Thanks for the response Noel.

"Noel Paton" wrote in message
...
Yes - Stinger is a targeted utility for the removal of a number of
worms -
many of which have the subsidiary function of switching off
traditional
anti-virus programs.

You can have the most efficient, and up-to-date virus scanner in the
world,
and it's of no use at all if it's switched off by a worm!

Stinger of itself is no use - it's purely effective against variants
of
about 40 worms - without also running a traditional AV immediately
afterwards, but what it does, it does well, and is the type of tool
that
worms have little defence against - for the simple reason that it
can be
almost totally redesigned every issue, if necessary, while a
traditional AV
is locked into an upgrade/update cycle.

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2005, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to
NG's

"Dapper Dan" wrote in message
...
Noel
I notice that you frequently recommend downloading and running
STINGER
for potential virus and/or spyware problems. Is STINGER any
different
from other AV programs ?

"Noel Paton" wrote in message
...
You may have a virus/spyware hijack

download the Stinger from here and run it to make sure that
A-V-disabling
viruses are not present on your PC
http://download.nai.com/products/mca...rt/stinger.exe

- update your virus scanner and run a full system scan of all
files.

download AdAware SE Personal Edition from www.lavasoftusa.com,
install,
update, and run it to remove spyware, adware, and other such
nasties
from
your system.

See what that lot reports - and then say that the risk of malware
is
low!!
Getting 'hacked' isn't the problem - the problem is getting hit
with
malware
either from a drive-by installation from a website, or from
'accidentally'
installing the wrong program.

--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2005, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages
to
NG's

"randau" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've been faithfully installing Windows'ME Critical Updates
for some time now and my system seems to be getting more and
more unstable. I now get a blue screen crash almost every
day and sometimes more than one a day. They are randomly
erratic having no particular pattern or cause.

Critical Updates appear to consist of an endless number of
security updates to protect against hackers or deviant web
sites accessing your computer. I'm not aware of there ever
being an attempt to hack into my computer nor am I aware of
anyone I know having had that experience. With the millions
of web sites and hundreds of millions of users online
everyday, the probability of getting hacked must be pretty
low (especially for an on and off dial-up connection).

The endless succession of Critical Updates never seem to
offer fixes for known system bugs, which I would appreciate.

I'm wondering if there isn't a connection between the
endless procession of Critical Update patches and the
increasing instability of the operating system. Might I be
and have been better off ignoring the Critical Updates?

-randau
Oregon, USA

I read and post from the Google Groups web site using a
Spam collecting email address that I don't use for
anything else. So if someone wants to contact me,
please cleanup and use the Spam resistant Email address
below.

randau2...(at)...proaxis.com