items seem to point in the direction of security levels (maybe
the bug error I am getting in IE 6 is because of script / programs trying to
install virus or other similar attacks through WinXp).

I do have a 3rd party Firewall installed also. I do have all the latest
WinXp and associated software updates installed.

Any comments or suggestions on security level settings/virus
prevention/firewall safety with WinXp Home?
 
Hi,

I think it's more likely that you are now more aware of the activity, and
keep in mind that it's not all viral. Some activity may simply be a normal
part of the program or page being accessed. Antivirus programs, in addition
to being able to detect known viruses, nowadays use heuristics. These enable
the program to detect patterns of behavior known to indicate a possible
viral infection. It doesn't mean they all are, it means the activity being
looked at is behaving in the same fashion a virus does. The user should look
at this possible indication and try and decipher if they know what this
program is, and if it should be doing that.

As to the scripting issues, go to the Control Panel/Internet
Options/Advanced tab.

Enable (check) the line: "Disable script debugging"
Disable (uncheck) the line: "Display a notification about every script
error"

Hope this helps,

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
 
Very true plus over the years I have found that when I receive a virus /
trojan warning it is usually is a malicious piece of code trying to do
something in the line of ad-ware, tracking ect. Yes the debug switches
helped. Thanks much appreciate it. Seems like as I get older, software is
becoming more complicated or is it more complicated because I am getting
older? <grin>
 
Hi,

The XP firewall is fine, the only thing with it is that it only prevents
incoming traffic. It does not notify you of or block outgoing traffic (for
instance when a trojan file gets onto your machine). For those, you would
need to use a third party program. If you do, make sure you disable the XP
firewall to prevent conflicts.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
 
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