As well as bug fixes, it also contained a number of refinements to the advanced operating system.

Although many of the refinements have been designed with large corporate users in mind, they will make a difference to many home users as well.

Two of the key changes are the updated Windows Search 4.0 and Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless programmes.

Windows Search 4.0 updates include improvements to hep users index and find files on their machines, and Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless updates offer upgraded Wi-Fi and Bluetooth components for wireless networking.

But with more bugs being fixed, it should prevent a number of malicious attacks and generally make the operating system more secure.

Those users who have not automatically received the Vista Service Pack 2, should go to the Microsoft website to update their operating system.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

It’s meant to hit on April Fool’s day and it is a particularly nasty little *****! The Conficker – odd name that, maybe some geek’s sense of humour – is anything but fun. It penetrates your computer, shuts down your security software and prevents updates reaching you. It then sits there, waiting for orders from the mother ship, and once activated, will allow its creator to download onto your computer a piece of malware that will happily syphon off your personal details, bank details and anything else it feels like using. In other words, it’s a right little so and so.

So, I’m sitting here in a panic, with anti-virus software running in the background like a demon, wondering how I can beat back the Barbarians from my gates.

Right, calm down, have just read that all is not lost. First, they point out that although around 12 million computers are infected, this particular Conficker variant is really an update, and is looking for previous versions already sitting on computers. So, if you’re currently clean, then you should be okay. If not, then oh dear, but I’m just going to run a quick test myself.

Okay, deep breath, I have to first check that I’m connected to the internet. Right, yes, I can get the Google page, thank goodness for that, good old Google. Next, find the Microsoft site, or the site supplying my anti-virus software. Right, lets go to Microsoft, afterall, the Conficker is designed to penetrate Windows-based operating systems, so lets start at the top. Right, onto the Microsoft website and yes, if I can run the Windows Update successfully, I’m not infected with Conficker.

Yes, it works, thank the Gods; I’m clean.

For those that can’t successfully run the Windows Update, or indeed, can’t update their security programme from the company’s website, then you may have the Conficker burrowed somewhere deep inside your computer.

If so, you’ve got problems. Contact your anti-virus software company, maybe by email, and ask what to do. Look on the Microsoft site and follow their instructions. If that doesn’t work, you could back-up your data, reinstall Windows and then go straight onto the Windows site and download the latest security patches.

And finally, pray, that Conficker doesn’t come knocking again.

Guest Article by Neil Camp