Windows Security Alert

Wow, my posts are like buses; nothing for ages, then two at the same time.

A new Windows security vulnerability has been identified which allows bad guys to install software on your PC if you visit a malicious website or view an email (even in the preview pane). They can install anything they want including viruses, trojans, keyloggers (to capture banking passwords etc), spambot software, adware, etc.

Your firewall and antivirus software will not protect you. Microsoft will announce a patch for this, but maybe not until the second Tuesday of October. Meanwhile, there’s an easy, temporary solution you can implement yourself (see below).

You can read up on this at Microsoft.com or GRC.com. If you want to skip the reading and just solve the problem, here’s what to do:

Highlight the entire text on the next line, then right-click the highlighted text and select copy
regsvr32 -u “%CommonProgramFiles%Microsoft SharedVGXvgx.dll”
Click Start
Click Run
Press the backspace or delete key to delete the text in the box
Right-click that box, and select Paste. The text above will now appear in the white box.
Click OK.
After a few seconds, a windows box will pop-up entitled RegSvr32. Select OK.

This will protect you until Microsoft fixes the problem. They will do so as part of their Windows Update programme. When they do, I’ll post again with instructions on how to disable this temporary fix. I’ll probably get round to a series of posts on how to protect your PC at some point too.