The same goes for any files you download off the Internet or a bulletin-board service or any other computer network including files from the office. Trust no one, scan everything. Screen savers, which were originally designed to prevent images from burning into a computer monitor, are no longer a necessity. People use them because they're fun. You can have everything from Beavis and Butthead to tropical fish dancing across your computer screen these days.
Consultants say that many screen-saver programs eventually turn out to be troublesome.
Not only do they take up space on your hard-disk drive, butthey can leave nasty traces of software code that will trip you up when you least expect it. It's not just screen savers. Consultants say you should think twice before adding any feature-oriented software that's not essential to your work or play. One consultant goes so far as to recommend that you not only stay away from computer confection, but you wipe your hard disk drive clean every six months with a program such as Norton Utilities for Windows 95. By cleaning your hard drive and reloading only the latest versions of the software you are using, your computer will run faster, and you'll be less likely to hit an unexpected snag.