After downloading free wallpaper from what appeared to be a Windows site I
got a virus in the bargain. I thank Avast for their assistance.
It appears that the Microsoft, Windows, and Vista logos are used by every
con artist out there. How can I tell the real Microsoft sites from the
frauds? Thanks, Wayne
--



Wayne L.

The real Microsoft resides at <subsection>.microsoft.com.

BTW, it won't be the wallpaper you downloaded that had the virus, it will be
that it came in a executable download, or they asked you to install software
before they'd let you have it.

--
Dave Harry

"Wayne L." <WayneL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D97FAE7C-F24F-481E-8DEF-7A64BD209608@microsoft.com...
> After downloading free wallpaper from what appeared to be a Windows site I
> got a virus in the bargain. I thank Avast for their assistance.
> It appears that the Microsoft, Windows, and Vista logos are used by every
> con artist out there. How can I tell the real Microsoft sites from the
> frauds? Thanks, Wayne
> --
>
>
>
> Wayne L.

Being a "newbie" I don't understand "executable download", but I'll do the
research.
I selected the wallpaper, then clicked "download" and it ended on my
desktop. No installing a program involved. The paper was blurry anyways.
Thanks, I'll be more careful now. Wayne. PS An afterthought - does this mean
that wallpaper (or anything else) from a true Microsoft site can carry a
virus?
--



Wayne L.


"Dave Harry" wrote:

> The real Microsoft resides at <subsection>.microsoft.com.
>
> BTW, it won't be the wallpaper you downloaded that had the virus, it will be
> that it came in a executable download, or they asked you to install software
> before they'd let you have it.
>
> --
> Dave Harry
>
> "Wayne L." <WayneL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:D97FAE7C-F24F-481E-8DEF-7A64BD209608@microsoft.com...
> > After downloading free wallpaper from what appeared to be a Windows site I
> > got a virus in the bargain. I thank Avast for their assistance.
> > It appears that the Microsoft, Windows, and Vista logos are used by every
> > con artist out there. How can I tell the real Microsoft sites from the
> > frauds? Thanks, Wayne
> > --
> >
> >
> >
> > Wayne L.
>
>
>

Hi Wayne,

It means someone was trying to dupe you into installing their software. No
legitimate Microsoft site would do this.

Generally, image files for wallpaper would not have executable file
extensions (.exe, .com, .bat, .msc), but rather image extensions like .jpg,
..gif, .png, or .tif. Beware of .zip files as well, as they are compressed
files that may contain images, or they may contain unwanted malware (and
there is virtually no way of knowing until you execute it in some cases). In
many cases, if you have the image open in a browser, you can simply right
click it and use the option to "Save picture as..."

I strongly recommend that you open folder options in the control panel and
disable the line on the view tab to hide file extensions for known file
types. Doing this will allow you to see the extension of every file that you
work with and may help you in preventing malware from getting on your
system. Why the default position for this is to hide them I do not know.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Wayne L." <WayneL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7A5702C6-F711-417C-86F6-0034D2831364@microsoft.com...
> Being a "newbie" I don't understand "executable download", but I'll do
> the
> research.
> I selected the wallpaper, then clicked "download" and it ended on my
> desktop. No installing a program involved. The paper was blurry anyways.
> Thanks, I'll be more careful now. Wayne. PS An afterthought - does this
> mean
> that wallpaper (or anything else) from a true Microsoft site can carry a
> virus?
> --
>
>
>
> Wayne L.
>
>
> "Dave Harry" wrote:
>
>> The real Microsoft resides at <subsection>.microsoft.com.
>>
>> BTW, it won't be the wallpaper you downloaded that had the virus, it will
>> be
>> that it came in a executable download, or they asked you to install
>> software
>> before they'd let you have it.
>>
>> --
>> Dave Harry
>>
>> "Wayne L." <WayneL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:D97FAE7C-F24F-481E-8DEF-7A64BD209608@microsoft.com...
>> > After downloading free wallpaper from what appeared to be a Windows
>> > site I
>> > got a virus in the bargain. I thank Avast for their assistance.
>> > It appears that the Microsoft, Windows, and Vista logos are used by
>> > every
>> > con artist out there. How can I tell the real Microsoft sites from the
>> > frauds? Thanks, Wayne
>> > --
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Wayne L.
>>
>>
>>

Hello Wayne,

Both Dave and Rick have offered you some good advice. There is a Help and
Support topic named "When to trust a website" that you might also find
helpful:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...79c331033.mspx

Because you have identified yourself as a newbie, you might find the
"Understanding security and safe computing" Help and Support topic useful,
too:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...5987f1033.mspx

Between these topics and Dave and Rick' advice, I hope you feel as though
you can download with more confidence.

Dave--

In the last two-three years, the real MSFT has been exponentially residing
at urls that are not www.microsoft.com or <subsection>.microsoft.com

I have seen several websites that are MSFT websites that have off-beat urls
and they increase every day. They usually have © Microsoft at the bottom.
They don't have the same IP address.

www.popfly.com
http://on10.net
http://hive.net

are but 3 of many examples I could put up.

