How to Tell If Your Computer Has a Virus

Do you think your computer has a virus, but you can’t tell if it really does? Here are some of the warning signs:

1. Slow start ups

• Guess what, the more your computer slows down, the more likely some program is hogging your resources. Long start ups can be a sign of viruses. These nasty little blighters can polute your memory, registry and other parts of your computer.

2. Strange dialogues

• Is your computer all of a sudden “unprotected”? Do you get a lot of error messages when you use your computer? This could be another sign of a virus. Viruses like to trick you into doing things that you don’t mean to do, and they use these tricky dialogue windows that pop up everywhere to trick/scare you into facilitating the virus.

3. Excessive Advertising

• Do your favorite sites have more advertising than you remember, with incessant popups and other annoyances? Sure, the site could have added more ads, but more likely if this happens on more than one site at once, you have a piece of adware. Especially if the advertising content is less than relevant.

4. “Run This Program”

• If something wants to run when you first download it, and pretty much any time you do anything, (E.g. Start up, run a program, change the website, breathe, etc.) it’s probably a virus begging you to let it do what it was made to do. Don’t let it. Sure, some programs you download will have to ask to run, and these aren’t viruses, but the most persistant ones usually are.

5. PURCHASE ME!

• If a program is constantly saying it’s critical to your computer’s safety for you to purchase it, it’s probably beneficial to your computer’s safety not to. Also, if one decides that you can’t run anything because there are far too many viruses on your computer, it is probably the problem. These “scareware” programs should be deleted immediately.