Computers have become an increasingly important tool in our everyday lives. We use it to write documents, play games, watch movies, and even buy stuff online. At around the same we started using computer to handle sensitive information such as credit card number, passwords and other financial data, there are people who created malicious programs designed to steal such information from you.So be sure to check if your computer has the following symptoms and prepare to invest in a good antivirus and firewall software.
The first symptom is that you will notice a significant slowdown of your computer. The usual everyday applications such as Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox that takes less than 2 seconds to start now takes anywhere from 15 to 60 seconds to start up. The slowdown usually stays even after a fresh reboot of your pc.
The second symptom is the automatic termination of some applications every time you run them. I have seen this every t ime I tried to use Microsoft Word when my pc was infected. It also happens when you run any type of installers, specially antivirus installers. This symptom may not appear every time a PC is infected.
The third symptom is the denial of access to the registry editor. To check for this, simply go to the Start Menu then select Run then type regedit. A message box will appear that says: "Registry Editing has been disabled by your Administrator." If you are the only user of your PC, then you are the Administrator. So if you don't remember disabling the registry editor, then your PC is infected.
The fourth symptom is the denial of access to the Task Manager. Press ctrl+alt+del to invoke the Task Manager. If the message box that says "Task Manager has been disabled by your Administrator." appears and you don't remember disabling it, then most likely your PC is infected.
The fifth and final symptom is the disappearance of the Folder Options. To check, simply right click on My Computer then select Explore. Alternatively you can also press the Windows Key+E. Look at the top of the window, Tools is between Favorites and Help. Click on it and see if Folder Options is present, if not then the malware must have disabled it.
If two or more of the above symptoms shows up in your computer, then you have two choices to solve the problem. Either install an antivirus and firewall software, or just format your PC. Obviously the first choice won't work your computer has symptom number two. So you have no choice but to back up your important files and have your PC formatted.
For more information on antivirus and firewall softwares [http://antivirus-and-firewall.blogspot.com/2009/02/antivirus-and-firewall-sof...], just follow the link to my blog.
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