How do you know if your computer has been infected with virus / malware ?
- The computer has become slower.
- Boot time dramatically increases.
- Your home page has changed.
- Toolbars appear that you didn’t download.
- Windows Update stops working
- New Items suddenly appear in your favorites
- Your search engine changes
So where to from here.
Firstly if using Windows XP , Vista or Windows 7 scan your computer with Microsoft Security Essentials or your antivirus software you have installed.
If it has been disabled , which can happen when you have been infected ,try and start it & scan your system.
You could also try and run the Microsoft Malicious Software remover but the effective use of this will be on how long Windows Update has been stopped from working.
How To Run The Malicious Software Removal Tool
If it will not activate or run then you are definitely infected.
So what to do now?
You could try and install Malware Antibytes run it in safe mode, update it and do a full system scan.
Action what it finds.
So you have done all the above and done a full system scan with your anti-virus program and your computer is still not behaving properly.
REMEMBER there is no guarantee when removing malware or virus’s that you will be able to remove all traces.
This leads to the final solution , format and reinstall your operating system.
This is the only guarantee that you have that all traces will be removed.
When reinstalling install Microsoft Security Essentials
Better still follow my rules for avoiding infection Virus Prevention
What About My Documents?
All being well you should be able to get your documents off your hard drive but really you should have been backing up.
Once in a while, computer viruses get beyond our defenses. Maybe our anti-virus software is out of date or has been compromised by a particularly clever bit of code. Perhaps we clicked on a link by accident and activated a virus. Or someone else used our computer and downloaded some malware by mistake. 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.