scrap object?

[angler2229]

Here is a new one on me. I have never seen this happen before. A student created a document on one of our Dell Optiplex GX260's. She then tried to open the document in our iMac lab to print but got a generic scrap object icon instead.

I went to my Dell and logged the student onto my computer. Then I opened the properties and clicked the Change button and opened the doc with Word. The icon changed but not the regular one you normally see. It was a generic icon with a "W" in the center.

When the document opened, it contained all the generic junk you ususally see of symbols and rectangles. The text was there, so I did a Save As... But the File menu only had Save a Copy As... How weird!

Do you think that one of our Dells has a virus? We run an updated version of Norton's. I have not seen the actual machine yet. I will update this message tomorrow. I was hoping someone could give me a heads-up before actually booting a computer that may contain a virus under my login! Is that being selfish or what?

Thanks,

Daniel

 

[angler2229]

FYI, a scrap object is made when you select text in a Word document then drag that to your desktop. That in itself is not bad, but people are using scrap objects to pass malicious code.

I went to the student and asked to see her Home folder. She had done this five or six times, I'm not sure why. She claims she was just working on her project. But I did notice that her Word window was not maximized the whole screen, so it would be conceivable for her to have dragged something to the desktop without her being aware of what she was doing.

We copied the text from the rest of the gobblygook and pasted it into a new Word document. Now all is fine and dandy. I warned the rest of the class about having a window minimized. That will work until the next group of kids comes in.

It amazes me that the more I learn about computers the more I find I don't know!

Daniel