Computer Works | Computer Maintenance and Troubleshooting

Computer viruses are small software programs that are designed to spread from one computer to another and to interfere with computer operation.
A virus might corrupt or delete data on your computer, use your email program to spread itself to other computers, or even erase everything on your hard disk.
Computer viruses are often spread by attachments in email messages or instant messaging messages. That is why it is essential that you never open email attachments unless you know who it's from and you are expecting it.
So in general, what is a computer Virus? - A computer virus is a program or code intentionally created to harm or to alter normal operations of a computer.

How Do I know That I have Cought a Virus? What are the Symptoms of an Infected Computer??



Here are some basic symptoms that you might see in an infected computer.

1. Slow Computer - your computer might become very slow and takes longer to start. This is a clear sign that you might have a virus that is consuming alot of your PC's resources.
2. Pop-up messages from unknown applications - sometimes you get an error message pop-up and you realize that you dont have that program in your program list. This cul pssibly be a pop-up from a virus or an infected program.
3. Loss of Data - If data in your hard-drive vanishes then you need to check for infection.
4. Data in your flashdrive becomes hidden or you only get shortcuts of folders.
5. Programs start unexpectedly.
6. Your personal firewall tells you that an application has tried to connect to the Internet (and it’s not a program that you ran).
7. Your friends tell you that they have received e-mail messages from your address and you haven’t sent them anything.
8. Your web browser behaves erratically, e.g. you can’t close a browser window, browser not responding.
9. You notice hard disk access (shown by one of the small flashing lights) when you’re not aware of any programs running.
10. You notice that files or folders have been deleted or changed. In some cases, hiden folders become visible or some folders become restricted and you cannot access them.
11. The operating system will not load when you start your computer.
12. You get lots of system error messages.(When you try to run a program you get an error e.t.c)
13. Your computer ‘freezes’ frequently, or programs start running slowly.
14. In the case of ZPharaoh.exe Your partitions open up as Folders.

Now hit ctrl+alt+Del on your keyboard. You will get the task Manager (you must be loged in as an Administrator), go to te process tab. If there a processes you dont know Google them up and if there is a running virus you will definatelly know.
Very soon I will post on how to remove viruses from an infected computer so come back soon.