Virus Removal and Protection

Scanning and removing viruses from your computer usually isn't considered a fun filled activity. Malicious programs can infect a PC through various mediums, the most prominent which are emails, removable media and wireless networks. Once you know how to get rid of viruses, measures can be taken to make sure that such viruses are identified and removed the moment they infiltrate.

One thing to know is what viruses are and what you can perform. Having knowledge about common infections allows the consumer to identify the virus by its symptoms on the PC. It is very important to know how Trojans, worms, spyware and adware infiltrate and infect the operating system. This step will help you prepare to get rid of virus infections quickly considering that the user will then be acquainted with the best way viruses work.

Be armed and ready while using the latest available anti-virus. There are a large number of anti-virus software that now come in bundles and supply multiple services to you, the user. A good antivirus program comes full of firewalls, network monitors, file system scanner, anti-spyware, anti-adware, email scanners and internet stealth protection add-ons. Having the latest antivirus program trims the prospect of malicious activity occurring on any PC.

Having excellent anti-virus software will only be lucrative when you are updating it regularly. Automatic updates are readily available with whatever software you are using. Update the virus database weekly and if threat of infection is high, updating daily is suggested. Constant updates will ensure you will get rid of the  latest virus threats when they infiltrate the system.

Caution needs to be taken when surfing websites, with there being some sites that demand installing certain add-ons and plug-ins. Other websites offer free software and screen savers when they're visited. Ensure you don’t download and run software that is either not trusted or  the internet monitor cautions you not to download. The latest ant-virus usually gets rid of virus threats before they infect the operating system.


Email protection becomes necessary with the frequency of email viruses being greater than any other kind of virus type. Some emails tend to be pretty obvious, being a friendly invitation from a girl or a gift offer from Microsoft. Such emails mustn't be opened and nothing must be downloaded from them. Viruses might also infiltrate a PC through emails from personal contacts, as a result it is critical to run an email monitor together with your anti-virus software.

 

Our recommendation is that all email activity should be carried out in rich text format and not inside the HTML format that email services are presently deploying. Viruses can attach themselves easily to HTML emails instead of text emails that are purely text and contain no items which allow a virus to add itself to the email.

Yet another way viruses descend onto a PC is P2P software. It is highly recommended that software like Limewire, Gnutella, Bearshare and Torrents usually are not used. But if you must, at the very least have your firewall ready and running at max. P2P engines are only able to download information in chunks (this means you don’t know very well what is on its way in), hence enhancing the chance of an infiltration. So keep the firewall up rather than disable it, and always scan you’re completed downloads before opening them.

Freeware VS Commercial
 
All this talk about having updated anti-virus programs and firewalls sounds a bit geeky, but it’s safer to be safe than allowing a virus epidemic on your PC. It is better to possess a commercial (i.e. paid) anti-virus when compared to a free one. Freeware anti-virus will usually identify viruses, but will lack the ability to clean the virus and can quarantine the files and not delete them, allowing the threat to escalate. Commercial software will always have complete features along with a well-organized virus database to combat the prevailing threats to escalate.