10 Tips to Make Your Computer Virus-free

The explosion in Internet use has brought with it the very real threat of viruses that can attack the unwary user. Viruses come in many forms - installers, Trojans and worms all of which can affect the performance of your computer and your privacy seriously. Viruses affect the computer either by corrupting programs or by replicating themselves and denying resources to legitimate programs. Trojans usually come disguised as something desirable and are activated when you try to open or run them. Worms and some Trojans may send themselves to people in your address book in emails, without your knowledge.

Even though the threat posed by viruses is serious, a few precautions taken in time can help you protect and sanitize your computer against viruses.

1. Browse with Caution - Most viruses enter your computer as a result of clicking on pop ups or other links in websites that are not trustworthy. Do not follow links or click on pop ups that could install viruses on your computer.

2. Open Emails Cautiously - At times, even if the subject is innocuous, emails can contain links that lead to a virus entering your computer. If the email is not from a trusted source, treat it with caution.

3. Open Email Attachments with Care - The attachment that the email urges you to open may contain a virus! Make sure your mail manager allows you to preview the type of file (.exe, .com, .vbt in attachments are probably viruses. The same goes for screensaver programs that come to you unsolicited).

4. Installing downloaded programs - Programs downloaded from the Internet can pose a serious threat to your computer. Make sure that the program you have downloaded is from a trusted site or has a certificate issued by a trusted certifying authority.

5. Firewall - There are several firewall software packages available that allow you to prevent unauthorized access to your computer that could be initiated by an infected system.

6. Antivirus - A good antivirus package residing in your computer can be the best protection you can have against viruses. Choose an antivirus package that can comprehensively defend itself against viruses.

7. Regular Virus Scan - The mere presence of anti-virus software in your computer is not enough. Scanning of your computer for viruses must be done on a regular basis to locate and isolate viruses.

8. Update the Anti-Virus - It is very important to update the anti-virus program itself periodically. New viruses are introduced every day and the manufacturers of the anti-virus software update the virus database and capabilities of the anti-virus program regularly.

9. Update windows and all other software - Do not forget to update the Operating System and other software regularly as they are frequently patched to overcome security loopholes and vulnerabilities.

10. Removable Media - Removable media like floppies and USB drives are a major factor facilitating spreading of viruses. Use only trusted devices on your computer.

How to Remove a Trojan Virus From Your Computer

Has your Computer been infected with a deadly Trojan Virus? Are you concerned about the safety of your pc and personal details? Do you wish to learn how to remove the Trojan virus as soon as possible? Well you are not alone; millions around the world have been infected by this virus and are asking the very same questions, so in this article I am going to show you how to remove a Trojan virus very easily within minutes.

If you wish to fully remove a Trojan Virus and to ensure your remain protected from future threats I would suggest you simply run your existing anti-virus and anti spyware programs and perform a full system scan. They should be able to locate and remove the virus fairly easily, if you have any troubles make sure that your software’s are fully updated so they can recognize the latest viruses. If you don't have any sort of anti-virus or anti-spyware program installed on your computer then I'm afraid you are simply asking to be infected and you really should grab a decent program asap. That is only if you wish to protect your computer from these deadly viruses and also prevent yourself from being infected in the future.

Now manual methods of deletion do exist, however I must warn you they are only recommended for advanced computer users. They are not as effective at fully removing the virus and obviously manually deleting anything isn’t going to protect you from future threats. Nonetheless you can manually remove a Trojan virus and if you wish to give a try just simply search for “how to remove a Trojan virus” using registry and you should find a bunch of tutorials that will guide you through the entire process. You should know that if use the registry incorrectly you could cause irreversible damage and you may have to re-install your whole operating system again, so attempt it with extreme caution.

Just so you know A Trojan Horse Virus is also usually capable of stealing important information from the user's computer. It infects the user’s computer by enticing them to open a file that appears valuable and beneficial; once they open the file the virus springs into to action and infects the PC. It will then gather private and important about you and your online behavior and then report this back to a designated server which is run by the Virus developer.

