muffie shannen

Virus poses a major threat to your computer as well as your files and data. You can get a computer virus anywhere from, sharing storage media such as floppy disc, memory stick, USB, CD/DVD, downloading a file from the internet or installing a program.  Here is a brief description of virus and worms.

Viruses – A virus is a small piece of software that attach on real programs. Each time the application program runs, the virus runs, too, and it has the chance to reproduce by attaching to other programs or spread virus.

Worms – A worm is a small piece of software that uses computer networks and security holes to replicate it but is the most common. A copy of the worm scans the network for another machine that has a specific security hole. It copies itself to the new machine using the security hole, and then starts replicating from there, as well.

If you are smart, you will stop viruses before they enter your computer. You can do this by purchasing an antivirus. Antivirus will check all files of your computer before virus or unwanted file enter and will alert you if a virus is detected before it contaminates your system. If a virus is detected, your antivirus program will quarantine or delete it so that it cannot harm your computer.

Another way is the System Restore, which restores the registry and critical system files to a previous checkpoint. Often a virus will cause a system to hang, and a subsequent hard reboot will render a system restore point from the same day corrupt. Restore points from previous days should work provided the virus is not designed to corrupt the restore files or also exists in previous restore points.

Also Administrators have the option to disable such tools. For example, preventing the downloading or running of an extension file such as filename.exe. With this the security is higher in entering of a virus or unwanted file. Or simply avoid copying or sharing your files and avoid downloading file from the internet. Installing an innocent program might be your step on having a virus.

When you know a virus is running on your computer but the antivirus cannot seem to eradicate it, use the Windows Task Manager. Go to Process and find an unusual image name that you think is a virus then right click and choose End Process.