What are computer viruses? And how do you know if your device is infected?

A very important question. A virus is a small program programmed to damage your computer (by causing errors in your device, slowing it down, or damaging its hardware), and spread from one computer to another. It also copies itself inside your device and interferes with the computer’s operating system. These viruses are programmed by professional programmers for reasons that may be related to causing damage to computers or because they have a desire to harm others. They may also aim to achieve financial gains.

If your device is infected, you will notice strange things happening, such as unknown error messages appearing, other programs not working properly or not working at all. For example, your antivirus program may stop working, indicating that the virus has disabled it. Additionally, you may experience severe slowness in your device, and while browsing the internet, you may notice that the pages you choose do not work correctly. You may also be redirected to other pages, and your device may send messages to your friends’ list without your knowledge. In general, if you notice strange things happening on your device and realize that you have lost control of it, then your device is infected.

Some people expect viruses to only affect system files and software. This is not true. Some viruses are programmed to destroy your hardware or wipe it out completely. You should know that there are viruses that can destroy your entire device! In simple terms, the entire computer is controlled by a set of programs. If this virus is only for controlling and changing settings in a program like BIOS, then the motherboard will be compromised.

So, the effect of viruses on your computer can be normal or abnormal depending on their type. Some viruses annoy you only, while others destroy programs and files within your device, and yet others destroy parts of the hardware, or even the entire device.

The first thing you should do is scan your device using a strong antivirus program. I have written about the best free antivirus programs in a topic titled Best Free Antivirus Programs. If you want to use a paid antivirus program, I recommend using Kaspersky or Bitdefender. After scanning, it is preferable to reinstall a Windows version to completely get rid of these viruses and their effects. (Steps to remove the Autorun virus)

Let’s face it, downloading from the internet is not easy! Any file you download could contain a virus, so you should only download from trusted websites.

1 – Files with the “exe” format: These types of files are likely to be infected. Therefore, when downloading “exe” files, you should be sure of the websites you download from. In general, if you want to avoid viruses in general and spyware in particular, avoid downloading any file with an “exe” format less than 1 MB or at least scan it, as mentioned previously in the topic “Say Goodbye to Viruses with the Best Online Scanning Sites.”

2 – Files with “Zip” or “rar” formats: Compressed files may contain “exe” files that could have viruses.

3 – Files with “Scr” format: These are script server files and are also unsafe and should be scanned first.

4 – Files with “Doc” format: Word files are also unsafe, and you should scan them before using them, as they may also contain viruses.

There are many types of viruses, and not only that, but the number of viruses increases daily. However, with this increase, protection from them is very easy. You will be surprised to know that sometimes I do not use antivirus software, and my device has not been infected for years. It all depends on what was mentioned in this topic. Just knowing what viruses are and which files may be infected will help you avoid them, and I will mention more in upcoming topics. Finally, I hope the topic is helpful.