Virus Removal and Spyware Removal
Following are some common questions and their answers that will help you remove viruses and spywares. Simply click on any question from this list to jump straight to the relevant answer.
Q : What is a Virus?
A : Viruses are quite different from spywares. While spywares are aimed at stealing your personal information and private data, viruses are more intent on destroying your system and rendering it useless.
Another major difference between the two is in the way they spread. While viruses are "self replicating" and "sneak into the system" spywares are distributed by dodgy websites which ask you to click some links to download certain freeware programs.
Viruses have evolved over a long period of time and have become very sophisticated. While older viruses were intrusive and quite destructive in their nature the newer ones are very subtle and sophisticated. Often viruses lay dormant until a certain date and time when they "get self activated" and start spreading their mayhem.
It is very difficult if not impossible to get rid of virus once it sneaks into your system. The removal process is quite laborious and contrary to popular belief is not the same as running a virus scan. As the saying goes "prevention is better than cure" we advise all our readers to ensure they have a good antivirus running at all times on their machines and keep the antivirus updated. A good free antivirus AVG is available here for download.
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Q : What are Spywares?
As mentioned above spywares are programs designed to steal your personal information and sensitive data rather than harming your system. Spywares are "loud programs". They open up various unwanted windows on your laptop or pc, they hijack your browser (internet explorer, firefox, safari, chrome etc.) and redirect you to various dubious sites where more spywares lurk waiting to get into an unsuspecting laptop or PC. Again as with viruses the removal of spyware is quite a battle once it gets into a laptop or pc.
The only way to guarantee a virus or spyware free laptop and computer is to wipe out the laptop completely and re install everything from scratch. While this might sound complicated it is a common practice for us at British PC Repairs. Please call us on 01372 890 123 or contact us by clicking here if you think your laptop or computer has been infected by a virus or spyware.
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Q : What are common signs to tell if my computer or laptop is infected?
A : These are some common symptoms that can indicate a possible infection. Please note this list is by no means exhaustive. Often the most sinister viruses sit quitely in the background without displaying any tell tale signs at all.
- A lot of unwanted windows open on their own
- Antivirus software stops updating itself
- Unwanted sites start opening in your browser (internet explorer, firefox, safari, chrome etc.).
- Laptop or computer becomes progressively slow or sluggish
- A lot of toolbars suddenly appear in Internet Explorer
- Dodgy alerts appear on your laptop or pc screen asking you to download certain programs to fix various errors on your computer or laptop
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Q : What can I do if my computer or laptop is infected?
A : You can do the following to stop or prevent the infection from spreading.
- Disconnect from the internet at once if you are still able to connect. There is a very likely chance that the virus is downloading more infections in the background. Disconnecting from the internet will stop this.
- Take your computer or laptop offline from your home network. If you have a wireless or wired network setup at home please disconnect the infected machine from the network immediately. This will prevent the infection from spreading onto other computers or laptops on your network
- Download a good anti virus and try to install it on the infected machine. Most viruses disable the anti virus system which is already installed on the computer. However installing a fresh antivirus can help as most good anti virus softwares run a specialized scanner during install which can stop any suspicious processes already running. Once installed run a "thorough scan" to clean out as many viruses or spywares as you can
- Contact us as soon you can for a free assessment and quote. You can use our Contact Us page to get in touch with us or call us on 01372 890 123 or 07545 819 363 or email us at fixit@britishpcrepairs.co.uk
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Q : How can British PC Repairs help me?
A : We have extensive experience in virus removal. We pride ourselves on being able to get rid of even the most serious infections. We have successfully removed viruses and spywares in the extreme cases where the concerned laptop or computer would not even start or boot into Windows.
If you know your system is infected or even have a tiny suspicion we urge you to Contact Us as soon you can for a free assessment and quote. You can use our Contact Us page to get in touch with us or call us on 01372 890 123 or 07545 819 363 or email us at fixit@britishpcrepairs.co.uk
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