How to Protect Computer from Viruses

Viruses are a potential threat to the computers. From creating small problems to completely erasing the data on a computer, viruses can wreak havoc. With the number of computers connected to the internet, the risk of getting affected by viruses always exists. There is no guarantee that a computer can be hundred percent protected from the attack of viruses, but there are few things you can do that can help protect a computer from virus attacks. Read on further to understand how to protect a computer from malicious viruses.

The most trusted method of keeping viruses at bay is getting a reputed antivirus software program and installing it on your computer. There are a lot of antivirus programs available online, however, make sure that you download a legitimate antivirus program. After the installation of the antivirus software, run the program, this way you can remove any existing viruses on your computer.

Always be cautious when you receive mails with attachments, from unfamiliar email addresses. If you are not sure, never open the attachment, it can be a source of harmful virus. Viruses that spread through email attachments usually spread by finding the email addresses from your address book and sending themselves to every email id. Hence, if you open an email from a familiar id, but are not sure if the content of the email sounds weird or you were not expecting any such mail, it is better not to open the attachment and immediately delete the mail.

To be absolutely sure of protecting your computer from harmful virus attacks, regularly perform a full scan. It might take hours to complete, but it is necessary, to spot any existing viruses on the computer. Antivirus programs, usually, get updated very frequently so you will need to install the updates regularly. This will keep your antivirus program efficient in identifying and removing the viruses. New viruses are created daily; hence, it is absolutely necessary to install the regular updates, in order to be secure from the ever increasing viruses.

Do not blindly rely on the antivirus program. Since, few of the viruses are very hard to remove, once they attack a computer, even the most efficient antivirus program cannot remove them completely. Always be cautious while downloading files from internet. Every time you download you are at the risk of downloading a virus onto your system. Also, always be on the lookout for links that ask you to click, since, few of these links can redirect you to sites containing viruses and simply visiting these sites, can affect your computer with the viruses.

Always scan the external USB flash drives that have already been connected to other computers before using them. Do the when using external hard disks, since they can already have potential viruses residing in them. Be extremely cautious when you receive attachments with the extensions .vbs or .js and it is better not to open them at all.

Photo Credits: ccox888

Originally posted 2010-05-17 03:29:31.

This post involves:

antivirus program, antivirus software, computer antivirus, computer viruses, malicious viruses, protecting your computer, virus attacks

... and focuses on:

Computer Performance and Tech Support, Computer Tips, Security and Malware

Posted by How To Computer on December 28, 2011 in Computer Performance and Tech Support, Computer Tips, Security and Malware. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.