This section discusses the means at your disposal to protect your PC from viruses that can infect it. It also provides tips on preventative measures you can take to protect your PC, and how to help protect your PC, scan for and remove viruses, and stay informed about security issues.
We advise you to download windows ISO or a backup tool before formatting your windows. This will help you to recover the data or have a beta version. You can download this software from malwarebytes.com
Prevent viruses from infecting your PC
- Use an anti-malware application. You can protect your PC from viruses and other malware by installing an anti-malware application and keeping it up to date. Anti-malware applications scan for viruses, spyware, and other malicious programs that attempt to infiltrate your email messages, operating system, or files. As new threats emerge every day, visit your anti-malware application publisher’s website regularly to check for updates.
- You can also check the list of home security software vendors to find Windows-compatible antivirus applications.
- Do not open email messages from unknown senders or attachments that you don’t recognize. Many viruses are attached to e-mail messages and are spread as soon as you open the attachment. We, therefore, recommend that you open only the attachments that you expect to receive.
- Pay attention to Windows SmartScreen notifications. Be careful while running unrecognized applications downloaded from the Internet. Unrecognized apps are more likely to be dangerous. When you download and run an application from the Internet, SmartScreen uses the application’s reputation information to alert you if the application is not well known and may be malicious.
- Keep Windows up to date. Microsoft regularly releases specific security updates that help protect your PC. These updates aim to prevent viruses and other malware attacks by repairing potential security holes.You can turn on Windows Update to make sure that Windows automatically receives these updates.
- Use a firewall. Windows Firewall or any other firewall application can alert you to suspicious activity when a virus or computer worm tries to connect to your PC. A firewall can also prevent viruses, worms, and hackers from downloading potentially harmful programs to your PC.
- Use the privacy settings of your internet browser. Some websites try to use your personal information to send you targeted advertisements, to defraud you or to impersonate you.
Make sure that User Account Control is enabled When changes that require Administrator level permission are made to your PC, User Account Control will notify you and prompt you to approve them. It can prevent viruses from making unwanted changes.
Windows Security Checklist
Keep up to date with the most recent security issues
Security Updates for Windows help protect your confidential information and your computer against new and existing threats.
While you can’t stay up-to-date, it’s still imperative your security strategy does. It involves putting trust in solutions and vendors that spend every waking moment laser-focused on protecting you from the enemy that’s dead set on wreaking havoc on your network.
How to detect and remove a virus?
- Is your computer slowing down? Viruses often slow down computer performance considerably. However, the slowness can also be explained by a hard drive that requires defragmentation, insufficient RAM memory, or the presence of spyware or adware. For more information on spyware, see How to tell if your computer is infected with spyware.
- Do you receive unexpected messages or do programs start automatically? Some viruses damage Windows or some of your programs. This can cause messages to appear unexpectedly, automatically start and close these programs, or shut down Windows suddenly.
- Is your modem or hard drive working for no apparent reason? An email transmitted virus sends many copies of itself electronically. The LED indicating that your bandwidth or your external modem is in use then remains on constantly; you may also hear your hard drive continuously working. These signs do not necessarily indicate the presence of a virus, but if they are accompanied by other problems, you should consider this hypothesis.
Usually, Windows Defender removes viruses automatically. However, there may be times when you need to remove a virus manually. This procedure can be technically complex. Only users who have tried all other options, are familiar with the Windows Registry, and know how to view and remove system files and programs in Windows should do this.
- To get started, run your anti-malware application to identify the virus by name. If you don’t have an anti-malware program or if your application doesn’t detect the virus, you may be able to identify it by looking for information about its behavior.
- Write down the text of any messages displayed by the virus or, if you received the virus through an e-mail message, write down the text that is in the subject line or file name attached to the message.
- Then search the website of an antivirus company or the Microsoft Malware Protection Center for any references you wrote down, or try to find the name of the virus and instructions for removing it.
- After you remove the virus, you may need to reinstall some software or restore lost information. By making regular backups of your files, you will limit the risk of data loss in the event of a new infection of the PC. If you have never made a backup before, we invite you to do so now.