>How to protect your computer from being invaded. Part2: Keeping it out? These are few steps to get yourself familiar with your own computer system and what's going on when something's going on. 1. Make a copy of Notepad.exe
- For Win98, have a shortcut in C:\WINDOWS\SendTo
- For WinXP, have a shortcut in C:\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERNAME\SendTo 2.
Files you have to check for alteration. Look at their sizes, right-click on the file and send to notepad and see what's inside, DO NOT TRY TO DELETE ANYTHING, try to get familiar with what's inside because it can save you a lot of time in the future. Do a backup of each file, you can just rename the extension and keep it beside the original ones so you won't forget the location to be restored.
-autoexec.bat
-autorun.inf This is a file where EVERYTHING in it runs when the containing directory is accessed.
-boot.ini
-config.sys
-system.ini
-win.ini Windows 98 comes with an extremely useful component which is SFC.exe
located in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM. Before I move on, let me encourage you to browse every files in your computer. Windows might give you a warning before showing you any of those files but remember you're not there to delete anything. Look around so the next time you see some new files appeared, you'll know either you installed something or the virus 'installed' something. You can proudly say you know, and really do, about computers.
Now, SFC stands for System File Checker which helps you scan for file changes. Go to 'setting' and add some folders you wished to be monitored. ONLY for files in the selected
folder so don't go blaming it if it doesn't check for files in other folder. Your first run will be very scary because it'll record every single file (in the selected folder) changed after your last scan (which you never did have). Do a routine check after meal, I mean installation. Everytime you 'feed' your computer with new softwares, additional files will appear. So check for what's added, what's changed and what's deleted. Don't worry about all the pop-ups as it's only a reminder for EACH AND EVERY FILE altered. Look at the few options given. It won't hurt your computer. But please, you don't need to restore files you uninstalled purposely and if you think that the system file is essential to your computer, browse for the 'CD' in your 'back up' partition. 3. Icons
This is a very good way to PREVENT you from simply double-clicking virus or trojan in disguised. Go get yourself some
Icons over the internet and start replacing them with your most frequently 'double-clicked' files. I have my comp filled with icons of my idols and pretty girls I made myself. It'll look suspicious when a *.zip file you downloaded doesn't look like your idol, right? So, go ahead and personalise your computer and it's legal because Microsoft allows you to change your icons through your folder's option WITHOUT any additional softwares. Else it won't be called Personal Computer(PC), right? 4. Another tool is MSConfig.exe located in C:\Windows\System32\Dllcache\ for windows XP and
MSConfig.exe located in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ for Win98. It lets you configure your boot setting among others, which you can see what's going on and also the option to choose to 'tell' your PC what to do during start up.
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