“How to find Virus and Remove it forever”

A virus attack is one of the most feared threats for those of us who use a computer, whether for work or leisure. Its effects can be catastrophic: poor performance, application crashes, or utter uselessness are just some of them. However, these consequences are not always due to this viral cause, so in order to solve the problems that arise, it is important to know if our device has been infected or not.

In other cases, the opposite is true. It may be the situation that our computer works perfectly, but, without knowing it, there is a virus doing its thing. Viruses from a decade ago were often pranks that ran wild and used a lot of system resources. Instead, modern malware now hides silently and covertly in the background , in order to go unnoticed and evade detection so that it captures all kinds of personal data.

 

Therefore, although there are sometimes Hints of the existence of viruses in our device, this is not always the case. It is for this reason that it is always positive to carry out some periodic operations in order to make sure that we are not in a situation of risk. Here we explain some of the most useful ways to know if a computer has been attacked by a virus.

Watch out! Signs of viruses

Before delving into the possibilities of our equipment, let's start at the beginning: how do we detect that we have a virus? There are many signs that can make us think that our computer has been successfully attacked and here we leave you some of the clearest.

Hint 1: If we perceive that some extensions appear in our browser that we do not remember having installed, the best we can do is distrust.

Hint 2: If we detect that our antivirus is permanently disabled, either because we receive a notification or because we observe that it behaves in a strange way, it is very possible that it is a symptom that the computer has been infected. There are many strains of malware that are capable of disabling it , preventing it from updating, and preventing it from running scans.

Hint 3: Although it is not the only possible cause, some types of 'malware' affect performance and slow down the execution of programs. This is because cybercriminals can harness the power of our computer and use it for their own purposes such as mining crypto currencies.

Hint 4: Social media accounts are places where viruses can act. Irregular behavior in any of them, such as the publication of information, news or images without our consent is a very common sign of the existence of a computer virus. If your friends say that they have received strange messages from you or have seen you posting strange comments, it is possible that your account has been compromised or that your computer is infected.

Hint 5:  A slow internet connection or unusually high network activity can often be attributed to 'malware'. There are many varieties of 'malware' that can hijack our internet connection and use its bandwidth to perform unwanted activities. In more serious cases, we can even lose connectivity completely.

Hint 6: If we notice that our device is getting hotter than normal or that the fans are spinning at maximum revolutions , even when the system is idle, it could be due to a virus. When a computer performs a resource-intensive task, the fans kick into full blast to help keep it cool and prevent internal components from overheating.

Hint 7: A very common symptom of the existence of a virus is the automatic and involuntary redirection to certain websites . These are often malicious and are used to obtain your personal information or encourage you to download more 'malware'.

Hint 8: If a multitude of pop-up ads suddenly jump on a screen , a virus is probably doing its job. Many potentially unwanted programs come bundled with 'adware' that uses every opportunity to display unwanted advertisements on all kinds of issues and products.

Hint 9: The blue screen is one of the most feared phenomena by all. If this happens, the cause may be the existence of a virus, although not the only one. In these cases, identifying the exact cause can be tricky.

Hint 10: Some types of 'malware' are designed to look like antivirus 'software' , with the function of sending false notifications about the existence of some fictitious security threats and indicating the need to buy a product that is supposed to solve the problem.

Scan your PC for Malware and eliminate them

If in our team we have observed the existence of any of these signs, or of other strangers, it is urgent to take another step to check if we have been infected. For this, there are several alternatives. Some of them are tools built into the operating system, others are external.

 The Windows 10 operating system includes a device scan feature by default. This program performs a scan automatically with the integrated Windows security application, also known as Windows Defender and its objective is to detect the existence of some of these malware programs. However, there are other ways to analyze the equipment to be calm, with manual scans.

 

In Windows 10, these types of operations are carried out in a simple way. The first step is to open the Start menu and type ‘Security’. Then, you have to click on the 'Windows Security' shortcut to open it. Another alternative way is to follow the path 'Settings> Update and security> Windows security> Open Windows security'. At this point there is more to click on "Virus and threat protection".

 Finally, you must click on "Quick Review". Thus, the process of scanning the system for malware will begin . Windows Security will carry out a examine and give you the results. If any virus is found, it will offer the option to remove it from your PC automatically.

 

If we do not remain calm with this first exam, we can carry out a second    review. Requesting a second opinion is always positive and in order to carry it out we must use another tool that complements the main one that we have already used.

There is several antivirus software that can help us get that second opinion. One of them, which combine very well with Windows, is Protegent 360 (although there are many). With a program of these characteristics an extra layer of security is provided in our computer. This program, like other similar ones, offers a free version that allows manual scans to be carried out to check for viruses or other types of 'malware'. There is also a paid version that offers Total Security protection. However, if what we want is to examine the computer to see if we have been infected by a virus, in general, the free versions are sufficient.

 

If we have Windows 7 installed on our computer, we must bear in mind that it does not have any type of antivirus incorporated. Of course, it is possible to download a free one from the several Antivirus Websites. This software will allow us to run an analysis to see if we have a virus on our computer and offers protection similar to the Windows Defender security software built into Windows 10.

 

If after conducting the exam, the antivirus with which we have worked confirms the existence of malware, but has problems to eliminate it, we can try to kill it through an analysis in 'Safe' mode. Another option is to reset Windows to its default state and erase everything at once.