Virus removal is the most requested service for internet users today. There are many virus and spyware removal tools available, however they are generally not effective in removing the complex malware contracted by computers.
Most viruses cause undesired effects often rendering your computer unusable. Unfortunately there is no such thing as 100% protection from all viruses. If your computer catches a virus, Computer Doctor specializes in complete and permanant virus and spyware removal.
Many viruses use fake virus scans that display a large number of infected files on your computer. These results are fake. They will tell you that you have to purchase their virus software to remove the viruses. DON’T PURCHASE THIS SOFTWARE. Once you enter your credit card information they will send even more viruses to your computer. If a virus protection program pops up on your computer that you know you didn’t install or didn’t have installed just turn off your computer and have it professionally removed. The longer you allow this virus to remain on your computer, the worse it will get. Some viruses will even change your passwords which will require some form of password recovery.
If you get viruses or spyware remember to have a virus and spyware removal specialist do a complete removal. Some viruses appear to have been removed only to pop up again a few days later. This is do to registry entries and recall progams that are often overlooked during the removal process.
The best course of action against viruses is preventative maintainence. Check out our Software Installation page to get virus and spyware protection.
Virus education and prevention techniques
Our primary goal at Computer Doctor is to educate the residents and business owners in Metro Altanta and its surrounding areas on maintaining healthy computers. There are many programmers who dedicate their time to creating malicious code such as viruses and spyware. Some do it for monetary gain and other do it simply to cause distractions and disruptions in the lives of everyday citizens. Your best defense against these virus attacks will always be safe web practices. If you’re not sure what safe web practices are then hopefully this article will be of some help to you.
The next thing I would like to educate you on is your browser. For those of you who don’t know what a browser is, it’s the program that you use to surf the internet (ie.. Internet Explore, Mozilla Firefox etc). I personally don’t recommend using Internet Explorer. It’s probably the one you’re using right now because it’s the most popular browser in the world. Being the most popular also make it one of the most dangerous browsers when it comes to viruses. When programmers create these viruses, they do it with the intent to reach as many people as possible with a minimum effort. Because different browsers are coded differently the programmers would often have to create a variation of the virus for every browser that he wanted his virus to attack through. That would take creating a lot of different versions of the virus which is a lot of work. So generally they do the next best thing. Attack the most popular browser so that they can reach as many people as possible with only one version of the virus. So my recommendation here is to find one of the less utilized browsers to do your internet surfing. I’m not saying that if you use a different browser that you won’t catch a virus. I’m basically saying that it may decrease your chances of catching a virus. With that being said, there are several browsers for you to choose from. Most of them are free. So I would suggest downloading a few of them and deciding which one you like best. Your new browser may take a little getting used to but its well worth it to have this added layer of protection.
Let’s start with the basics. You always want to be sure that you have a good virus protection program installed on your computers. You may be asking yourself “how do I know if my virus protection in a good one?“ The answer to that is research. There are several virus protection software available, but some do a better job than others. I won’t suggest any particular one, you will just have to do some research on which will work best for your particular situation. Keep in mind that there is nothing out there that will give you 100% protection. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. So be sure to read reviews, ask friends what works for them or even consult a professional before making a choice. I would like to give you a friendly warning, more expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better. There are actually a couple of free virus protection programs that I hold in high regard. So if finance is an issue for you, then you may want to take a look at some of the free options available to you.
Next you want to be certain that your virus protection is being updated regularly. If you paid for your virus protection then it should be updating itself automatically. That’s not a guarantee so be sure that you’re getting updates. If you use a free virus protection then you want to double check this. I mentioned earlier that there are some good free virus protections available to you, but many of them require you to do updates manually (Don’t let this scare you. The update process is usually pretty simple). The reason that this step is so important is because new viruses are being created every day. The way that virus protection keeps you protected from new viruses is through updates. This is how the process works. Let’s say that I create a new virus today. Your virus protection can’t protect you from it until the virus protection company finds out that there is a new virus out there. Then they have to create a cure or fix for it and send it to you via update. Your computer is vulnerable to the virus until you receive the update. Can you see why there is no such thing as 100% protection now? You can take some comfort in the fact that most viruses and malware new or old often belong to a particular family. So if the new virus is in the trojan family, then your virus protection might not recognize that particular virus but it will recognize that it is a trojan and block it. There is no guarantee on this so always exercise caution.
Now let’s talk about the places you visit when you are online. You have to be mindful of your activities when you’re on the internet. I’ll start with media websites. Any websites that offer free movies or music has a high probability of hosting viruses also. I’m not talking about the creditable websites like MTV.com or Itunes.com that may offer a free song download here and there as a promotional tool. I’m speaking of the websites that offer tons of free music or movie downloads. There are generally no regulations on these sites so they contain lots of viruses. Also stay away from websites that offer pirated software. These sites are often referred to as hacker sites and are probable the worse of them all when it comes to viruses. They offer illegal software downloads with some sort of program or hack that allows you to use the program without paying for it. Even the hack that they provide is generally some sort of trojan. This is a place where virus creators can go and name their viruses whatever they choose and place them as a download. Just to give you an example of what I mean, you may see a program for download that says that it’s “Microsoft Office 2010” and it’s not until you download it to your computer that you realize that you have just downloaded a virus. So please stay away from these sites. It’s rare that you will actually get what you expected from them. Gaming sites can be harmful sometimes a well. I would be aware of any gaming site that required me to download anything before I can play the game. Most of these downloads are legitimate however, If you’re not sure about the download I would exercise extreme caution because it could be a virus. X rated sites are probably the second most virus infected sites after free media sites. They often contain viruses that infect your computer just by visiting the site. You don’t have to download anything or click on any links, they just infect your machine without you taking any provoking actions. If there are any types of sites that I would absolutely not visit, it would be the x rate sites. And last I will discuss everybody’s favorite sites, Social Network sites. Facebook and other sites have the potential of infecting your computer but only because so many different people share files. Any time you have a large mass of people trading files the potential for virus infection is there. (This is also true of any program that connects large numbers of people to share files like Limewire). I don’t want to discourage anyone from using social media sites. They are pretty safe for the most part. If you follow the other steps that I’ve outlined in this article, you shouldn’t have any issues on your social media sites.
To sum this all up I just want to remind you that there are many types of viruses and other threats on the internet. They enter your computer through downloading infected files, clicking malicious links, opening infected email attachments and visiting questionable websites. You should be able to keep your computer virus free if you follow the suggestions in this article. This article is not designed to instill fear, but to create awareness. So continue to use the internet to be informed and have fun. If you do catch a virus contact Computer Doctor for instant virus removal (covering Metro Atlanta and surrounding areas).