Computer Virus - Symptoms
Computer Virus Symptoms and Solutions
If your computer is infected with a malicious computer virus, it may begin to show a series of Computer Virus symptoms that indicate that a virus is present. Computer viruses can be very harmful and damaging to your computer system, root files, and various program files. A computer virus can also increase the risk of hacker threats and attacks, and open the door to even more unauthorized downloads and software installations. Once you diagnose the computer virus symptoms, then computer viruses can be counterattacked with the appropriate antivirus software and suite packages, but this needs to be installed well before the virus has infected the system.
Many computer viruses are designed to self-replicate and self-install over a very short period of time. They come encoded with specific instructions to destroy and advance through its host computer, and can affect a multitude of programs and applications very quickly. Recognizing the symptoms of a computer virus can help to successfully remove it from the infected computer as quickly as possible; the sooner this is completed, the easier it will be to recover any documents or programs that may be damaged, and prevent the virus from further spreading.
Backing up computer files on a regular basis is just one preventative measure in protecting the data on your computer. Installing a powerful antivirus program is the next step, as this can indicate the presence of a malicious computer virus before it has a chance to spread. Still, recognizing the symptoms of a virus is fairly simple when you know what to look for.
A computer virus may have installed itself on your computer through a Trojan, a security breach, unauthorized access on your computer, or an e-mail attachment that also included malicious code. After a virus begins to spread, many program files can become unstable and display warnings. The operating system may not launch properly, and the computer user may need to reboot and restart the computer frequently to ensure all programs are starting and working fine. Critical files may get deleted automatically, and this can happen periodically or all at once. Error messages will become prevalent; it may become difficult to save documents, and the computer may be running slower than usual. If a system or network is infected severely, it may even black out or not even launch the startup process.
Some other symptoms of a computer virus involve the computer hardware itself. CD-ROM drive trays may open and close by themselves, without the user directing the function. Programs may launch at their own, and unusual sounds may play randomly. Some e-mail messages may not be sent or received properly, and e-mail attachments may disappear. If the computer is freezing consistently, or files and folders seem to disappear or will not open, these are clear signs that an area of the hard drive is “malfunctioning” (actually is not, but is affected by a virus). The computer may also display a series of pop-up ads and strange messages upon startup; this is a clear indicator that adware programs have been installed, and these are very difficult to remove manually.
In addition, disk space can become overloaded and cause frequent computer crashes. Viruses can duplicate large-sized programs to the point that the computer cannot handle the files. This will reduce the chances of even installing an antivirus program successfully, so early detection is key to detecting and removing the dangerous virus.
Lately, computer viruses have been created so they can change some of the core system files (Microsoft Windows) so that web sites of most of antivirus software companies become inaccessible. Your Internet browser will either switch to some other web site or simply show “not found”. What is happening is that you are being prevented from finding a way of getting antivirus software cleaning your system.
Finally, the best way of recognizing computer virus symptoms and preventing computer viruses and other Internet based threats to invade your computer is to have the latest, up to date computer security software, which can be a basic version of antivirus program or some of the all-in-one software suites.