12 Tips to Maintain a Virus Free Computer

Submitted by Srikanth on Tuesday, 22 September 200928 Comments

Computer Virus Is your computer infected with virus? Do you often get mysterious error messages? Well this is a common problem faced by almost all the computer users across the globe. There are many viruses and worms out there that could infect your computer. Some are harmless, but, they do have the capacity to do any number of nasty things, up to and including, erasing all data from your computer. However there are ways to keep viruses away from your PC. Here are the 12 tips to maintain a virus free computer.

1. Email is one of the common ways by which your computer can catch a virus. So it is always recommended to stay away from SPAM. Open only those emails that has it’s origin from a trusted source such as those which comes from your contact list. If you are using your own private email host (other than gmail, yahoo, hotmail etc.) then it is highly recommended that you use a good anti-spam software. And finally NEVER click on any links in the emails that comes from untrusted sources.

2. USB thumb/pen drives is another common way by which viruses spread rapidly. So it is always a good habit to perform a virus scan before copying any data onto your computer. NEVER double-click the pen drive to open it. Instead right-click on it and select the option “open”. This is a safe way to open a pen drive.

3. Be careful about using MS Outlook. Outlook is more susceptible to worms than other e-mail programs, unless you have efficient Anti-Virus programs running. Use Pegasus or Thunderbird (by Mozilla), or a web-based program such as Hotmail or Yahoo (In Firefox).

4. As we all know, Internet is the main source of all the malicious programs including viruses, worms, trojans etc. In fact Internet contributes to virus infection by up to 80%. So here are the tips for safe surfing habits so that you can ward off virus infection up to the maximum extent.

Don’t click on pop-up windows that announce a sudden disaster in your city or announce that you’ve won an hourly prize. They are the ways to mislead Internet users and you should never trust them.
You can also use a pop-up blocker to automatically block those pop-ups.

5. Most of us use search engines like Google to find what we are looking for. It is quite obvious for a malicious website to get listed in the search results. So to avoid visiting those untrusted malicious websites, you can download and install the AVG LinkScanner which is a freeware. This tool can become very handy and will help you to stay away from malicious websites.

6. Install a good antivirus software and keep it updated. Also perform full system scan periodically. It is highly recommended that you turn on the automatic update feature. This is the most essential task to protect your PC from virues. If PC security is your first option then it is recommended that you go for a shareware antivirus software over the free ones. Most of the antivirus supports the Auto-Protect feature that provides realtime security for your PC. Make sure that this feature is turned on.

7. Install a good Antispyware program, that operates against Internet malware and spyware.

8. Never open any email attachments that come from untrusted sources. If it is a picture, text or sound file (these attachments end in the extensions .txt, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .tif, .mp3, .htm, .html, and .avi), you are probably safe, but still do a scan before opening.

9. Do not use disks that other people gave you, even from work. The disk could be infected with a virus. Of course, you can run a virus scan on it first to check it out.

10. Set up your Windows Update to automatically download patches and upgrades. This will allow your computer to automatically download any updates to both the operating system and Internet Explorer. These updates fix security holes in both pieces of software.

11. While you download files from untrusted websites/sources such as torrents, warez etc. make sure that you run a virus scan before executing them.

12. And finally it is recommended not to visit the websites that feature illegal/unwanted stuffs such as cracks, serials, warez etc. since they contribute much in spreading of viruses and other malicious programs.

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28 Comments »

majid said:

so many thanks
your post was useful
i have a request , would you please guide me in learning Metasploit 3.2 step by step ?!

thanks

- 23 September 2009 at 11:58 AM

Shadaicra said:

thanks for the post, will attempt later on my laptop to make sure ther isnt any external reasons for its bad loading even though its almost brand new. any idea’s with how to deeal with it?

- 24 September 2009 at 2:21 PM

Damjo said:

Hey Sri,
God to see that you’re back, because I saw that you haven’t been publishing any new articles lately I wanted to ask you what happened with GO HACKING forum, and also if you could write a topic about what MAC address is, and are there any ways of changing or hiding it?

