Tips for Preventing Computer Virus Infections
Do you feel that your computer is safe from a virus? You might say yes, but can you be hundred percent sure? If you do not have any anti virus protection established you are highly vulnerable to a computer virus infection.
Depending on the kind of virus, it could cause some valid harm to every facet of your computer. A really damaging virus could completely immobilize your computer, causing the requirement for a new hard drive or even motherboard (this would be an extreme scenario)
A virus is any piece of software that makes its way onto your machine secretly, without your knowledge and approval, and then endeavors to transmit itself to other machines. Viruses don’t emerge out of the blue. For any virus to exist and create havoc in your machine, there must be someone, somewhere who is creating them. These people have to face the risk of being arrested.
When the computer catches a virus infection, it effectively becomes sick. The quick and only real remedy is a suitable anti virus application to get rid of the ailment. A Virus is a damaging program which when it runs on a computer may modify the information, files and damage data accumulated in it, so prevention is always better than cure.
A computer can get infected in the following ways:
- Via a contaminated floppy disk.
- Via infected files downloaded from website.
- Via infected files from a tainted CD.
- Via infected E-mail attachments.
- Via running an unidentified program or code on your computer.
How You can Protect Your Computer Against Virus Attacks
A virus infection on your computer can result in data loss and acute damage to your computer. It can result in a total breakdown of your machine. So I am sure, you will not wait till this happens. You will surely want to get tips on how to prevent virus from attacking your machine.
Here are a few of them.
- If you are using Windows XP as your operating system, always remember to turn on the firewall.
- Always run all essential updates & service packs to keep the software fully updated.
- Windows Vista has a vastly improved antispyware protection system, but will still require an anti-virus program for maximum security.
- You will need to run your anti-virus program daily. You should also run your anti-spyware/adware once a week.
- Make sure you have a pop-up blocker working, most modern browsers will have a suitable one installed, make sure it is turned on. Even Google Toolbar is effective in blocking pop ups.
- Do not open any mail that might seem suspicious to you. It can be from an unknown sender. If you feel uncomfortable in opening the mail, delete it as soon as possible.
- If you are into using instant messenger services, ensure that you use it carefully. Use caution when receiving files over the net, unless its from a close friend and not just someone you have met on the net.
- Pay special attention while downloading files or any programs from the Internet, sites like download.com are fairly safe as the files they post are normally scanned for infections before being offered to the public.
- Be cautious with files that come from a floppy disk or any other outside storage device. You should know its source, or better yet, make sure that you have it scanned with your anti-virus program before you open or use the files.
- Run defragmentation, disk clean up, registry scanner at least once every week.
Following the above tips will go a long way in ensuring that viruses do not enter your system. You have to keep your self-updated and alert to prevent any unwanted virus from entering the machine.
