Has a virus infected your computer? No problem, we have a solution!!
There’s always a way to get free of viruses; the major thing is, you should to know what to do and not to lose patience. If you get frightened and format the hard drive, you will most probably forget to get a backup of data and lose upon some critical information. Just stay calm and perform the following steps as per your circumstances.
1. You have an anti-virus software installed on your computer
If you have an anti-virus software and it is updated to the latest virus signatures, it will most probably be able to detect the virus as soon as it becomes active. When the virus is detected, it will either clean the malicious code off the host program, or if it’s incapable to doing that, it will erase the infected file or quarantine it with your permission.
If the file appears to be untreatable and can’t be deleted, it maybe because of its use by some system process. Take a note of the infected filename and restart the computer by means of a DOS boot CD. Once the computer starts in DOS mode, just trace the infected file and delete it using the ‘del’ command.
If your anti-virus software can’t detect the virus even after updating and scanning, then Point No. 3 should be of assistance to you.
2. You have an anti-virus software CD, but it’s not installed
At times you get a network virus infecting your computer before you even get an option to install an anti-virus software. A number of these viruses may not even permit you to install the anti-virus program. The finest thing to do in this situation is to boot with your anti-virus CD. Most anti-virus program CDs allow you to create a boot disk, or are themselves bootable. Once you start the computer using the CD, it will routinely run a system check for all breed of viruses. Even if the virus infecting your machine is not present in the database, the scanner may at least be able to detect and quarantine it.
Once that is done, you can now boot your computer normally and install the anti-virus package, and then run an online update for virus signatures.
If your anti-virus doesn’t detect anything, then Point No. 3 should help you.
3. You don’t have an anti-virus software
If you don’t have an anti-virus installed, an online virus scan is your most excellent option. There are many websites that offer this facility for free. Online scanners are usually up-to-date with the latest virus signatures, so they are quite good with detecting viruses on your computer. But when it comes to deleting the infected file, they may not have the control to do so. So just be cautious to note down the infected filenames, that the online virus scanner could not delete, so you can get free of them manually using a DOS boot CD.
List of Online Virus Scanners
- Panda ActiveScan
www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/ - GFI Online Trojan Scan
www.windowsecurity.com/trojanscan/