2006-12-11 22:06:27 · 16 answers · asked by pretty 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
It depends what the virus is. If it is a particularly nasty one then you will know about it believe me. My last PC was attacked by the trojan horse virus and left my email completely unobtainable. I took it to PC World and they said there was nothing they could do to fix it and it would have cost a fortune to add new things in to it. I opted for a new PC. Make sure you have a good firewall installed and internet protection, it can be costly to by these packages but completely worth it. Run a system scan every week which will detect any harmful viruses. If you do have a virus your computer may be running slower and not let you access programmes.
2006-12-11 22:12:50 · answer #1 · answered by koolkatt 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
this is a very good question,and the answer is quite hard to answer
viruses have come a long way from the days of collapsing desktops and skull and crossbones then your p.c would shut down
viruses are more stealth and cunning these days,and alot more destructive,the first signs you will notice are a drop in performance,this just dosent mean speed,it can mean more errors than normal and strange things happening like windows logging off unexpected and icons dissapearing
if left then speed will drop and finally the p.c will become unworkable,however no p.c these days should get to this stage,as there are many good free anti-virus programs out there and even the payed for versions start at only £10
avast 4.7(http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html)is the best free anti-virus avalible,for the home user it has everything you need in a anti-virus,and more inportantly it dosent eat system resources,like norton and mcafee
another good free option is a.v.g (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1),this program also has a free downloadable anti-spyware attachment(used to be called ewido anti-spyware) and these are very good
if you think you have been attacked by a virus,your first stop should be to download the microsoft malicous software removal tool(http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx),this looks for the most serious viruses,such as the mydoom virus ect,and if any are found they are removed,after this you should download and install one of the above programs and perform a full scan to locate and remove any infection
however like i said earlier no one should be without anti-virus or anti-spyware software protection these days as a recent investigation revealed that a p.c unprotected would be infected within 20 minutes on-line,this is the scale of the problem these days so keep your software up to date and surf sensibely
good luck
2006-12-12 07:42:25 · answer #2 · answered by brianthesnail123 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Depends on the virus, could be a simple back door hack for somone to look into your PC without you knowing. Without a virus checker you would never know.
Another virus could hijack you PC to distribute spam, you would know this because your computer would slow down noticably.
worse could be a virus that poped up a laughing skull on your monitor before formating your hard drive and killing your computer.
Its like asking how would I know if my body is attacked by a virus? Well you have the common cold right through to ebola, all effect the body in different ways.
The only sure protection is good ant virus software and not opening execuatble attachments in emails from unknown senders, or clicking links on suspicious web sites.
2006-12-11 22:25:57 · answer #3 · answered by Corneilius 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you have good anti virus software installed on your computer then you will be notified immediately, then the software will ask you, how you want to deal with the virus, it is always a good idea to act promptly as the longer you leave something like this on your system the more damage will be done.
2006-12-11 22:22:56 · answer #4 · answered by ? 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you have anti virus software activated it should be monitoring everything that comes into your PC. Regularly do a scan for viruses just incase any have got through the net. Be careful what sites you visit.
2006-12-11 22:19:22 · answer #5 · answered by Mogseye 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Your PC's conventional memory (the first 640 kilobytes, or 655,360 bytes) should be slightly less than this figure - no matter how well it tries to hide, a virus is still just a program and has to use some memory.
2006-12-11 22:30:30 · answer #6 · answered by Stephen L 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mine kept crashing, wouldn't let me do anything much - it is evident when you have a virus. Download a virus scan like AVG.
2006-12-11 22:09:19 · answer #7 · answered by katieplatie 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
basically it does WEIRD things..like shutting down.. and restarting....site take a long time to load up.. many things like tht.. u can scan a virus program to find if ur system is infected or not.. i think there are sum sites where u can scan online..
2006-12-12 00:22:09 · answer #8 · answered by Honda 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You insatll a standard antivirus soft ware such as Norton, AVG , Avast ( free antivirus software and Ad-aware, Ewido ( free spyware removers). You can download free softwares at
http://fixit.in/antivirus.html and http://fixit.in/spywareremover.html
The antivirus/antispy wares will stop the viruses/spywares.
2006-12-13 01:00:03 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your pc will give "coughing" sounds from the speakers every hour on the hour.
2006-12-11 22:13:00 · answer #10 · answered by Narky 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