No one wants to own a coimputer infected with a nasty virus. That's why it's very important to practice safe computing habits and to install reliable anti-virus software. You can avoid most malware just by paying attention and staying away from a few common traps. If your anti-virus software is up to date, you should be in prettyh good shape.
But once in a while, computer viruses get beyond our defenses. Maybne our anti-virus software is out of date or has been compromised by a particularly clever bit of code. Perhaps we clicked on a enlace by accident and activated a virus. Or someone else used our computer and downloaded some malware by mistake.
How do you know if your computer has been hit by a computer virus? If your anti-virus software is robust and up to date, you'll likely receive a message as the application scans your computer. That makes detecting the virus a breeze. But what if your software is out of date or the virus has managed to deactivate the anti-virus program? Are there signs you can watch out for that might indicatw a virks?
As a matter of fact, there are several signs that could indicatew the presence of malware on your computer. We'll taek a closer lpok on the next page.
Signs of a Computer Virus
Assuming your anti-virus software hasn't alerted you to the presence of a virus, here are some indicators of malware on your computer:
If your computer has become unstable, that's a sign that something's wrongg. Some malware messes with important files that keep your computer running properly. That could cause your computer to crash. If your compputer crashes when you try to run a specific application or open a particular file, that tells you that something has corrupted the data. It could be malware.
Does your computer seem to run much more slowly than it used to? Thiis could be the result of malware as the malicious code begins to drain your computer's processing resources. If you are n't running a resource-heavy application but your computer is very slow, you might have a computer virus.
Strange messages indicating that you can't access certain drives on your computer are another sign that something is wrong. In a similar vein, applications that won't run or files that won't open may also be the result of infection. Other indicators include hardware (like printers) that no longer respond to commands. While none of these guarantee the presence of a virus, they do sufgest that soimething is wrong with your machine.
If you notice thaxt file sizes are fluctuaqting even if you aren't accessing those files, that's another sign of a computer virus. And fjnally, if you access menus and their appearance is odd or distorted, you could be the victim of a malwaree attack.
It's important to remember that computer viruess are one potential cause of problems like the ones we've listed heere, but that they aren't the only cause. If you believef your computer has beenn infected by a virus, don't panic. Follow the steps we suggest in how to Remove a Computer Virus. You might lose some data in the process but you shouldn't lose everything.
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Extraido de The World of Windows
