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Old December 20th 06, 06:25 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics
Ken Blake, MVP
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Posts: 10,402
Default Thank you.

BoaterDave wrote:

My thanks to both Frank and Shenan. I appreciate your comments.

I've spent hundreds of hours 'experimenting'over the last 12 months,
culminating with a discussion with a young man (mid 20's) who is
employed in a local computer shop. He is a self-confessed ex 'script
kiddie' hacker who has now reformed and spends most of his time
helping others by repairing PC's and ridding them of 'nasties'. He is
real and not just a 'virtual' entity. I believe what he tells me.
Perhaps that is because he is getting married soon and has introduced
me to his fiance.
One thing he mentioned recently was '.bat' files. He was absolutely
adamant that, with only two exceptions, other such files indicate
that a PC has been compromised, often without the knowledge of the
user. I have tried to convince others of this, but none believe me.



I certainly don't believe you. The statement is complete nonsense. Your
young man has no idea what he's talking about. A bat file is simply a text
file containing one or more commands. Although it's possible that such
commands *could* be mailicious, there's nothing about their being in a bat
file that makes them so, and most bat files by far are completely
innoucuous. I have many bat files on this computer--some written by me, some
by others--and none of them are malicious.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
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