My computer has been acting strange the past few days and I am convinced that I have a virus. It's been running unusually slow and I'm getting the cannot find server page frequently. I've checked my control panel and clicked on add/remove programs and I didn't see anything that wasn't supposed to be their. That's the only way I know how to check for a virus. If anybody else has anymore suggestions please let me know!
[question posted by BVBF25]
responses and comments:
You can get free anti-virus software from avast.com and it will find out and remove it if you have any. What you are more likely to have is spyware and for that if You have WindowsXP, get Home Defender from Microsoft which is also free. Go to Google and search for MS Anti Spyware Good luck [oldbuddy]
Thank you! Very helpful. I'll look them up! [BVBF25]
If you have windows XP then you could see the virus running as a background process (i have heard that some don't show up in there but i think it's rather for old windows systems not the XP ) Anyway just press CTRL+ALT+DEL at the same time and click on "task manager" there you will see alot of processes running on your system. I usually keep my eye on what's running there... when something strange and new pops up i will search about that process in www.google.com and usually it turns out if it's a virus or not. Then i would suggest downloading an anti virus program called NOD32. It can be found at: http://www.eset.com/ Scan your system with the trial version (you can use it fully for 30 days then you will have to come up with a way to buy or do other evil stuff to it lol) Also i would recommend a tool called "tuneup utilities" (http://www.tune-up.com) because you can view all the running processes from its built in process manager and it's better than the original windows version. There is even a startup manager where you can pick what programs you want to let to start up when the system starts. They are usually rated as safe or unknown etc. The third program that i would recommend is "spybot search and destroy" download it from: http://www.safer-networking.org/ It's totally free! And you can do alot of good stuff with it... you can block "BAD" pages on Internet Explorer and you can also scan your system for pests. I am sure that this would remove alot of crap from your machine in you have any at all :) [Ynefz0r]
Thank you! I'll check them out as well! [BVBF25]
Well I think everyone else covered all the tips I was going to offer. And even more. [wwwShyBodyJewelrycom]
I thank you still! [BVBF25]
many virus make computer more slow...or mke something weird...so we can know it by thats sign [redrose12]
You may be having a virus or spyware installed on your PC. Norton, AVG , Avast are free antivirus software. Ad-aware, Ewido are free spyware removers. You can download free softwares at http://fixit.in/antivirus.html and http://fixit.in/spywareremover.html [pcwork]
scan it with antivirus you will see if you have virus on your computer. [istanto]
SIMPLE. IF THERE IS ANY PROBLEMS IN BOOTING OR WITH ANY PROGRAMMES, IT MEANS THERE IS SOME VIRUS. [sree4030]
I think that several people have covered very well what I was planning to advise you. LOL I do know that sometimes when my computer used to run slowly, it turned out to be spyware rather than a virus but now the only reason for it being slow is my ISP and the fact that I am on dial-up connection. Good luck and I hope that you have the problem all sorted out now. :) [ossie16d]