Virus infection

[A.]

Hi

If I where to put a CD with a virus on it in my computer, could my computer
be infected if I only explore the top level of the files, and don't execute
any exe files? I also have Kaspersky AV installed as well.
If I'm not mistanken I have to actuelly run an exe file to execute a virus,
or am I wrong?

/A

 

[Bob F.]

Hi

If I where to put a CD with a virus on it in my computer, could my
computer be infected if I only explore the top level of the files, and
don't execute any exe files? I also have Kaspersky AV installed as well.
If I'm not mistanken I have to actuelly run an exe file to execute a
virus, or am I wrong?

/A

Yes and no. If a CD has a virus on it, the transfer and execution mechanism
may be unknown to you. The virus file may look benign but it can be
transferred to one of your main drives, morph into a .exe and run. There
may be a co-conspirator program in your computer that could make this
happen. Best NOT to invite any virus into your computer whether you think
it can run or not. These guys are getting more and more clever.
Bob F.

 

[A.]

Ok,

But the CD's in questions are 7-10 years old.
Would such old CD's still pose a problem for Vista? I mean, the Vista wasn't
even known back then.
But even though my AV didn't detect anything, should I reinstall my machine
(The AV hasn't found anything when I ran a full scan afterwards)

/A

 

[Bob F.]

Ok,

But the CD's in questions are 7-10 years old.
Would such old CD's still pose a problem for Vista? I mean, the Vista
wasn't even known back then.
But even though my AV didn't detect anything, should I reinstall my
machine (The AV hasn't found anything when I ran a full scan afterwards)

The issue is risk level. It's never zero, but in the case you just cited
it's pretty low...close to zero I'd think. There are no age limits for
programs to run. They may have been designed to run on an older machine and
still run fine on a new modern machines and OS's. They may or may not be
compatible.
Bob F.

 

[A.]

The issue is risk level. It's never zero, but in the case you just cited
it's pretty low...close to zero I'd think. There are no age limits for
programs to run. They may have been designed to run on an older machine
and still run fine on a new modern machines and OS's. They may or may not
be compatible.
Bob F.

I guess I would be safe as long as Kaspersky didn't detect anything when I
browsed the CD's :, and when I ran the system scan.

/A.

 

[Mark]

Not trying to berate you...
....but, if you are that worried about getting a virus from a 10 year old CD:

What are you doing on the internet?

Living in fear will cause you to die 10 years early.
It takes 20 minutes to restore a backup.

 

[A.]

Hi

I'm not worried, but I found the questions a bit intriguing
There's been a lot information about how secure Vista is supposed to be,
with the UAC, and IE in secure mode. And if say an old virus should surface,
how would Vista hold up againt it?
I guess viruses such as Melissa and Lovelettet wouldn't affect much harm on
a machine running Office/outlook 2007.
but quite often we see Windows XP machines get infected, and hope that
Vista's design would decrease this.

/A