We recommend creating the Rescue Disk. The Rescue Disks may be needed if your hard disk drive is infected with a boot sector virus, since you must start your computer using a boot disk to successfully remove a boot sector virus. A virus can corrupt Windows 95 to the point it will not start and also prevent you from reinstalling the operating system. The Rescue Disk would permit you to remove the virus and make the process of restoring your operating system much easier.

One of the options in Norton AntiVirus, and the majority or other antivirus products, is to scan floppies on reboot. The option is enabled by default. This is to prevent booting the computer with an infected floppy disk since this is a common way that computers are infected with boot sector viruses.

Product updates are posted on the Symantec website. You can also to use the Live Update feature to check for, download, and install the updates.

Since Norton AntiVirus is signature based, you will need to update the files that the program uses to detect and remove viruses. These files are updated monthly. You can either download the files directly from the Symantec website (http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/download.html) and run them, or use the Live Update option. If you do not have access to the Internet you can order the updates on disk directly from Symantec.

Norton AntiVirus detects unknown viruses through their activity or changes made to inoculated files. However, this is not as reliable as detecting them via their signatures. In addition, the signature files are needed to increase the probability of removing the virus without damaging the file it is attached to.

Where can I get assistance if I have problems with the program or need some additional information?

You should not need a separate program. Unless you have disabled Autoprotect, Norton AntiVirus will scan files as they are opened and will scan compressed files as they are extracted. If you have disabled the Autoprotect option you can integrate Norton AntiVirus with your browser. See the Readme.txt file for complete instructions on doing this.

After removing a virus, any diskettes you used should be considered infected until you have scanned them and verified that they are not. This does not mean that the diskettes are certainly infected since some viruses will randomly infect files or diskettes. It is a safety measure to prevent a re-infection.

There are a number a ways for a virus to be spread. A diskette that is used to transfer files from one computer to another, for example a file shared among co-workers. A file downloaded from the Internet or received via e-mail can be infected. Stores have been known to re-shrink wrap returned software and place it on the shelf. Some viruses have been transferred this way.

some cases, Norton AntiVirus detects a threat and adds the extension ".enc" to the name of the detection. For example, if a computer has received email infected with W32.Nimda.A@mm, you may also see a detection for W32.Nimda.enc.