The Apheus Blog

A friend of mine brought over his aunt’s computer not too long ago (running Windows XP Professional). She was complaining about various virus-related problems and not being able to browse the internet because of popup windows. The first thing I noticed when I booted the computer was that her desktop icons were split in half and flipped. Strange, but not entirely unexpected on a computer heavily infected with malware. The icons kind of looked like this:

After I cleaned up her virus problem, I went ahead and looked for a quick fix for this problem. I was surprised at how quick the fix actually was! Microsoft has a tutorial on how to rebuild the icon cache, but as with most tutorials, there are lots of small steps. Basically, here’s what you need to do:

1. Right-click on the desktop and choose “Properties.”
2. Click on the “Settings” tab and find the “Color Quality” menu (see below).
3. Choose the 16-bit setting and click “Apply.” (Accept any changes that may appear.)
4. Change the color quality back to 32-bit and click “Apply” again. (Again, accept any changes that may appear.)
5. Click “OK” to exit from the Display Settings and you should be done!

Those steps worked like a charm to restore the desktop icons back to normal on that particular computer. However, when dealing with any computer, your results may vary.

When people complain about having viruses on their computer, they often don’t know how they got them. They just tell me that they use their computer to play games, browse the internet, or listen to music. But as soon as I see that loveable-looking Bearshare icon on the desktop, I know where the viruses probably came from – they downloaded them on purpose.

What is File Sharing

File sharing is the direct sharing of files between two or more computer across the internet using programs such as Bearshare, Limewire, or Morpheus (just to name a few). Designed to be a convenient way of distributing legitimate freeware and open-source code, file sharing has become a big problem for the recording industry and software companies. Most of the peer-to-peer (or P2P) traffic is made up of pirated software, bootleg movie titles, and illegal music downloads.

Shared Files Often Contain Viruses

When you download files using programs like Bearshare, you risk exposing your computer to potential harmful viruses, spyware, and adware. That harmless looking MP3 file may contain a very robust virus that can play havoc with your computer system down the road.

When you download a file using Bearshare, you are basically and deliberately downloading a viruses onto your computer. Now that doesn’t make much sense, does it? But it happens all the time.

How to Keep Bearshare Viruses Out

Almost every time I see Bearshare installed on a computer, I see a heavy infection of viruses. In fact, I can’t recall a single computer with Bearshare installed that wasn’t heavily infected. There are a large number of unscrupulous people on the internet and they want your computer to become infected.

The best advise I can give someone to keep from getting infected by a virus from Bearshare is to simply not download anything using Bearshare. In fact, don’t even bother putting Bearshare on your computer! It will end up causing more problems than its worth.