Advanced Computer Virus Safety Tricks Part 1

Time and again you've been tirelessly dealing with computer viruses. Brand new computer...few days of haven...gradual slowdown...then bam! There you find yourself a virus on your hard-drive. Where'd that come from though, we can't seem to care. Let your antivirus carry the burden, that's what it's built for, anyway.

Question is, when will you ever realize that antivirus softwares just aren't enough?

There's nothing out there for absolute protection against computer viruses. Keep in mind that knowing is the best way to protect yourself. Try to learn stuff. This article is aimed to do just that. Hopefully this will help educate you to become a fairly advanced user and be able to shelter yourself from computer viruses.

How Antivirus Software Detect Computer Viruses

First off, you'd have to learn how your antivirus software works. Basically, each and every one of them will thoroughly inspect your rewritable media hardwares (e.g. your local hard-drive) and compare it to the antivirus software's database of currently known computer viruses. That database is the one which is augmented when your antivirus downloads an automatic or manual update from the internet.

When a match is found, detection is declared (you'll probably say, "Duh," but read first.) Your antivirus software has compared the candidate detection to your antivirus database, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're infected with a computer virus. However not knowingly, you delete all detections without identifying first which are false diagnoses-false what? Doing so is the most common mistake committed by commonplace users. As an advanced user, you must know that not every file listed by the antivirus software is a computer virus, much less harmful. And on the other hand, not all viruses are completely detected and removed.

Antivirus softwares are not perfect as they ought to be. They only rely on configurations set by you, a human, and the efficient build of their source-codes. Or even if you choose the default settings, not all computers on the planet are compatible enough to work the same.

What Is Computer Virus Detection Level?

For a quick tip, try looking at your antivirus softwares config/preferences/options/settings, or whatever's written there. Surely you'll find something that means similar to a "detection level" and may have parameters set from "weakest protection" to "maximum protection".

Which will you choose? I wonder.

The higher the settings, the higher the chances of false diagnoses will be. In that same config page, you'll find an adjacent label describing each parameter to select from (if it's not there, then try looking harder, or check your manual.) Remember that scanning for computer virus is a complex task. Know what you are doing and be sure to select the configuration which best suits you.

Background Guard versus Computer Virus

Next, make a quick assessment of your installed antivirus and its features (you can find it in your manual or compiled ".chm" help file.) An antivirus with Guard feature is very useful. It will have something to run in the background and automatically scan for computer viruses from the files you open, download from the internet, or load from removable media devices, invisibly.

If there's detection, a dialog box will appear from your system tray (lower-left corner of the screen in Windows) and prompt you to fix, delete, quarantine, deny access, or ignore the computer virus.

Computer Virus Detection Options

Fixing, repairing, restoring (whichever your software applies) should try to eliminate the computer virus from the file. The antivirus will check its database for a copy of the infected file, or a part of the code sequence in the file, and use that for restoration. However, this occasionally fails in case to case basis such as the following;

1. If the virus infected file does not have a copy in your antivirus database.

2. If the file cannot function without the original part which was deleted together with the virus.

3. If the computer virus had severely corrupted the file.

Given one of the above, the file may not function at all and is better off deleted in case there's a non-removable residue of computer virus still capable of infecting other files.

Deletion is always the easiest and best recommended.

Quarantine option should cut-paste the file from its original location to the antivirus directory, index it, and create an entry in the log file. This way, the computer virus is taken under surveillance measures until a confirmation of how the virus should be handled is received from you. Quarantining also means that you can wait for your antivirus software update for recovering the virus infected file without risking further contagion.

If you're unsure about deleting a computer virus infected file, choose to quarantine it.

Denying Access to a computer virus infected file means one of two ways.

If file is local, the antivirus would terminate either all system processes concerning the file at the moment, or just the file itself from accessing your computer's memory. This way, the computer virus cannot infect other files.

If it's a temporary downloaded file infected with computer virus, such as cookies and cache, it is immediately deleted.

If you choose to Ignore computer virus infected files, you are allowing it to replicate, damage, and even steal private data from your computer.

Protect and Optimize your Computer

The following are simple to advanced tricks you can do to optimize your computer virus protection and performance.

Run Virus Guard on Startup

Note: This could also be done in your antivirus configuration.

To run a virus guard on startup in Microsoft Windows, click start then click run. Type "msconfig" and hit enter.

1. In the "General" tab, click the radio button next to "Selective Startup" if not already selected. Do not tinker with what's below that.

2. Choose "Startup" tab and click check the box next to the name of your antivirus. These names might have been simplified, similar to how my "Avira Antivirus" appears as "avgnt". Do not proceed if you are not sure which to check.

3. Click "Okay".

Optimize Computer Performance by Disabling Startup Items

When you install a new program to your computer, some of them also install applications to run in the background whenever you start your computer. Most of them, you really do not need and yet they take considerable amount of memory and processor capacity. Disabling the ones you do not use should restore the performance of your computer.

1. Follow the same instructions to open "msconfig" as already given above.

2. In the "Startup" tab, uncheck all unnecessary startup applications.

3. Click Okay.

There are a great number of free applications on the internet useful for both computer virus protection and computer maintenance, which I will provide in the later parts of this article.

Note: This can be manually done by accessing "Windows Task Manager"

Optimize Startup with Task Manager in Microsoft Windows

If you do not wish to edit msconfig for precaution, you could always terminate wasted processes manually. Carelessness would bring you to restart your computer at the worst.

1. When you open your computer, right-click on the Taskbar, and click "Task Manager."

2. In the "Processes" tab, click the "username" column to sort the items by username. Do not tinker with entries aside from your own processes or you'll end up with a warning message.

3. The CPU column shows in percentage the amount of CPU allotted to the process. The "Memory Usage" column lists each process's share in kilobytes. Examine (and try to remember) the items under the "Image Names" column, which you do not really need, and click "End Process." Click Okay.

If you accidentally terminated a vital process, Windows should initiate an automatic shut down. In this case, you're given 60seconds to save all important data.

Tip: If you're an advanced user and has already deleted a self installing computer virus application, adware, malware, or spyware, you should know that some traces of it might be left on your computer. In occasion that you find image names similar to such computer virus self-installers or monitors, make sure you examine this correctly for manual deletion.

Next: Advanced Computer Virus Safety Tricks Part 2