outlook express virus recovery challenge

My son is sitting on Kure Atoll in the Pacific. His Internet
connection is via satellite phone and is very restricted. I am
attempting to help him with the problem detailed below, but I am not
an Outlook Express user. So, does anyone here have any thoughts or
answers on the questions raised by the following from him:

------- start of his message -----------------

I did something really dumb I think. A message was received in our
"Outlook express" inbox. The sender was a known friend of the
field camp leader. There was an attachment, all that could be
seen was the file name. Outlook express was set to not allow
attachments to be opened or saved to disc. Since this was from a
known person I changed the setting to allow the attachment to be
saved to disc and then tried to open it. Very shortly after that
everything went to hell with outlook express. The machine slowed
down now we can't even open old e-mails of any kind to read them.
When you try to open a message there is an error notice that says
the address book is damaged and needs to be reloaded. Also the
IP connection through the satellite phone slowed down. All this
was diagnosed as a virus or worm. The machine has been put aside
and is awaiting an antivirus scan. A Network Associates - MacFee
Disc is coming on the next ship August 5th.

The question is. Can the infected machine be used to type drafts
of e-mails in the text editor and then saved as text files on a
CF card in the PCMCIA slot and then move the card to the other
uninfected machine and copy and past the text into outlook
express. Can the problem (virus or what ever it is) be moved by
the CF card without us knowing it?

The other question is what are the file names for the files that
I need to backup the "sent" and "received" e-mail messages so
that they can be restored later to another machine when I get
back to SF and find a machine with Outlook express loaded on it.
There is an error notice in outlook express that says the address
book is damaged and needs to be reloaded, so the address book
file is probably a waste of time. What is salvageable?

If I have the right files can I safely transfer them to my Mac
laptop and have a Mac System 9 version of outlook express use
them so I can get to the messages? Read them and then copy and
paste or save as text files so they can be read by word-
processing programs.

--------- end of his message -------------------

He's working on a book of photographs of endangered and exotic species
of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands - Kure Atoll is at the end of the
chain. This will be the fourth in a series of books on endangered and
exotic species in various parts of the world. Do a search on
Liittschwager at the Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or Borders to see the
others.

Unfortunately, his problem is complicating completion of the project.

I have, by the way, already given him a stern email lecture on the
foolishness of connecting to the Internet without being behind a good
firewall and having a current anti-virus automatically checking all
incoming email messages and attachments.

Thanks in advance,

Terry Liittschwager
541-896-0033

There is some risk of the virus copying itself to the CF card. BUT, as long as when they
move the CF card to another PC they just copy the TXT files over, it should be OK. To be
extra careful, on the new PC open the TXT files in NOTEPAD (not Word) and then copy/paste
the text from Notepad to where ever it is desired. Notepad doesn't support Macros, so
that eliminates any problem of a hidden Macro virus in the file that Word might run.

Once the virus is cleaned up on the problem PC, all the OE data might be OK. The address
book problem might be an effect of the virus.

Also see:
Backing Up, Recovering and Restoring Outlook Express versions 5 & 6 Files and Settings
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx
http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/backup/index.htm


--

Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm


"Terry Liittschwager" wrote in message
...
My son is sitting on Kure Atoll in the Pacific. His Internet
connection is via satellite phone and is very restricted. I am
attempting to help him with the problem detailed below, but I am not
an Outlook Express user. So, does anyone here have any thoughts or
answers on the questions raised by the following from him:

------- start of his message -----------------

I did something really dumb I think. A message was received in our
"Outlook express" inbox. The sender was a known friend of the
field camp leader. There was an attachment, all that could be
seen was the file name. Outlook express was set to not allow
attachments to be opened or saved to disc. Since this was from a
known person I changed the setting to allow the attachment to be
saved to disc and then tried to open it. Very shortly after that
everything went to hell with outlook express. The machine slowed
down now we can't even open old e-mails of any kind to read them.
When you try to open a message there is an error notice that says
the address book is damaged and needs to be reloaded. Also the
IP connection through the satellite phone slowed down. All this
was diagnosed as a virus or worm. The machine has been put aside
and is awaiting an antivirus scan. A Network Associates - MacFee
Disc is coming on the next ship August 5th.

The question is. Can the infected machine be used to type drafts
of e-mails in the text editor and then saved as text files on a
CF card in the PCMCIA slot and then move the card to the other
uninfected machine and copy and past the text into outlook
express. Can the problem (virus or what ever it is) be moved by
the CF card without us knowing it?

