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Key Symptoms of a Virus Infection
Your computer may be infected with a virus without you even knowing about it. More likely there will be a number of telltale signs you will see when using the PC that give a good indication that you are infected. Some of the key indicators to look out for are:
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Your PC is running much slower than usual, and normally quick programs are taking a long time to load.
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If you have a dial-up Internet connection, it may keep
trying to connect to the Internet at random, regardless of what you are actually doing. |
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You get email from friends about messages you have
sent them, even though you don't remember sending them email. This is because some viruses will spread by automatically emailing all of your contacts. |
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The hard disk is being accessed very frequently
(indicated by the hard drive light on the front of the case being constantly on). |
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Files or documents have mysteriously disappeared from
your hard drive. |
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Programs crash with strange error messages, or you get
error messages appearing when you start Windows. |
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Your desktop background has been changed, possibly to
an offensive message. |
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New icons have appeared on your desktop, and you
have no idea where they have come from. |
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Adverts keep popping up on your desktop, especially
when browsing the Internet. |
Any combination of these symptoms can indicate that there is a virus on your system and requires further investigation. The rest of this article will advise you on how to remove and prevent virus infection.
Secure Your System with a Virus Checker
While the steps given already in this article will help you to 'harden' your PC and make it less vulnerable to infection by viruses and other malware, the best form of defence from viruses is a good virus checker. Many companies market virus checkers, some are freeware or shareware, while others are commercial software. The key thing to look for is how often the developers release updates for the software (containing details of new viruses that have been detected). It is, after all, no use having a virus checker if the last virus definitions that it has are a year old, as it is unlikely you will be infected by a virus that is this old.
Some commercial virus checkers will require you to subscribe for a year, in which you will be able to obtain updates for the software, and then have to subscribe for a further year to receive more updates. Many free virus checkers exist which provide less functionality than their commercial counterparts but are nevertheless extremely effective at keeping your computer virus-free. You will find AVG 8.0 available from this site to give you protection against virus infection and also Spyware.