CH

"Dave Harry" <DaveHarry@please.keep.replies.in.the.newsgroup> wrote in
message news:OvThVZEnHHA.4412@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> The real Microsoft resides at <subsection>.microsoft.com.
>
> BTW, it won't be the wallpaper you downloaded that had the virus, it will
> be that it came in a executable download, or they asked you to install
> software before they'd let you have it.
>
> --
> Dave Harry
>
> "Wayne L." <WayneL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:D97FAE7C-F24F-481E-8DEF-7A64BD209608@microsoft.com...
>> After downloading free wallpaper from what appeared to be a Windows site
>> I
>> got a virus in the bargain. I thank Avast for their assistance.
>> It appears that the Microsoft, Windows, and Vista logos are used by every
>> con artist out there. How can I tell the real Microsoft sites from the
>> frauds? Thanks, Wayne
>> --
>>
>>
>>
>> Wayne L.
>
>

Thank all of you for your help. It is the bottommost address that one should
look at to authenticate the site, not addresses imbedded in the text, or so I
assume. A Trivia Question and one that has been driving me nuts - what are
the listings called that appear when you do a search? For instance, the
55,000,000 entries for "Beatles". Are they part of a webage? Who creates
these? The answer to this is optional. You've all done plenty already.
Thanks, Wayne.
--



Wayne L.


"Dave Harry" wrote:

> The real Microsoft resides at <subsection>.microsoft.com.
>
> BTW, it won't be the wallpaper you downloaded that had the virus, it will be
> that it came in a executable download, or they asked you to install software
> before they'd let you have it.
>
> --
> Dave Harry
>
> "Wayne L." <WayneL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:D97FAE7C-F24F-481E-8DEF-7A64BD209608@microsoft.com...
> > After downloading free wallpaper from what appeared to be a Windows site I
> > got a virus in the bargain. I thank Avast for their assistance.
> > It appears that the Microsoft, Windows, and Vista logos are used by every
> > con artist out there. How can I tell the real Microsoft sites from the
> > frauds? Thanks, Wayne
> > --
> >
> >
> >
> > Wayne L.
>
>
>

Hi Wayne,

It's called phishing when the actual link is different than the one that
appears in text. It's a very common method used to trick users into going
someplace other than where they think they're going.

Trivia Answer: What are the listings? They are nothing more than a display
of the index of web pages that the search engine has gathered that contains
the terms searched on. The index is created by the search site.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Wayne L." <WayneL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C30FD179-7319-489E-9B87-2B06B1AE66CE@microsoft.com...
> Thank all of you for your help. It is the bottommost address that one
> should
> look at to authenticate the site, not addresses imbedded in the text, or
> so I
> assume. A Trivia Question and one that has been driving me nuts - what are
> the listings called that appear when you do a search? For instance, the
> 55,000,000 entries for "Beatles". Are they part of a webage? Who creates
> these? The answer to this is optional. You've all done plenty already.
> Thanks, Wayne.
> --
>
>
>
> Wayne L.
>
>
> "Dave Harry" wrote:
>
>> The real Microsoft resides at <subsection>.microsoft.com.
>>
>> BTW, it won't be the wallpaper you downloaded that had the virus, it will
>> be
>> that it came in a executable download, or they asked you to install
>> software
>> before they'd let you have it.
>>
>> --
>> Dave Harry
>>
>> "Wayne L." <WayneL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:D97FAE7C-F24F-481E-8DEF-7A64BD209608@microsoft.com...
>> > After downloading free wallpaper from what appeared to be a Windows
>> > site I
>> > got a virus in the bargain. I thank Avast for their assistance.
>> > It appears that the Microsoft, Windows, and Vista logos are used by
>> > every
>> > con artist out there. How can I tell the real Microsoft sites from the
>> > frauds? Thanks, Wayne
>> > --
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Wayne L.
>>
>>
>>

Thanks to all of you very much. Wayne.
--



Wayne L.


"Rick Rogers" wrote:

> Hi Wayne,
>
> It's called phishing when the actual link is different than the one that
> appears in text. It's a very common method used to trick users into going
> someplace other than where they think they're going.
>
> Trivia Answer: What are the listings? They are nothing more than a display
> of the index of web pages that the search engine has gathered that contains
> the terms searched on. The index is created by the search site.
>
> --
> Best of Luck,
>
> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
> My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com
>
> "Wayne L." <WayneL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:C30FD179-7319-489E-9B87-2B06B1AE66CE@microsoft.com...
> > Thank all of you for your help. It is the bottommost address that one
> > should
> > look at to authenticate the site, not addresses imbedded in the text, or
> > so I
> > assume. A Trivia Question and one that has been driving me nuts - what are
> > the listings called that appear when you do a search? For instance, the
> > 55,000,000 entries for "Beatles". Are they part of a webage? Who creates
> > these? The answer to this is optional. You've all done plenty already.
> > Thanks, Wayne.
> > --
> >
> >
> >
> > Wayne L.
> >
> >
> > "Dave Harry" wrote:
> >
> >> The real Microsoft resides at <subsection>.microsoft.com.
> >>
> >> BTW, it won't be the wallpaper you downloaded that had the virus, it will
> >> be
> >> that it came in a executable download, or they asked you to install
> >> software
> >> before they'd let you have it.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Dave Harry
> >>
> >> "Wayne L." <WayneL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> news:D97FAE7C-F24F-481E-8DEF-7A64BD209608@microsoft.com...
> >> > After downloading free wallpaper from what appeared to be a Windows
> >> > site I
> >> > got a virus in the bargain. I thank Avast for their assistance.
> >> > It appears that the Microsoft, Windows, and Vista logos are used by
> >> > every
> >> > con artist out there. How can I tell the real Microsoft sites from the
> >> > frauds? Thanks, Wayne
> >> > --
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Wayne L.
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>