The other question is what are the file names for the files that
I need to backup the "sent" and "received" e-mail messages so
that they can be restored later to another machine when I get
back to SF and find a machine with Outlook express loaded on it.
There is an error notice in outlook express that says the address
book is damaged and needs to be reloaded, so the address book
file is probably a waste of time. What is salvageable?

If I have the right files can I safely transfer them to my Mac
laptop and have a Mac System 9 version of outlook express use
them so I can get to the messages? Read them and then copy and
paste or save as text files so they can be read by word-
processing programs.

--------- end of his message -------------------

He's working on a book of photographs of endangered and exotic species
of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands - Kure Atoll is at the end of the
chain. This will be the fourth in a series of books on endangered and
exotic species in various parts of the world. Do a search on
Liittschwager at the Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or Borders to see the
others.

Unfortunately, his problem is complicating completion of the project.

I have, by the way, already given him a stern email lecture on the
foolishness of connecting to the Internet without being behind a good
firewall and having a current anti-virus automatically checking all
incoming email messages and attachments.

Thanks in advance,

Terry Liittschwager
541-896-0033

Terry Liittschwager wrote:
My son is sitting on Kure Atoll in the Pacific. His Internet
connection is via satellite phone and is very restricted. I am
attempting to help him with the problem detailed below, but I am not
an Outlook Express user. So, does anyone here have any thoughts or
answers on the questions raised by the following from him:

------- start of his message -----------------

I did something really dumb I think. A message was received in our
"Outlook express" inbox. The sender was a known friend of the
field camp leader. There was an attachment, all that could be
seen was the file name. Outlook express was set to not allow
attachments to be opened or saved to disc. Since this was from a
known person I changed the setting to allow the attachment to be
saved to disc and then tried to open it. Very shortly after that
everything went to hell with outlook express. The machine slowed
down now we can't even open old e-mails of any kind to read them.
When you try to open a message there is an error notice that says
the address book is damaged and needs to be reloaded. Also the
IP connection through the satellite phone slowed down. All this
was diagnosed as a virus or worm. The machine has been put aside
and is awaiting an antivirus scan. A Network Associates - MacFee
Disc is coming on the next ship August 5th.

The question is. Can the infected machine be used to type drafts
of e-mails in the text editor and then saved as text files on a
CF card in the PCMCIA slot and then move the card to the other
uninfected machine and copy and past the text into outlook
express. Can the problem (virus or what ever it is) be moved by
the CF card without us knowing it?

The other question is what are the file names for the files that
I need to backup the "sent" and "received" e-mail messages so
that they can be restored later to another machine when I get
back to SF and find a machine with Outlook express loaded on it.
There is an error notice in outlook express that says the address
book is damaged and needs to be reloaded, so the address book
file is probably a waste of time. What is salvageable?

If I have the right files can I safely transfer them to my Mac
laptop and have a Mac System 9 version of outlook express use
them so I can get to the messages? Read them and then copy and
paste or save as text files so they can be read by word-
processing programs.

--------- end of his message -------------------

When you try to open a message there is an error notice that says
the address book is damaged and needs to be reloaded.

Post the complete error message. Is MS Outlook (or MS Office) also
installed?

Does he have this Registry key?...

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
\Software
\Microsoft
\WAB
\WAB4

If not, STOP; If so, is there a DWORD named UseOutlook and is its value set
to 1 (one)?

If not, STOP; If so, Address Book is configured to share contacts with
Outlook, even if he doesn't use it (can happen with the install of Office).
Change the value to 0 (zero), Address Book should be available to him and
all should be well. (If that DWORD is not present, don't create it, and
don't alter any other DWORD values.)

Note that any changes (additions, deletions, edits) made while sharing was
enabled will not be available (displayed) in Address Book when sharing is
disabled.

cf. http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/files/wab.htm#share

Towards the end of his message, he mentions a Mac: Is he using a Mac now or
a PC? If the latter, what Windows version? Importing PC-based OE data into
OE-for-Mac is fraught with peril and complications, Terry.

Assuming your son is running an anti-virus application, it should be
configured to (1) update virus definitions and then (2) run a full system
scan every day he's connected to the 'net. I'd also advise him to run a
full system scan in Safe Mode per this page:
http://aumha.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5878
--
HTH - Please Reply to This Thread

~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE), AH-VSOP

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