Margaret is correct. This is scarey, bad stuff. The possiblities of how you can get this are mind boggleing. I have an unofficial 'fix' here... I will copy ALL the info, and where it was obtained into this post.

There's no official patch from Microsoft. There is an unofficial patch, which has been very carefully examined by the SANS team, and they say the patch is safe. They also say it is reversible \-\- that is, you can run the unauthorized patch now to temporarily protect your system, and it won't change anything that can't be changed back later. The SANS people are well\-respected security pros, to the best of my knowledge. This is what they say \-\- and the bold italics are in their original: This is a bad situation that will only get worse. The very best response that our collective wisdom can create is contained in this advice \- unregister shimgvw.dll and use the unofficial patch. You need to trust us. (for the full SANS warning, see http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?rss&storyid=996 ) The most basic form of protection is to run the following command line on any Windows machine, at a command prompt. This should be done as Administrator, on Windows systems which have admin functionality: regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll This command disables thumbnail previews of graphics in Internet Explorer. It can be reversed later, if the hurricane passes by. Turning off thumbnail previews in MS email clients and MS Messenger would also be a good idea, if you use them. Don't click to view graphics from unknown or untrusted sources. For more information, see the SANS site above, and the CERT\-USA warning: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/181038#solution MS also has their own page on this exploit: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...ory/912840.mspx

This being said, I'm off to move my pix, and I wouldn't look at any here, for awhile either. Makes sense to close down your preview pane in your email, too, just incase. I don't know enough about what's going on to know if I just said the stupidest thing in the world, or not. But lots of folks are worried...

My friend who posted the above is comparing this Virus Alert to Hurricane Katrina. It might hit and devestate, or it might just sail on by, leaving little damage in its wake, right now we can't know. Another friend inserted the following info.

Turn off your Fax Viewer too, from what I read. I sure hope no one is still allowing HTML in their emails. This thing (and I may have some terminology wrong) can come at you in an email as a microscopic 1x1 pixel transparent graphic, that is you can't even see it. So set your email client to accept text only, turn your spam filters up high and watch the news. This has been compared to going nuclear from standard warfare.

Good luck everyone.

How di I change the email client to text only?

Dawn

I don't know.

I posted info for folks to do research for themselves, for the most part. I also copied a whole step by step. If you wish me to post it here, I will, but I am not able to help you follow the steps...

As far as I understand, MicroSoft has developed the patch and it is available for download. For some reason, the link I used only downloaded XP, which is not my OS.

I am offering resources, not assistance. I am barely able to do this for myself. I Do Not feel comfortable trying to tell someone else what to do, cause I just might fry your machine...

Larry just put up a patch link to fix this problem.

I would like to stress to everyone to run your diagnostics and virus scans ANY time you download something, whether its a MS patch or a cartoon your bestest friend sent a link to.

After I got the patch downloaded (4 hours for my system) I restarted only to have 7 viruses pop right back up. One a particularly bad Trojan who replicates all over your computers. Can you say at least 10 hours just this week spent fighting Computer Gremlins!

Make Norton your new best friend. It has saved my butt multiple times last year, and a few already this year!