Having viruses on your computer can be quite dangerous. Apart from the irritating fact that your computer will not work as well as before, your personal information could get into the wrong hands.
To prevent this you need to do a regular scan of your computer, this will go a long way to help protect your information. With a few tools, you can quickly do a general scan to keep your computer secure in good working condition.
To Get Started
If you do not already have an anti-virus on your computer, get one! Either purchase an annual subscription or use a reliable free one. Go online and search for free anti-virus, you will find several trusted and reliable names out there that offer a free version of their software. Make sure that you read up on reviews and choose the most trusted option available.
Get the Microsoft Tool
The first thing to do is go over to the Microsoft website and download their free Malicious Software Removal Tool. Just type into Google (Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool) and the page you want will show as the first or second result. When you click the download button you will be asked whether you want to run or save, click run… or you can save and run it once the download is completed.
This tool won’t find all infections out there, but it will check for “specific, prevalent malicious software” and remove what it finds.
If you already have Microsoft’s tool already installed from a previous scan, then you must update it, because Microsoft release an updated version of this tool monthly.
Once this program has done its work go onto scanning with your anti-virus program.
Next Update Your Anti-Virus
You must make sure that your program is up to date. No matter which program, you have, it should have current information on all the dangerous viruses out there. If you fail to update, you are not going to be able to fully protect your information, because during a scan, it will not be able to catch the newest viruses out there.
It is not going to do you a lot of good if your computer is infected and your anti-virus misses some viruses because it is not updated. The bottom line is to always keep an eye on the current status of your anti-virus and update it whenever needed.
Run a Scan on Your Computer
Locate the area on your anti-virus software where you can choose to scan, likely this will be very visible and easy to find. There may also be multiple options for scans and complete or quick scan depending on your software. Your best option here is going to be to choose the complete full scan.
Make sure you scan every hard drive connected to your computer and every storage device too. Also include the master boot record and boot sector in the scan. This is going to go through your entire computer to find viruses. While it might take a longer time, it is going to be more thorough.