Creating A Virus Filter In Microsoft Outlook Express
Many viruses are spread through attachments to emails that contain programs that infect your system, then spread by mailing itself to people in your contact lists. If you don't activate the attachment, you won't infect your system or spread the virus. The step-by-step process below will automatically delete attachments that are visual basic scripts, thereby dramatically reducing the likelihood that you will inadvertently infect yourself and spread the virus.
In the Microsoft Outlook Express main window:
- Click on the [Tools] menu.
- Select [Message Rules], then select [Mail].
- In section 1, put a check in the boxes labeled "Where the message body contains specific words" and "Where the message has an attachment."
- In section 2, put a check in the box labeled "Delete it."
- In section 3, click on the blue underlined words that say "contains specific words." This will bring up a new dialog box for you to specify the types of files that you want to automatically block. Add .vbs, .com, .exe, and .js - all of which can infect your system with viruses.
- In section 4 of the New Mail Rule dialog box, give your new rule a name you can remember. We called ours "Virus Containment Rule #1."
- On the main Message Rules dialog box, click [Okay] to save the rule.
Note, you can also create specific rules for viruses that you know keep coming back. For instance, you can search the subject line for "I love you" and have any such messages automatically deleted.
Remember, now any message with any of these phrases will be deleted from your system.
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