7 SERIOUS problems you may have after removing viruses on your computer!
Posted: Friday, April 22, 2011
by tektime
TekTime IT Consulting & Computer Repair
Would you believe that removing viruses can cause more computer problems than the viruses themselves?
There was once a time, when you could install your anti-virus software, and it would guard your PC from becoming the next statistic as well as removing viruses on your PC at the click of a mouse!
Here is a very sad fact: After removing viruses, your PC might give you might fail to work correctly, and could even FAIL TO BOOT AT ALL! I would like to introduce to you, 6 serious problems that you may experience after removing viruses on your computer:
---
1.) The viruses on your computer do not like to be detected.
One big threat to your computing experience, is called a Rootkit. A rootkit is a program, or a collection of programs, that enable administrator level access to a PC or a network. Rootkits exist for the sole purpose of compromising computer systems without being detected, and are enabled, or execute, whenever an infected computer boots and loads into Windows. Rootkits are extremely hard to detect because they start running before Windows has completely loaded.
Rootkits will allow the installation of: hidden files, processes and hidden user accounts, hidden modules, hidden registry keys (Windows depends on the registry to operate properly), and can intercept data from networks, terminals and keyboards (keystrokes), as well as changing system configurations, monitoring user activity (spying) and more. Other variants of malware has the ability to conceal itself, but rootkits are highly known to avoid being detected while destroying your computer!
--
2.) Your anti-virus software is actually... pretty terrible!
Do you tend to believe “the bigger the company (name), the better the product”? When it comes to antivirus software, the best known, costly brands, are now becoming among the worst when taking into consideration their ability to discover and actually protect computers from viruses. Big brands that were good in the past at creating software that had good detection rates, it seems that they are becoming less effective at detecting harmful viruses (for example, Norton and McAfee)
--
3.) No one particular software proves effective 100% of the time.
Do you know that your antivirus software by itself, is not adequate protection for your computer? Many of the malware that infects computers these days are very complex, and more than 35,000 viruses are actually released every single day!
You must use additional methods to secure your computer from viruses, or to better protect your PC after removing viruses. The additional types of protection that you need to safeguard your computer and protect its data include: firewall software (third party for best results, instead of built in Windows firewall), browser phishing and malware protection, antispyware software and most importantly…EDUCATION!
---
4.) For some reason, the same viruses continue to return after they're removed!
If you have any experience in removing viruses, you may find malware returning to re-infect your PC, after your favorite software supposedly quarantined and deleted it! Or, you may find that you took your PC to a costly shop to be fixed, to learn later that you are getting the exact same error messages and issues that you were getting before it was “fixed”! Fret not, the “reappearing viruses” problem is due to increasingly complex viruses etc, that conceal their existence (also known as cloaking) to avoid detection and removal.
Other forms of malware can “birth” new copies of themselves; simultaneously, as the original copy is “killed”. To put things in easier terms to understand, picture a trojan that wipes out your PC by deleting important data, logging your keys as you type, sending emails to your friends, stealing your bank account information and more!
Your antivirus software identifies and removes that trojan. Several hours later, your software detects the exact same Trojan that was supposedly removed. That is an example of the “parent/child” scenario that is to blame for a new copy of the Trojan that you removed - to be reborn.
---
5.) Failure to successfully download and/or install Windows Updates.
It’s now official… there many variations of malware that highly target and cause damaged, to software that was created by Microsoft. Have you experienced Internet Explorer returning a "Page not found" error, when you are trying to browse the internet, after removing a virus? Windows Update is highly dependent on IE operating properly, to successfully download the needed updates.
After removing viruses, you may find that Windows cannot successfully update, which in turn can cause your PC to be exposed to more threats, due to"security exploits". Microsoft releases updates to Windows to "patch" weaknesses (vulnerabilities) that are recognized by hackers, and taken advantage of when creating malicious software code (viruses etc).
---
6.) Installing software becomes impossible!
Were you aware that many types of malware target the .MSI installer? This is the application that Windows uses to install and remove software. PC viruses will also stop other .exe software (executable files) from installing correctly, or at all. That means that - the software you try to install that isn't installing, may otherwise have removed the malware!
---
7.) Your internet connection has died like the dinosaurs.
After removing viruses, your internet browsing priviledge, may totally cease. Viruses, trojans, spyware etc, are known to: change the proxy settings of many internet browsers, change the "host file" settings (which protect the internet connection), change the firewall settings, or turn the firewall off, change router settings (in other words people who use the router will not be able to connect to the internet), corrupt Winsock settings (needed for an internet connection...period), and much more!
---
Hopefully these tips will come in handy, the next time your computer reads "You Are Infected"! You can remove viruses from your computer, knowing the "worse case scenarios" that you may encounter when doing it yourself. Until next time...
Happy Computing!
Jarvis Edwards
This Article has been viewed 228 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.