Follow these steps to minimize your risk of infecting your computer with a virus, or losing valuable data. Do not start your computer when a diskette is in the floppy drive. Boot sector viruses infect the boot sector of floppy disks and the partition or boot sector of hard disks, when an infected floppy is used to boot the computer. Be selective and cautious about the software that you install on your computer. Executable file viruses infect program files, and often originate from freeware, shareware, and sometimes even shrink-wrapped software sold through retail channels.
Macro viruses infect the macros within document and spreadsheet files.
Infected files that are attached to e-mail messages then sent to others spread the virus when the attached file is opened. If a macro warning appears when opening an attachment, choose to disable macros. It is not always evident that your computer is infected with a virus, since its survival depends upon being undetected by the host machine. Users should scan all computer drives on at least a monthly basis. If a virus is detected, follow the on-screen instructions to remove the virus and clean infected files.