• What’s with the Shift key?

    Posted on March 18, 2009 at 06:16 CDT by • Comment in the Forums

    Reader M writes:

    “…. Hold down the Shift key when you put anything into your computer. …”

    Besides the obvious gymnastics involved in this, what is holding down the shift key supposed to do to defeat the worm if it’s on the flash drive?

    Holding down the Shift key prevents Windows from automatically running whatever it’s supposed to run automatically. In the case of a Conficker-infected USB drive (or camera memory card), holding down the Shift key will prevent the worm from putting a very confusing message on your desktop that may easily trick you into allowing the worm to infect your machine.

    In general, it’s a good idea to hold down the Shift key and open the drive (or memory card) manually, by clicking Start, Computer (or My Computer), then right-clicking on the USB drive (or memory card) and choosing Explore.

    In a similar vein, JB writes:

    [W]hen you talk about holding down the shift key when you install a cd or dvd, how long do you hold it down?

    I bought some blank DVD+R to make backups for my computer. Do I hold the shift key down when putting a blank DVD+R in?

    When you hold down the Shift key, you need to keep it down long enough for Windows to recognize that the drive’s in the slot, and then have it realize that it shouldn’t do anything. Ten seconds should do the trick.

    No need to hold down the shift key when you insert a blank CD-R or DVD-R – as long as you know that they’re blank.

    Other ,
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