I have a virus on my PC

Cleaning a computer virus on a PC that has had no antivirus software installed can be a real problem. When you first get a PC – you should immediately install anti virus software – whether you use free anti virus programs or paid anti virus. You should also install a firewall and a anti spy ware programme.

Anti spy ware programs, anti virus software and firewall software are all available free of charge – do a google search on free software and you will find a plethora of programmes to protect you PC. I would recomend paying for your protection – it is part of life and once your PC goes down you will wish you had!

So – what to do if you have not installed any protection on your PC? If the computer is still booting up you are in luck. (maybe) Many spy ware programmes and viruses will not allow you to install virus software once they have taken control.Run a program called Malwarebytes first. Remember that scanning a large hard drive can take hours – so be prepared for a long repair process. I would recommend loading it all on a flash drive and cleaning it from there.

A far better method is to take out your hard drive and attach it externally to another computer that is protected – then scan from the protected PC – The virus software may kill certain operating system files – so be prepared to format the drive once your f=data has been cleaned.

Sometimes the only thing to do is to reformat your hard drive and start again. If you can take back ups – do so, but remember that you will also have backed up the virus – so before putting your data back – clean it with an anti virus programme. Also make sure that you have turned off the roll back function in windows – as this will have backed up any viruses, trojans or malware. AVG offers free anti virus software as does Avast – for paid software I use Eset Nod32 – fantastic antivirus program. A good free fire wall programme is Zone Alarm – and spy ware can be sorted with Super anti spy ware.