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Tech Tips Archive

Sep-21 2004:

How To Keep Your PC Well and Happy - All About PC Viruses

If you own a PC, undoubtedly you know about viruses. Yet, it alwayssurprises me that not everyone knows what they are and how they get intoyour computer in the first place.

First things first. Just what is a computer virus?

Well, the name "virus" is very well chosen. They ARE just like theviruses that enter our bodies from somewhere and then work their way into acell.

The biological kind breaks into a cell and starts ripping away at ourDNA in order to make 1,000s of copies of itself. It then heads off toanother cell to repeat the process. Nasty, huh?

A computer virus works very much in the same way. It's usuallyoriginates from some teenager with nothing better to do. It invades yourcomputer by e-mail and stars ripping up your computer programs and data inorder to make copies of itself. And, if that's not bad enough, the virus canthen be sent out to other computers via your e-mail attachments.

Some of these virus are actually quite harmless to your computer. Theyjust replicated themselves and waste space in your computer. On the otherhand, some can be extremely destructive, doing such things as wiping out thecontents of your hard drive or creating weird behavior that can't be easilyexplained.

Viruses are often referred to as "Worms" or "Trojan Horses", dependingon the way they break into your computer. This is not of much significanceto the average user, except to understand that they are alternate names forbasically the same thing. All you need to know is that they are viruses, andthat they are unwelcome guests into your PC.

At the very least, it's embarrassing to you if friends and workcolleagues receive a virus from "you" because the virus borrowed youraddress-book to send copies of itself to everyone you know.

Viruses are the single biggest threat to computing today and costbillions of dollars each year in lost productivity. Viruses account for thevast majority of customer service calls made to PC builders when somethinggoes wrong. In short, viruses waste people's time and money!

So, what can you do to keep your PC virus free?

Well, in the past, the advice would have been simple. "Be careful ofwhat you open in your e-mail."

Today, however with the advent of HTML e-mail, viruses can be activatedin the preview pane of Outlook or other mail programs without you evenopening them.

This makes the new simple answer, "Get a decent anti-virus program!"

There are many anti-virus programs on the market, some good and somenot-so-good. Make your own decision, but in my estimation here are two youshould strongly consider when you make your purchase.

Symantec (formerly "Norton") Anti-Virus:http://www.symantec.com/nav/nav_9xnt/

McAfee VirusScan:http://us.mcafee.com/root/package.asp?pkgid=100&cid=9901

Trial versions of these products can be downloaded for free. The fullversion usually costs about $50 with annual renewals in the range of $40.

Here are the most important aspects of using an anti-virus program:

MAKE CERTAIN that it is always ACTIVELY PROTECTING your PC! You'llusually see a small icon at the bottom right of your screen to let you knowit is doing its job.

KEEP IT UP TO DATE! An anti-virus program is useless if notautomatically updated as 100s of new virus variations appear every week. Ifyour subscription expires, renew it immediately. This is not a place to savepennies.

After all, what price can you attach to losing valuable data such as allyour family photos. Or, how much is your local "IT guy" (the techfixer-upper fellow) going to charge your for a fix? And, you may talk afriend or relative into helping you out once or even twice, but we all knowthat can't go on forever each time you download a virus.

So that's it on the low-down of viruses. Next time, I'll talk about theother main threat to your PC, SPYWARE!