Today, knowing how to get rid of a virus is essential for anyone who regularly uses a computer. While the internet continues to grow in popularity at what seems a blistering pace, more and more of our life seems to be moving online - working, shopping, playing, banking etc.
While this is great, it also leaves us open to attack by more and more unscrupulous so-and-so's who like nothing better than to infect your computer with a virus, spyware or other malicious software...sometimes for harvesting your personal details, or simply just for the heck of it.
This is becoming so common that many folks want to know how to get rid of a virus on their computer, without causing any further damage to their system or loss of important personal information.
Before I show you 3 easy ways to get rid of a virus on your computer, I think it is important to define exactly what we mean by computer virus, as this will determine what strategy we use to get rid of it.
While many people broadly speak of a "computer virus", there are many ways that your computer can be infected with a virus-like piece of code or software. According to Wikipedia, "A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without permission or knowledge of the user." However, the category of virus has now grown to include almost any malicious software (malware) and adware (often a harmless piece of software that hides on your computer and displays ads while you're browsing on the internet).
Traditionally, computer viruses required some kind of manual operation to enable them to spread to different computers, i.e. as part of a file sent to another machine, or via a floppy disk, usb key, etc. However, once on the host computer they can "mutate" and replicate, thereby infecting other parts of your system. Other malware that has come to be regarded (erroneously) as computer viruses now are things like worms and trojan horse viruses, which can infect machines on their own - worms through a process of "burrowing" into a system; and trojan horse viruses by disguising themselves as harmless files, while containing malware and spyware like keyloggers and other nasties that can harvest your personal information without you knowing.
Of all of them, it is still the traditional computer virus that can cause the most havoc on your computer, as it can run through your whole system and destroy everything. It can also be the trickiest to get rid of, since it is not often a single file that can just be deleted, or it has become entrenched within your registry files and cause damage to your entire operating system. So how can you get rid of a virus on your computer without causing even more damage? Here's 3 easy things you must do right away:
1/ Do A Virus Scan Immediately
To get rid of the virus you should run your anti-virus program and do a full system and registry scan. This can often identify the nasty virus and then "quarantine" it to prevent it infecting other parts of your system. If you don't have any anti-virus software to get rid of the virus, you can perform a free scan by clicking on my link at the bottom of this article.
2/ Do You Know What The Name Of The Virus Is?
Sometimes the name of the virus can be identified through your anti-virus program or it identifies itself through certain actions or dialog boxes. This can be extremely useful, as a quick look online can yield the exact solution to get rid of that particular virus. If you're using Windows, then Microsoft will have all the latest info and download patches to get rid of recent viruses.
3/ Run Another Virus Scan To Check
Running another scan will enable you to verify that the nasty virus has been taken care of, and you can rest assured that it should not cause any further problems. Performing regular scans every week or so is good practice to limit the potential of any returning virus.
Bonus Tip:
Be careful about what you download, particularly if you use Peer-2-Peer sharing networks or Torrent sites. Hackers and other rogues often hide malware and viruses in these kinds of files, as most folks wouldn't expect it. Even if the file is coming from a friend, they may have downloaded it themselves and not realised that it contained the malware.
Best practice is always to make use of an anti-virus software that will scan all downloads and get rid of virus threats before placing them on your system.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://article2008.com/images/feed-icon.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://article2008.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites