Windows Scripting Host is a part of Microsoft Windows that's exploited by recent e-mail viruses/worms such as ILOVEYOU. Turning off Windows Scripting Host should help in preventing these particular viruses from damaging your computer. If it turns out that your computer needs the Windows Scripting Host to perform some legitimate tasks, you can certainly turn it back on easily on Windows 98 - not sure yet about 95, NT, and 2000.
Windows 95, NT, and 2000 users, jump ahead to instructions for those operating systems
In some versions of Windows 98, the procedure for turning off Windows Scripting Host is different than for Windows 95, but for other versions it's the same. Try these first, and if they don't work for you, the instructions below will tell you to go ahead and follow the Win95 instructions. (Confused? Thank Microsoft for making all these versions of Windows that are sort of similar, but not quite.)
Start by selecting Start/Settings/Control Panel with your mouse,
as displayed below:
The Control Panel window should pop up, double-click on the Add/Remove
Programs icon, circled below:
Another window should pop-up, select the Windows Setup tab on
the top, and then double-click on the line that says Accessories
This is the last screen you should have to deal with. Scroll down the list
and look for a line that says Windows Scripting Host. Make sure
the box to the left of the name is unchecked, as shown below (on some computers
it may be already unchecked, in which case the feature was already disabled).
If for some reason you want to later on re-enable Windows Scripting Host, simply
come back to this particular dialog box and make sure the box is checked.
If you don't see a line that says Windows Scripting Host, then
perhaps you should Cancel out of this, and try the instructions
for Windows 95
Once you've made your changes, simply click every OK button you
see, and close any remaining windows that don't have OK buttons
by clicking the X buttons in the upper right corners.
I'm not sure if you have to restart Windows for these changes to take effect, but knowing Microsoft software in general, that's probably a good idea just to be sure
F-Secure's website has these instructions pages:
Because of the high level of traffic caused by people looking for info on the current batch of viruses, their site is sometimes unreachable, so I'll try to replicate what they recommend here on this page.
Double-click on the My Computer icon, usually located in the upper-left
corner of your screen. In the menu of the Window that opens, select View/Options
(in Win2000 it's Tools/Folder Options)
In the dialog box that pops up, select the tab labeled File Types.
A list of Registered file types: shows up, scroll down and look
for a VBScript Script File line. If you find one, highlight it
and hit the Remove button. (The Win2000 dialog box looks slightly
different, and there is a Delete button, instead of Remove,
otherwise the steps are the same)
It could be that your computer might not have an entry for VBScript
Script File - mine didn't. If that's the case then maybe you're OK. I've
heard stories of people who received the virus, and tried to run it (presumably
before all the warnings went out) but couldn't - perhaps they didn't have VBScript
file types enabled. If you can't find the entry to delete, just hit the Cancel
button, and resume your normal life...for now.
If you get a confirmation dialog like shown below, select YES