So if you use the internet to enter in credit card details or conduct internet banking ,then your info could be at serious risk of being viewed by a third party if you have been infected by a Trojan virus. Hence if you wish to remain protected from these deadly viruses and keep your private info secure then go ahead and download a good anti-spyware program if you haven’t already done so. You see there are always new viruses and malwares being released by these thieves and hackers on a daily basis, so the only way to remain protected is to be equipped with a good anti spyware program. I should also quickly state that you shouldn’t go out and download free anti spyware tools from torrent sites in order to remove the Trojan virus. This is because these free tools are the main targets for Trojan virus developers, they see it as easy bait, and if you go down his road you will probably be infected with even more viruses if you’re not careful. Take it from someone who has learned from experience.

A good anti-spyware will constantly offer you new updates as they are specifically designed to hunt down and remove even the latest hidden spyware such as Trojans, worms, malware, zlobs , virtumonde etc. They will remove the Trojan virus quickly and efficiently and ensure that your computer remains protected in the future as they provide real time protection. Personally I use the Xoftspyse Software to keep my computer protected from these nasty viruses; it eliminates and protects your computer from over 250,000 potentially harmful applications, viruses and spyware.

Therefore if you wish to remove a Trojan virus from your computer and avoid furthering damaging your computer, then grab a good anti-spyware program. Most of them offer a free trial download anyways, so you can test out the software for free and get rid of your Trojan Virus at no cost.

So if you have been infected with a Trojan Horse Virus, then don't panic ! With the Right Tools you can easily have it removed and have your computer functioning normally again. I personally had great success with the XoftSpySE Software, not only does it remove Trojans but also other nasty Spywares, Adware, Malware, Hijackers, Spybot Viruses, and more. They also offer A Free Download and Scan so Check it Out!!

Types of Computer Viruses

In computing terminology, a ‘malicious code’ is a term used for computer viruses and programs designed to cause damage to computers. Other types of destructive PC worms are known as Internet virus including the examples like Worms and Trojans. 

Outlined below is the description of different kinds of computer viruses: 

Program/File Infector 

Falling under the category of parasitic viruses, a program or file infector attempts to infect the files with extension code like .exe, .com, .drv, .dil, .bin, .ovl, and .sys. It gets activate along with the execution of executable file containing virus. The virus then loads itself into memory and replicates itself to other executable files when these files are opened or run. 

The File Infector virus can destroy the content contained in files and cause irreversible damage to them. Some file viruses have also operated as email worm and Trojan horse. 

The best way to disinfect files infected by the file virus is to delete them and restore from back up. 

Macro Computer Virus 

A macro computer virus is a virus written in a language built into a software application such as a word processor. For example: Microsoft Office has the macro language built into its application. This is why most of its application programs are affected by macro computer virus. 

Macro viruses are generally created using the macro recorder or Visual Basic for Applications. The applications that are the most prone to this antivirus are Word Documents, Excel Spreadsheets, Power Point Presentation, and Access Database. The virus infects templates of these documents and therefore every file that the user opens gets affected. Some common macro computer viruses are Auto Exec, Auto New, Auto Open, Auto Close, and Auto Exit. 

The auto macros can be disabled by using the command ‘DisableAutoMacros’ in any macro that is written. Another way to remove it is by holding down the shift key while opening a document. 


Multi-Partite Virus 

It behaves in the same way as other computer viruses do. As the name signifies, they are sometimes more than one type. These are hybrids and are known as multi-partite virus. 

Polymorphic Viruses 

It is a kind of virus which produces different but operational copies for itself. Its attack is considered to be extremely dangerous as virus detectors will not be able to detect all instances of virus attacks simultaneously. And this is one of the reasons why it is known to be strategically designed.

Stealth Viruses

A stealth virus uses different mechanisms to prevent recognition by antivirus software. It tries to escape detection either by redirecting the disk head to head to read another sector or modifying the file size shown in the Directory listing.

Classification of some viruses is not possible as they are the file type viruses which start behaving as computer worms with an activation code.