How to know if PC has a potential Virus?

How to know if PC has a potential Virus?

There's really no thumb rule. Common problems are programs running slow, occurrence of unwanted error(s), automatic boot up of the system, malicious actions while opening files and peculiar messages seldom or often indicates that your system has been threatened by a virus. However, don't get terrified and don't be quite sure; initially, run a virus scan.

Modern viruses can trigger slowly, but may even result in disaster! Therefore, it is always wise to keep backups of the most important files. Symptoms such as, slow or even 'no internet' may even just occur due to some viruses and often Antiviruses cannot detect such a threat. Another indication is the file size. If a file size is unusual and often changes, that’s a matter of concern and may be a virus.

As you might know by now that viruses are small programs, which reside in the machine and do whatever they have been programmed to. They often show up in the task manager with a file name. You could download Process Explorer, a free application, showing thoroughly the programs running in your machine. If any process or program is suspicious, just terminate or stop it. See the performance of your PC after stopping the malicious process. This tip worked for me few times. I got rid of unrecognized and suspicious programs and later found truly, they were viruses!

As mentioned earlier, there’s no thumb rule that would tell you that you’ve been infected with a virus! Last but not the least ask a friend of yours who uses a PC frequently. You will see how many times he might have faced the same problem. If nothing works, don’t forget to write into the forums in the net! Thousands of people are already connected there. Your problem could match someone's and that often happens.

It is important to address a problem after understanding the reason. A potential virus attack is not always the cause of problems we face in technology. Often there is a software and hardware problem that needs to be solved.