ARCHIVED: How can I combat macro viruses?

The most important step in combating macro viruses, as with any other viruses, is to purchase and install antivirus software.

For more information on virus protection, visit the Symantec web site.

Also, to protect yourself from macro viruses in Microsoft Word, enable Word's virus protection tool. See ARCHIVED: What is Microsoft Word's macro virus protection tool, and how do I activate it?

If you have had infected files, once your virus software has cleaned them, you may need to do additional work to repair them. The easiest solution is to open the cleaned file, select all the information in the document, and copy and paste it into a new document. Files that have been cleaned often seem to have some file corruption remaining even though the virus and the macros have been removed. If garbage or unwanted words have been introduced into your files, you may be able to use the search and replace function of your word processing or spreadsheet application to eliminate them.