How to Identify Virus or Spyware Attack?
When you’re hit by a bad virus attack, it becomes pretty obvious, pretty fast. Your computer starts to behave oddly. Here are a few symptoms you might see individually or in combination: Frequent crashes or system restarts, Very slow or erratic performance, No Internet connection. Email in Sent Items folder of your email program that you personally didn’t send. Missing or corrupt data or system files. The computer fails to start and displays errors.
As soon as you think you might be infected with a virus, immediately use your antivirus program to update its virus signaturesthese are snapshots of viruses used by the program to identify an infection. All antivirus programs have this feature built in. You click an update button in the software and the updates are fetched from the Internet.
Then use the antivirus program to run a system scan. Choose to run a deep or thorough scan, if possible, as opposed to a quick scan.
Disconnect As Soon As Possible
One of the first things most malware tries to do when it creates an infectionand this especially includes virusesis to make contact with the outside world. So one of the first things you should do after detecting an infection (after updating your virus and spyware signatures via the Internet) is to disconnect your computer from your home network, if you have one, and get off the Internet.
Virus Infection Found! How to Cleanse Your System
When the antivirus program finds a virus, it alerts you immediately and asks for a decision. Make a note of the virus’s name and have it removed.
If your antivirus program fails to remove the virus, all is not lost. It could be that infected files are running and so they can’t be deleted by Windows. Try scanning the computer in Windows Safe Mode. This is a special emergency mode in which Windows starts up in a raw state and loads only the bare necessities into memory.
To get into safe mode, shut down and restart the computer. When the screen is black (and before the Windows logo appears), hit the F8 key. You might have to press the F8 key a few times to trigger it. A menu appears. Use the arrow key to choose Safe Mode, and press Enter.
If you are presented with a choice of Windows logins (one for you, your spouse, and your hairy little children, perhaps), choose the administrator login. If it’s your computer, chances are that you are the administrator.
When the Windows desktop appears in safe mode, run your antivirus program and scan the system for viruses. Because safe mode loads only the necessary processes in memory, the virus is not loaded unless it has infected one of the system files that makes Windows run. In safe mode, you should be able to easily kill the virus.
Your antivirus program might ask if it should quarantine the virus or delete it. If you quarantine the files, they are put in the computer equivalent of jail, an electronically walled-off area where they can’t cause any further damage. From the quarantine area, they can be submitted to the antivirus maker for analysis, if you choose to do this. If you choose to delete the snared virus, it is wiped from your computer.
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