Just last week I got slammed with a ton of email from retarded friends of mine who downloaded one worm or another and that worm found me in their address book and emailed me over and over. It prompted me to send out this email. I wish everyone in the world received this email. If it was understood and followed, worms would really be a thing of the past:
Here is the most serious virus report you will most likely ever hear in your lifetime!
The most powerful innoculant to these virii is INFORMATION.
The naive populace thinks one of three things:
1. I will never get a virus.
2. My Anti-virus software will protect me.
3. It cannot be a virus if my friend sends it to me.
"I will never get a virus":
Well, first of all, if you are running a computer, your chances of catching a virus are probably 100 times greater than catching the common cold. EVERYONE, whether you are connected to the Internet or not, is vulnerable. To think you will never get a virus is the same as thinking that you will never die. It is inevitable. Even software manufacturers have been known to unknowingly include virii in their software distributions. It can happen, very easily. You may think you don't have one now, chances are you do, you just don't know it. Many virii are quiet, and only use your machines to do the dirty work the hacker doesn't want seen coming from THEIR computer (called backdoors, technically not a virus).
"My Anti-virus software will protect me."
Most of the time, the virus is already been on the loose long before any Anti-virus software has been programmed to deal with it. Even so, for those who never update their Anti-virus software, you might as well be battling cancer with aspirin; it is useless. If you have Anti-virus software, update it DAILY! Read your software's documentation on how to set up auto-updates. Many Anti-virus software will run using your Windows scheduler. If you cannot schedule it automatically, then remind yourself to do it EVERYDAY! For example, as soon as you finish reading your email, update your Anti-virus software.
Virii contain different signatures that your Anti-virus software is programmed to recognize. As virii emerge, their signatures change, your software must update to recognize these changes! If your Anti-virus software is one week old, it is too old, in fact, it is probably quite useless. Most ISP's (your Internet provider) identify older virii in their mail spools before you ever get them. The threat is the new virii.
UPDATE YOUR ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE DAILY!
"It cannot be a virus if my friend sends it to me."
I hear this in almost every conversation I have ever had with a naive computer user. Most worms and virii do one thing before they ruin your data: Open your mail program, find your address list, mail the virus/worm to everyone on your address list OR reply to all of your mail that you have, with the virus/worm. In fact, attachments from your "friends" are more dangerous than attachments coming from strangers!
Virii are files, files have extensions, the ONLY safe extension for you to download is: .gif .jpg .jpeg .mp3 .txt .mpeg .mpg. Many virii will be named like this:
myvirus.gif.pif OR myvirus.jpg.exe
THESE ARE NOT SAFE! The extension is the LAST characters after the LAST period in the file. myvirus.jpg.exe is an executable file (it can be activated) and is therefore a threat! DOUBLE TRIPLE CHECK THE FILENAME BEFORE YOU DOWNLOAD IT! .zip files are NOT SAFE either. Virii can easily be contained in a .zip file. He who downloads the least, will be the safest!
Some people also think that if they execute the file from its location without choosing to save it is a safe way to handle files.. Wrong.. It is still being saved to your machine, in your temporary directories. From there, it can do the same damage.
Another side note, many times you receive in your email warnings about this virus and that virus. THEY ARE ALL HOAXES! No company sends out virus warnings - NONE! Many times, these are just people getting their kicks on scaring old people but sometimes these emails have another purpose. They wait until the email gets back to them and guess what? They now have the email address of everyone who was forwarded that bogus hoax! Now everyone knows what SPAM is, this is one way to get YOUR address so they can send you JUNK email.
If everyone on the Net kept the above in mind, 75-95 percent of all virii would never see the light of day!
I BEG you, please keep the above in mind during your travels on the Net, and if there is one virus warning in the world that should be forwarded to everyone on your address list, this would be the one. Hopefully, the last one!
That is the 'user' portion of your registry, and likely the only entries you found in there were the ones that keep track of items that you have searched for. As far as the virus, I don't think you have a problem.
Your ISP is another matter...;^)