Stop Those Scripts!

This past spring sprouted more malicious e-mail viruses than tulips in a Dutch field. These little nasties tend to rely on Visual Basic scripts and bear such provocative names as SexyPicture. JPG.VBS. If Windows suppresses the extension of a recognizable file, as it does by default, people are lulled into thinking it's a JPEG graphic, and they double-click on it, thus launching the Visual Basic program and infecting their systems.

This month's tipster suggests a simple and effective way to stop those scripts.

Dear Alfred: Most users rarely need to run Visual Basic, so here's an easy way to block viruses that rely on scripts. Using Notepad, create a text file called TEMP.VBS and save it to the Desktop. Hold down the Shift key, right-click on the new icon, select "Open with," and click Notepad. Finally, check "Always use this program to open this type of file." Now, if you try to open a potentially dangerous attachment, it opens in Notepad and doesn't run. If you need to run the script, save it to your computer, then drag and drop it onto Internet Explorer.

Thomas McGrath

That's an ideal tip: quick, easy, and free. Changing the association for the Visual Basic script file type prevents the scripts from executing, and by opening Notepad, you even get to see its contents.