Protect your Computer
How To Protect Your Computer From Virus
Nowadays it is crucial that your computer has an antivirus program on and is kept up-to-date this will help catch and contain the majority of viruses trying to infect your computer. Sometimes virus or malicious code can infect your machine due to a security hole found in your operating system or program on your machine.
Do help prevent this its is important you go to microsoft’s update page and download any newly released security updates. You can also from that page enable automatic updates so you do not have to remember to check for any new security patches as your computer will do this for you. However no software is 100% guaranteed so you also need to take some precautions, make sure you back up any files or data so if the worst should happen you have not lost any thing critical or important to you.
Be careful of any attachments you receive by email as this is still the primary way viruses are spread over the internet. Another important safety precaution is to scan any CD’s floppy disk or USB storage devices as soon as you place or attach them to your computer, especially if they have been used on another computer which may be infected without you knowing.
To protect your computer from infection follow the following points:
- Back up critical files on a regular basis
- Visit Microsoft Update and turn on Automatic Updates.
- Install a good antivirus software and keep it current.
- Use a firewall on your computer
- Never open an e-mail attachment from someone you don’t know
- Be aware attachments from someone you do know may be infected without there knowledge always save and scan before opening.
How do you know if your Computer has a Virus?
Ok one of the questions I get asked all the time is – “Does my computer have a virus” and “how can I tell if my computer has a virus”. Perhaps you’ve noticed some different behavior when using your computer and your can’t think of anything you have installed or changed lately that may have caused this.
First thing’s first if you haven’t already download an antivirus program and run it to see if it picks anything up – if your antivirus has stopped working (if you haven’t kept it up to date some viruses are programmed to render your software useless). You can go to a website if your still able to connect and scan your pc from there both symantec and house doctor provide online scans which are very useful to be sure. Not all signs of virus infections are easy to spot but there are some common virus indicators noted below.
Signs your machine is infected with a virus
- Your machine is crashing and restarting every few minutes
- Your computer is running a lot slower than normal
- You notice your computer almost grinds to a halt within minutes of connecting to the Internet
- Your computer freezes, locks up or stops responding often
- Programs are not working or menus and boxes are distorted
- You can not access disk drives that you could before
- Strange Error messages are appearing
- When connected to the internet or a network you notice a lot of activity from your hard drive not caused by anything you are doing. (for example you have nothing running yet your hard drive of connection is thrashing)
*note although the above are common indications that your machine could be infected these symptoms can also been seen if your machine has spy ware on it or it could be due to a hardware or software problem which is not related to a virus infection. Read How To Remove a Virus Here