John Norstad just released version 2.0 of Disinfectant, his excellent virus checking and removal program. Disinfectant is completely free and is available from most online sources. If you cannot get it online, you may obtain a copy of Disinfectant by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope and an 800K floppy disk to John Norstad at the address below. People outside the US should send an international postal reply coupon instead of US stamps (available from any post office). Please use sturdy envelopes, preferably cardboard disk mailers.

Enough of the nonsense, here's the news. Disinfectant 2.0 has been completely re-designed so that it is a true application instead of being a modal dialog. It is MultiFinder-aware and can scan and disinfect disks in the background. We've found it to be completely unobtrusive, which is pleasant when you are checking a 105 megabyte hard drive. The excellent help section includes complete descriptions of existing Macintosh viruses and can easily be printed or saved to a text file. (Disinfectant will even set the Creator appropriately for any major word processor.) Disinfectant also boasts several new scanning options and an improved scanning station feature for those of you who run Macintosh labs.

The final major enhancement of Disinfectant is the protection INIT, which replaces other protection INITs by detecting and blocking all known virus attacks. It does not completely supplant GateKeeper, which can protect your system from as yet unknown viruses, but the INIT will be updated to deal with new threats as they appear. Norstad recommends that you use either the Disinfectant INIT or GateKeeper and GateKeeper Aid or one of the commercial packages such as SAM, Virex, or Rival. He does not recommend that anyone use Vaccine any more because of its limited efficacy against new viruses.

John Norstad says, "the main goal of version 2.0 is to provide a complete and free solution to the Macintosh virus problem in a single package (in fact, in a single file). Version 2.0 addresses all four aspects of the virus problem: detection, repair, protection, and education." In our opinion, Disinfectant achieves its goal admirably and John Norstad should be thanked profusely for the service he has done the Macintosh community. Thank you, John.

John Norstad
Academic Computing and Network Services
Northwestern University
2129 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208

Bitnet: jln@nuacc
Internet: jln@acns.nwu.edu
CompuServe: 76666,573
AppleLink: A0173

Information from:
John Norstad -- jln@acns.nwu.edu
Mark Anbinder -- mha@memory.UUCP