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Installing New Hardware
If you look closely at Figure 1-9, you see how Conficker can paste a folder
icon in the Install or Run Program area. Conficker tries to trick you into run-
ning an infectious program by clicking the Open Folder to View Files link
in the middle. I have details on how Conficker jimmies Windows into show-
ing bogus AutoPlay entries in my Windows Secrets Newsletter article at
tinyurl.com/dbgndc with further details at tinyurl.com/mck9ys.
When it comes to buying a USB drive, the salespeople would have you
believe that it’s cool to have color-coded sticks (I just put a sticker on mine),
fancy encrypted memory (so that if somebody steals the stick, it takes him
ten minutes, rather than ten seconds, to look at the data), designer outsides,
and on and on. Here’s what I say:
✦ Buy twice the amount of memory you think you need — you’ll use it
someday.
✦ Go for the lowest price.
If you need to read the other kinds of flash memory — memory cards, the
kind normally used in cameras and MP3 players — buy a cheap, generic, USB
multiformat memory card reader. It shouldn’t set you back more than $10,
and it can come in quite handy.
Installing New Hardware
If you have a USB device — a printer, hard drive, scanner, camera, flash
memory card, foot massager, water desalination plant, or demolition
machine for a new intergalactic highway — just plug the device into a USB
port, and you’re ready to go.
Okay. I exaggerated a little bit.
Two fundamentally different approaches to installing new hardware exist. It
amazes me that some people never even consider the possibility of doing it
themselves, whereas other people wouldn’t have the store install new hard-
ware for them on a bet!
Having the store do it
When you buy a new hard drive or video card, or anything else that goes
inside your computer, why sweat the installation? For a few extra bucks,
most stores can install what they sell. This is the easy, safe way. Rather than
mess around with unfamiliar gadgets, which may be complicated and deli-
cate, let somebody with experience do the work for you.
Different types of hardware present different levels of difficulty. It may make
plenty of sense for you to install one type of device but not another.