- 24 September 2009 at 3:11 PM

Srikanth (author) said:

@ Shadaicra

If it’s brand new (or if the OS is freshly installed) your laptop will be free from any virus. So install a good antivirus and then maintain it according to the above 12 tips.

- 25 September 2009 at 12:07 PM

Laksh said:

lost of thanksssssssssssss

- 6 October 2009 at 12:09 AM

k.nagaraj said:

this site is excellent lot of thanks to u for giving the knowledge about the hacking & how to protect our pc thank u very much………..to u

- 3 November 2009 at 1:55 PM

sandeep chahal said:

u r giving us good information tanks for this.

- 11 November 2009 at 11:25 PM

raj said:

i wnt to know how i access a remote compurer

- 19 November 2009 at 10:57 AM

Vibhav said:

thanks but please elaborate if the AVG Link Scanner will work if you already have a different antivirus installed on your PC.

- 10 December 2009 at 9:16 AM

Srikanth (author) said:

@ Vibhav

Yes it will work even if you have a different antivirus..

- 10 December 2009 at 2:27 PM

MALIMA said:

HEY MEN I ENJOY IT SO I NEED MORE

- 22 December 2009 at 5:59 PM

swami said:

your information was very greatful

- 26 December 2009 at 12:43 PM

Vivek said:

Hi sri,
great work. Keep up. I’d like ye to include an article on making cracks or patches for softwares.thanks a lot,mon ami.

- 26 December 2009 at 9:22 PM

wEw said:

tnkx alot
it helps me keep my pc for viruses!!!

- 27 December 2009 at 12:11 PM

approspax said:

thats good
approspraxxxxxx

- 17 January 2010 at 11:27 PM

vasu said:

hi!!
thanks for giving use full tips .
plz tell me that how to get password of memory card of mobile phone if the password is forgotten.

- 19 February 2010 at 10:08 PM

Ravi Shanker said:

HI!! author too many thanks to u budyy…
Actuuly your these all tips make us stronger & genious…
we dont know how should we thanks you…
i hope u will help us consistlly in forword future…
thanks dear…

- 5 March 2010 at 1:32 PM

MALIND KUMAR said:

GODD USE

- 2 April 2010 at 8:05 PM

jaya said:

hi! author thanks 4 giving such a useful tips ………… i must follow this tips .Actully i want to know how i install any spywer softwere .and how to updated it ? plz rply my ans .
and thanks once agn 4 these information

- 11 April 2010 at 10:22 PM

fayez alghamdi said:

I want best website learning metasploit
or learning any computer Remote

thx

and thx majid

- 31 May 2010 at 9:41 AM

sanjay said:

srikanth i have a 800 gb pendrive which my brother brought from chaina … the problem i’m facing was it is not working properly…. sometimes it shows the used space as 512 gb and it contains more than 20000 folders……. when i try to format, it displays some errors (but on the box it displays 100% formated)

- 15 June 2010 at 12:33 AM

chetan said:

nice!!!!!!!1

- 16 June 2010 at 4:25 PM

uday said:

it very excelent site

- 27 June 2010 at 11:15 AM

Abhinand said:

Nice work sir.can you publish some Aircel tricks

- 28 June 2010 at 8:18 PM

Srikanth (author) said:

@ sanjay

Try to format the pendrive in a different computer. If it shows the same error message then it means that there is something wrong with the pendrive.

- 7 July 2010 at 5:24 PM

sonukumar said:

thanks for giving use full tips .
plz tell me that how to get password of memory card of mobile phone if the password is forgotten.

- 2 September 2010 at 2:28 PM

Deep said:

Many many thanks sir.
I want to learn hacking will you teach me step-by-step.

- 17 September 2010 at 1:44 PM

sangamesh said:

good information dudeeee

has added much to our knoweldge

- 1 February 2011 at 3:10 PM