What are scripts?

sheilajim · Post by **sheilajim** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 1:43 am

Half an hour ago, I got a message purportedly from Microsoft.

The Message said:

There is a script running on your computer. It is slowing your computer down and will eventually make your computer unresponsive. Do you want us to remove this scrip.
It gave 2 options, Yes and Close.
Since I had now idea what this was all about, I closed the box.

Now my computer has been running more slowly lately. I don't know if I did the right thing. Earlier today, McAffee ran a full scan of my computer and didn't find anything wrong.

Has anybody here ever received a message like this?

Post by **emanday** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 1:58 am

These are most often "popups" which, if you click OK take you to another web site advertising some kind of disc cleanup or PC speed up application/service.

However, some might be more malicious and clicking Close is the best option. If I get any of these, (rarely now) I always click on Close for safety sake.

It would be wise for you to run an adware and spyware seek and destroy application, just to make sure there isn't one of them operating. Anti-virus applications, in the main, do not include this function.

sheilajim · Post by **sheilajim** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 2:13 am

Hi Mary

Thanks for the info. I was suspicious that something wasn't right. I am glad that I took the safe route and closed the box.

My computer is now 4 years old, and I am constantly worried that it will crash. I have backed almost everything up on CDs, yet every now and then when I test these CDs, they go blank.

Thanks Again

Post by **emanday** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 2:32 am

It might be worth thinking about buying an external Hard disc drive.

They have come down in price a lot lately and you can buy quite huge capacity ones of 1TB or more for less than £150.

I bought a 500 GB one for just under £60 about a year ago. They are selling for as little as £35 now

.

sheilajim · Post by **sheilajim** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 10:07 pm

Hi Mary

I have been looking into an external storage unit. Is that the same thing? I think that I will get one for Xmas.

I have been working on various things for over two years that are stored in my computer. While I have stored them on CDs I have not made hard copies of them. It would be devastating if I woke up one day to find that they were all gone.

Regards

Post by **emanday** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 1:00 am

I have to admit to being a bit "anal" about the information I want to keep, especially my ancestry stuff.

I actually have two external hard drives. I should explain, I used to be a contract Access developer and maintaining a copy of all databases I had ever designed was an essential part of my business insurance.

When I started to research my ancestry, I could not shut out that policy, so I backup ancestral files regularly to one or more of my external hard discs. I know, from bitter past experience, that CD's have an unknown life so use external HD backups as an alternative. I can access them at any time, check they are still OK, and add new discoveries to appropriate folders.

That said, even I still back up even my external HD stuff to CD or DVD formats.

I think they call it Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Me? I prefer to call it not losing what I have worked to hard to have!

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 1:29 am

Hi Mary

I think they call it Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Me? I prefer to call it not losing what I have worked to hard to have!

I think it is called being sensible. The number of folk I know who have lost all the work on their tree... Just recently I was contacted by a contact with whom I'd been in touch about a year ago. We thought we had a family connection but it was pretty far back and we were unable to prove it. We'd exchanged trees in electronic form. Just a few weeks back I received an email from this contact who had lost his tree when his hard drive packed in. I'm obsessive enough that if I'm sent a tree by someone and it might just fit into a part of my tree once enough evidence has been gathered, I would never think to delete it, but rather I make back ups of ALL my Legacy files, other people's trees included... so it was fortunate that I still had the tree and was able to send a copy. That is someone else who is being given an external HD for Christmas!!

I'l join you on that OCD bench (sure sounds better than the "anal" bench!!

)

Best wishes
Lesley

Post by **emanday** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 1:52 am

I sure don't feel any guilt about spending money on external data systems.

I won't tell you how much time (and money) having a backup copy on an external HD has saved me in the past.

Post by **AndrewP** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 3:47 am

Hi Mary,

You have two external hard drives. Do you keep one of them elsewhere (such as in someone else's house), in case of disaster (theft, flood, fire etc.)?

All the best,

AndrewP

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 5:01 am

Hello All,

There’s a bit about Script errors here which spells it out fairly concisely. Genuine script errors probably aren’t a problem unless they’re happening all the time. All of those mysterious messages are a worry. The bogus messages tend to look a bit more obviously so but it’s best to play safe. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-script-error.htm

I do an occasional CD or DVD backup and park it at a relative’s house so I don’t have all my eggs in more or less the same basket at home. My regular backups are on external drive and also by network onto a spare computer. I keep the external in a small insulated 6 pack cooler thingy and that goes in the car when I go out.

There’s also an online backup such as that at Mozy. 2GB free and you pay for extra storage. Not much free space for things like images but great for small file size things like Word Docs, Family History data files etc. that you may have put a lot of work into. I still haven’t organised myself into trying that one. There’s a write-up about it here. http://technofileonline.com/texts/tec072708.html

Alan