Computer viruses are a concern of
each and every single computer user. These tiny little programs can do a lot of
damage! They are designed to go from one system to the next system, with
disregard for safety. As a matter of fact, they are actually designed to cause
damage to the computers that they infect.
Computer viruses can do all sorts of
things to a computer system. They can do something as mild as deleting certain
pieces of data off of the computer, or can be as serious as to wipe the
contents from a hard drive. These small, malicious programs can also attach
themselves to an email program so that the damage is spread over many different
computers.
Email is the most common method in
which computer viruses are spread from one computer to another. These viruses
are often disguised as an attachment of something that may be of interest to
someone. For example, it may be disguised as a video clip, a joke, a picture or
similar attachment. Nine times out of ten, it is attached as an
".exe" file.
There are many viruses embedded in
downloads that can be retrieved from the internet. This is also a very popular
mode of infection. This is particularly true when individuals download specific
files from peer to peer file sharing programs, and open source programs. It has
been estimated that nearly 90% of all downloads on these types of websites are
infected with a computer virus.
There are many different signs and
symptoms that may be associated with a computer virus infection. The following
details these. Please keep in mind, however, that these are POTENTIAL signs and
symptoms of an infection:
1. If you find that your computer
system seems to be experiencing some sluggishness, or running a bit slower than
it normally operates, the potential for being infected with a computer virus is
quite high. If you do not have a computer virus, you may be experiencing issues
with spyware on the system.
2. If your computer has already been
attacked by a virus, it is quite likely that you may start to see various types
of error messages that you are unfamiliar with.
3. Many individuals who experience
an infection with a computer virus may start to notice that the computer system
will often lock up and stop responding. This may or may not be accompanied by
error messages.
4. Applications and programs on a
computer that is infected with a virus may start to fail to initialize and/or
run properly. If this issue is not corrected by uninstalling and reinstalling
the application or program, you may be experiencing complications with a
serious computer virus that is corrupting the data on your hard drive.
5. Many computer viruses pose a
serious threat to the various disk drives that are on the computer system. When
an infection is occurring, it may become evident that the various disk drives
on the computer system are not made accessible. This is definitely a sign of a
very serious computer virus infection.
6. Many individuals who experience
complications with computer viruses may find that they experience issues in
printing and other types of tasks. This is often a result of corruption to the
files in the drivers of the printer, and other hardware products.
If you find that you experience any
of the above mentioned symptoms, or symptoms that are similar in nature, you
should consider placing an anti-virus program on your computer and running a
thorough scan. You will likely find that, once the scan is complete; there is
at least one virus on the computer that is causing your complications.
You can remove most viruses in this
manner, or with the malicious software removal tool that is offered by
Microsoft. Viruses cannot be removed in the "add/remove" programs
option in your computer. In order to remove them completely, they must be
controlled by a good anti-virus software suite or a malicious software removal
tool.