If you are unfortunate enough to have your computer infected by a virus, immediate action should be taken to remove it. Many viruses will continue to spread and affect your machine, much like real life viruses. The good news is that most common types of computer viruses can be removed from your computer completely, with little to no permanent damage being done.
If you have up to date antivirus software installed, it should alert you if an infection is located and give you details on what you need to do to remove it. Depending on the type of infection, different steps will need to be taken. If you suspect your system may be infected but are not certain, there are several free virus scan utilities available that will check your entire system for any malicious programs and infected files.
In the event that your antivirus software is not capable of completely eradicating the virus, it may tell you what further action is needed to do so. If you make routine backups of your system, one easy way to remove the vast majority of virus types is to reformat your entire system. You'll need to reinstall your operating system, and upon completion your computer will be reverted to its original settings that it came with. However, all data stored on your hard drive will be erased in this process, so this procedure is not recommended unless you have all of your data backed up or you are willing to sacrifice the data that is stored on your hard drive.
If you do not have an antivirus program running on your computer, the process of identifying and removing an infection will be more difficult, but it is not impossible. As stated before, in order to effectively remedy the problem you'll need to locate the virus and identify what type of virus it is in order to proceed. By running a free virus scan (several are available online), you should be able to pinpoint the problem and get some details about it. Many free virus scans will not give you the ability to actually remove the problem unless you pay for their service. In many instances this is an advisable approach to take, and it will likely save you a great deal of time. If you do not wish to pay for the service and prefer to disinfect your system on your own, you'll need to do a bit of research. Try doing a Google search about the problem using the details you receive from the virus scan. Often times, you may be able to find helpful tutorials online that will take you through a step by step process in removing the virus.
In some cases, you may be experiencing symptoms indicative of a virus but are unsuccessful in locating a virus with a virus scan. Since new types of viruses are released all the time, it is plausible that your machine is infected with a strain that your antivirus software or free scan software is not yet familiar with, thus it is unable to detect it. In this case, do a little trial and error with your machine to identify the specific symptoms and what does or doesn't cause them to appear. After gathering this information, do a search online with the keywords pertaining to your symptoms. If it is in fact a new type of virus, it is highly likely that others are experiencing the same symptoms, and you may find articles or discussion groups with details on how to remove the threat from your machine.
Should all of your best efforts prove unsuccessful in removing a virus or virus symptoms from your computer, consider having a technician that specialized in virus removal evaluate your system. Although you'll have to pay for it, it can save you a great deal of money in the long run if a potentially destructive virus is prevented from spreading and doing permanent severe damage.
