If you suspect a virus is causing your computer to behave differently or you’re antivirus software finds a bug crawling on your computer, it’s really hard to think about anything else until you’ve removed the virus. Because your computer is not healthy, your precious documents, music, data and video files are at risk.
In theory, removing a virus should be relatively easy. Run your antivirus virus scanner until it locates the virus and then delete it.

 

Even though antivirus programs can detect and kill many of the viruses that find their way to your computer through the Web, there are plenty of nasty bugs that can avoid your antivirus software for one reason or another.

 

I’ll show you how to catch and kill viruses, and I’ll also provide you with some tips for removing the bugs that refuse to budge.

Step One

Back Up Your Files

Please back up your important files before risk losing your files. Although your antivirus software may be able to remove the virus without harming your OS (operating system) you can’t predict the sort of trouble you may face. This is a very important step especially if it is your first time that you’ll install your antivirus program.

Although most program installations might run smoothly I had my fair share of installing some sort of software that caused my PC to malfunction, as a result, losing most of my data.

Back up your data to DVD, CD or external hard drives. Please be aware that viruses infect most popular file systems so be caused when copying the files back to your computer or any other computer. First scan the removable device before proceeding.

Step 2
Updating Antivirus Definitions

Publishers of antivirus software create databases of antivirus definitions that will help your antivirus to identify the threats. Because malicious virus programmers create new viruses on a daily basis your antivirus will be out of date as soon as you install it.

You may need to download the latest antivirus definition before attempting to run a scan or run the risk of missing a new virus.
Most antivirus programs have a 12-month subscription and when your subscription elapsed you might need to pay for further yearly updates. Some antivirus programs like AVG updates definition automatically through the internet but you’ll only receive some of the definition updates.

After updating your antivirus definitions which won’t take long depending on your download speed, you will be able to scan your PC for viruses.

 

Step 3
Scanning Your Computer With Virus Detector

When running a virus scan, your antivirus scans your computer for viruses that match the virus definition. While scanning your PC, it will automatically show a report of the specific viruses that it found. Depending on the size of your hard drive it will take up to a couple of minutes to finish scanning.

Even while scanning you will be able to do other tasks on your computer if needed. You will also have the option of a quick scan which will only search for commonly infected files or a full scan which will scan all the files on your PC. I recommend that you do a full scan of your computer.

When the scan is complete you will receive a report of the infected files and you will have the option to quarantine these infected files or to delete it. In some cases, you won’t be able to delete these files as these files may contain system files (operating files).

Depending on your needs of certain files you can also ignore to delete or quarantine. In some rare cases won’t be able to delete certain files especially operating files than I recommend that you use your Windows disk to replace these files that are infected.

 

Viruses vs. Adware and Spyware

Some virus software applications don’t search for Spyware and Adware. If you run an antivirus program and you find that you’re PC still behave abnormally than you are facing an Adware or Spyware problem.

If everything fails I recommend that you install a fresh copy of your Operating System but remember to format your hard drive completely to remove these viruses.

 

After the installation of your new Operating System remember to install your antivirus program and scan your external devices to check for infected files.

 

Conclusion

Always run an antivirus program on your computer and keep it up to date as frequently as possible. If you cannot afford to buy a full registered version then you can try the trail versions that has a 30-day expiry date, but I recommend buying the full version as this will give you better protection and not risk losing your valuable data.