Getting rid of macro viruses?
I'm posting this question one more time in hopes of getting a response. (I had no takers last time.)
Hope this question sin't going over old ground, but after reading various discussion threads, I'm still uncertain as to what I should do. Here's my story. My teen-age son acquired a macro virus that infected many of his MS Word documents.(How many I'm not sure.) Not satisfied with that, he brought one of his infected Word documents onto my G5 and proceeded to infect my Word documents. To end the annoying macro warning that now often pops up when opening a Word document, I turned off that security setting in MS Word on both computers. But now I'm wondering what my next step (if any) should be. Does it really matter that I have Word documents infected with macro viruses. The viruses themselves don't seem to do any harm. But something tells me that keeping the macro warning setting turned off is not a good idea.
On a previous thread, one commentor suggested that one could get rid of macros by deleting the "normal" template in MS Word. But what are the implications of doing that? Will it mean that when I open blank Word documents, they won't have a familar formatting?
I've also thought about buying an anto-virus program -- Intego, specifically -- in order to disinfect my infected Word files. But I've seen some discussion commentators say that Intego contributed to system instability on their computers. And some have said that Intego has prevented them from running "Repair Disk Permissions" successfully.
I've also thought about downloading the freeware program, ClamXav, but as I understand it, ClamXav is just a scanner that will quarantine infected documents but cannot disinfect them.
So, I seem to be faced with three options:
1) Do nothing and keep the macro warning setting turned off
2) Try dis-infecting with Intego and hope it doesn't screw up stability.
3) Download ClamXav and quarantine dozens --- maybe hundreds --- of Word files.
All advice will be gratefully received.
Hope this question sin't going over old ground, but after reading various discussion threads, I'm still uncertain as to what I should do. Here's my story. My teen-age son acquired a macro virus that infected many of his MS Word documents.(How many I'm not sure.) Not satisfied with that, he brought one of his infected Word documents onto my G5 and proceeded to infect my Word documents. To end the annoying macro warning that now often pops up when opening a Word document, I turned off that security setting in MS Word on both computers. But now I'm wondering what my next step (if any) should be. Does it really matter that I have Word documents infected with macro viruses. The viruses themselves don't seem to do any harm. But something tells me that keeping the macro warning setting turned off is not a good idea.
On a previous thread, one commentor suggested that one could get rid of macros by deleting the "normal" template in MS Word. But what are the implications of doing that? Will it mean that when I open blank Word documents, they won't have a familar formatting?
I've also thought about buying an anto-virus program -- Intego, specifically -- in order to disinfect my infected Word files. But I've seen some discussion commentators say that Intego contributed to system instability on their computers. And some have said that Intego has prevented them from running "Repair Disk Permissions" successfully.
I've also thought about downloading the freeware program, ClamXav, but as I understand it, ClamXav is just a scanner that will quarantine infected documents but cannot disinfect them.
So, I seem to be faced with three options:
1) Do nothing and keep the macro warning setting turned off
2) Try dis-infecting with Intego and hope it doesn't screw up stability.
3) Download ClamXav and quarantine dozens --- maybe hundreds --- of Word files.
All advice will be gratefully received.
G5 and G4 Powerbook, Mac OS X (10.4.8)
