How to tell, what to do if computer is infected

There's not much reason to get a virus nowdays. There are plenty of free virus checkers that do a decent job. Check out Avast. They have a free home version that you just have to request a serial number for once every 6 months or so.

If you download a lot of porn or look on the web for hacks and whatnot you probably want to invest in a good anti-virus as these websites & apps are crawling with viruses.

 

Also, beware of "worms" which are different than viruses. So get Avast, and then get Malwarebytes Anti-malware. Both are free and very good.

 

i do not care what av you run sometimes a virus will still get in.you should always have a good av program running and do scans at least weekly for virus and malware.i agree malware bytes is great.i prefer avg internet suite.can't stand norton.it is a resource hog and has to many false postitives,misses common virus's.nod32 is also good.

 

Very good points. I use the same apps.

 

Oh, a side note on this topic. If you run your logs off the same computer that you surf the web then you would be wise to do your web surfing in a virtual sandbox. This way if you get a virus it has a good chance of being limited to the sandbox. You can just delete the sandbox and re-create it.

Google search "virtual machine." There's plenty of programs to allow you to do this. There is one caveat however. Some OS licenses do not allow you to legally use them in a virtual machine, there's not usually anything physically preventing you from it they just claim it's against their license agreement. Windows falls into this category, Mac and Linux couldn't care less if you visualize. I *believe* the Windows license agreement allows you to run other OS's in a virtual machine, just not theirs.

Personally I plan on having windows as my main OS for DDL and MS Streets & Trips, I'll then run Linux in a virtual sandbox, there's relatively few Linux viruses and even if you get infected the virus is pretty limited in what it can do.

For the non-geeks or drivers with spare cash lying around you could just buy a Mac and use the built in BootCamp tool to run a dual boot with Windows. Do all your surfing on the Mac and use Windows for your driving tools. There's nothing in the license agreements that prevents you from doing a dual boot setup like this.

 

I reformat once every 6 months or so too.

 

I use F-Secure internet security suite. I got started on this when my ISP was my cable company. I have since switched my ISP, and got the same security suite as a free trial (I'll buy it in a month when the free trial is up). I have had no problems of any sort since I have been using this program. The stuff is great.