Maybe this needs to be taught in school. Don’t open something unless you are certain you know you can trust it. If you do planon opening something that seems suspicious such as a key generator from your favorite p2p application, then you better have a good antivirus. Speaking of Antiviruses, I need to write about them soon. I’m an AVG fan. It’s free and it does a better job than the big ones out there such as Norton and Symantec.
You can never say never in the world of computers but you can make some very good assumptions on how you can and cannot get a virus.
Ways you cannot get a virus:
- downloading mp3 files
- downloading picture files
- downloading pdf files
- opening an email but not its attachment
- opening Microsoft Office files (you will get a warning about macros if it has one and their potential to do bad)
Ways you can get a virus:
- opening ANY executable file. These are extensions of .exe and .bat
- opening an attachment that has an executable file in it. most email programs won’t let you send .exe files
- opening a zip or RARed file (compressed file) and then double clicking on an executable file
Notice anything familiar about my last three items? If you answered “they are all executable files” then you win a congrats! from me. 🙂
I will have to go more in depth on how to remove viruses but the main thing to remember is if it does look like it’s gone and it shows up right away again, then you need to run your antivirus program in safe mode. Some viruses are a pain to remove.