Essentially, all malware such as spyware, viruses and Trojans are just normal software programs, except they have been designed to do malicious things to your operating system.
Viruses can only infect your PC when they have they have been given the permission to run, and have sufficient privileges to install themselves on your PC.
The way they grant themselves permission to run is by ‘tricking’ you into accepting their installation. This can be through various means, such as asking you to click a link on the web, or presenting themselves as an attachment from a friends email, and so on.
If you are not logged in as the administrator, even if you fall prey to the ‘trick’, the virus still won’t have sufficient privileges to run and thus cannot infect your PC.
No anti-virus software has a 100% detection rate therefore prevention is always the best cure, and remember some viruses are smart enough to disable your antivirus software.
That said, there also some other precautions that I take to further safeguard my system.
1. I use AntiVirus software with a higher detection rate as well as a better engine. My two favourite are:-
a. Avast Antivirus (also happens to be free)
b. Kaspersky (if you are wondering why my video contains Norton Antivirus, it’s because of other experiments im currently running)
2. I always keep my Windows Firewall switched on.
Some people will tell you, you need higher grade firewall software, but I’ve always felt Windows firewall is good enough. Again, no firewall software is completely bullet proof.
3. I curb my temptation for downloading music or videos using peer-to-peer software.
Out of the thousands of PCs that I have seen plagued by viruses, the first question I always ask is “Do you have Limewire installed?” Limewire is the bane of the IT Technicians life. A large proportion of files downloaded using Limewire are infected with Malware.
4. I always manually scan (for viruses) each file that I download, receive as an attachment or copy from someone, using my anti-virus software’s manual scan function.
5. I stay away from adverts of software that promise to remove spyware for me. (They’re normally infected programs in themselves.)
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