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Question
I had written . . . to you on January 4th [about] problems with Windows Me. I did install the [XP home upgrade] on my computer. I have given it some time to see how it is and I love it! I have not had one of the problems that I wrote about again. . . .
The only problem I had is that I got the Blaster Worm virus almost right away. I had never had any virus problem before and did read that [Windows] Me doesn't get that one. [However,] could I have carried the potential for the virus from e-mails and other things that I put on a CD when I reformatted? . . . . I put Norton [AntiVirus] on as soon as I could and did the updates on their site. As I loaded on some things from my CD the Norton thing came up right away and said that it detected the Blaster Worm virus and it took care of it. . . . [I've run] the virus check [several times since then] and it always comes up 0 infected files. . . .
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Carolyn,
Detroit Lakes, MN
Answer
The "Tech Talk staff" replied:
What you describe could have happened as you guess or it might have gotten into your system by another means. It's one of those things that would be very difficult to trace back and determine for certain. The best advice at this point would be to make sure you keep up with virus definition updates by using the LiveUpdate function in Norton AntiVirus. While Symantec normally posts new definitions on Wednesdays I usually recommend that people run the LiveUpdate at least once a day. It's usually easiest to remember to do it the first time you connect to the Internet for the day. This will assure that you have the latest available protection and will give you the greatest chances of keeping other viruses from your system.
For the future, should you need to upgrade your system software again, or if you simply need to move documents from one computer to another, make sure to use the scanning feature of Norton AntiVirus to scan the diskette, CD, Zip disk, or other media immediately after you create it and before you use it in another computer. Then, lock the media, if that's possible. (CDs, by their very nature, cannot be rewritten so it's not an issue with them. That's not so with rewritable CDs, of course.) That way nothing more can be written to the media, including viruses.
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