Viruses are self-replicating programs or pieces of script or code that make copies of themselves and either attach themselves to existing files on the infected system or store copies of themselves on the system with innocuous sounding names like ‘repair tool’.

The virus is limited to spread only by either being transmitted or sent by an unwitting user or carried on a portable storage medium from one system to another. However, if a virus gets embedded somewhere on a network drive then anyone who opens or clicks on the infected document or file can end up getting infected as well.

Symptoms of Infection:

• Very sluggish computer performance.
• Random system lockups or crashes.
• Browser redirection – you are taken to websites you were not searching for while browsing the Internet.
• Excessive number of popup windows appearing at random while surfing the Internet.
• You are informed that your system has ‘hundreds’ of active infections and you are redirected to a website that insists you pay for and download their specific software package to remove the infections.

Solution:

There are many good anti-virus / anti-spyware products on the market designed to detect and remove these types of infections.  McAfee and Kapersky are good but AVG and Avast! have similar products and offer a free downloadable version.  Be sure to complete a ‘Full’ system scan and quarantine and remove all active infections.  Configure your anti-virus software to perform ‘active’ scanning or real-time system monitoring.

Prevention:

• Do not install software you have downloaded from the Internet unless it has come from a known, reliable source.
• Use caution if using file sharing platforms such as LimeWire or torrent sites to download files.
• Do not open any email attachments from unknown sources.
• Use a good anti-virus/anti-spyware application and scan your system at least weekly.  Be sure your anti-virus software is totally up to date with the latest virus definitions.
• For Windows users:  Be sure to visit the Microsoft upate site and download all the latest Microsoft security patches.  http://www.update.microsoft.com

In some cases your system may have become unable to install anti-virus software or has become completely unusable.  If your computer system has unwanted Viruses, Spyware, Trojan Horse, Malware, Worm, Rootkit, Keylogging or Adware installed on or infecting it and you would like to have one of our San Antonio Virus Removal specialists clean and optimize your system please click the button below.

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A Trojan or Trojan Horse Virus is a program that usually gets downloaded installed and executed on a computer system which then appears to be performing some useful function but is unknowingly allowing unauthorized access to the user’s computer system at the same time.

Hackers use Trojans to gain access to a user’s computer remotely and then perform any number of malicious activities.  These nefarious activities can include but certainly are not limited to:

• Data Theft.
• Keystroke Logging.
• Downloading or Uploading Files.
• Viewing the Victims Screen.
• Crashing the Users System.

Symptoms of Infection:

• Very sluggish computer performance.
• Random system lockups or crashes.
• Browser redirection – you are taken to websites you were not searching for while browsing the Internet.
• Excessive number of popup windows appearing at random while surfing the Internet.
• You are informed that your system has ‘hundreds’ of active infections and you are redirected to a website that insists you pay for and download their specific software package to remove the infections.

Solution:

There are many good anti-virus / anti-spyware products on the market designed to detect and remove these types of infections.  McAfee and Kapersky are good but AVG and Avast! have similar products and offer a free downloadable version.  Be sure to complete a ‘Full’ system scan and quarantine and remove all active infections.  Configure your anti-virus software to perform ‘active’ scanning or real-time system monitoring.

Prevention:

• Do not install software you have downloaded from the Internet unless it has come from a known, reliable source.
• Use caution if using file sharing platforms such as LimeWire or torrent sites to download files.
• Do not open any email attachments from unknown sources.
• Use a good anti-virus/anti-spyware application and scan your system at least weekly.  Be sure your anti-virus software is totally up to date with the latest virus definitions.
• For Windows users:  Be sure to visit the Microsoft upate site and download all the latest Microsoft security patches.  http://www.update.microsoft.com

In some cases your system may have become unable to install anti-virus software or has become completely unusable.  If your computer system has unwanted Viruses, Spyware, Trojan Horse, Malware, Worm, Rootkit, Keylogging or Adware installed on or infecting it and you would like to have one of our San Antonio Virus Removal specialists clean and optimize your system please click the button below.

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Spyware is software that gathers information about a users Internet habits, browsing patterns, email passwords, usernames and even credit card information, in essence, ’spying’ on the hapless user. This type of software usually gets installed without the knowledge of the user and can transmit the collected data to a third party over the Internet secretly as well.

Symptoms of Infection:

• Very sluggish computer performance.
• Random system lockups or crashes.
• Browser redirection – you are taken to websites you were not searching for while browsing the Internet.
• Excessive number of popup windows appearing at random while surfing the Internet.
• You are informed that your system has ‘hundreds’ of active infections and you are redirected to a website that insists you pay for and download their specific software package to remove the infections.

Solution:

There are many good anti-virus / anti-spyware products on the market designed to detect and remove these types of infections.  McAfee and Kapersky are good but AVG and Avast! have similar products and offer a free downloadable version.  Be sure to complete a ‘Full’ system scan and quarantine and remove all active infections.  Configure your anti-virus software to perform ‘active’ scanning or real-time system monitoring.

Prevention:

• Do not install software you have downloaded from the Internet unless it has come from a known, reliable source.
• Use caution if using file sharing platforms such as LimeWire or torrent sites to download files.
• Do not open any email attachments from unknown sources.
• Use a good anti-virus/anti-spyware application and scan your system at least weekly.  Be sure your anti-virus software is totally up to date with the latest virus definitions.
• For Windows users:  Be sure to visit the Microsoft upate site and download all the latest Microsoft security patches.  http://www.update.microsoft.com

In some cases your system may have become unable to install anti-virus software or has become completely unusable.  If your computer system has unwanted Viruses, Spyware, Trojan Horse, Malware, Worm, Rootkit, Keylogging or Adware installed on or infecting it and you would like to have one of our San Antonio Virus Removal specialists clean and optimize your system please click the button below.

Free Quote

Windows based PCs are notoriously susceptible to Trojan Viruses and Spyware infections.  This can be caused by a number of different things but making sure that your system is fully updated at Microsoft’s update site is one of the best ways of preventing problems.  You can verify that your system is completely up to date by visiting Microsoft’s update site – http://www.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us.  Just use the Express update, as it is the simplest way to go.

This guide explains in detail how to get rid of a Trojan Virus or Remove Trojan Horse infections from your computer system.

If you suspect that your computer system may have become infected with a Virus or Trojan Virus this guide will step you through the process of downloading, installing and configuring a free version of anti-virus / anti-spyware software on your computer system.

Many good free Virus Removal Software titles are available online today that are quite effective in eradicating most Trojan Virus infections.  AVG Free is one that I have used and had good success with.  The free version that is available to download online will delete Spyware, get rid of Trojan Viruses, and perform a Malware scan as well.  It is a great Spyware Removal Tool that I highly recommend.

You can find their web-site here: http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

You will be given the option to either download their free version or a more advanced version for a fee.  After choosing the option that best suits your fancy, download the virus removal software and save the file to your system hard drive.

Once the download completes, press ‘RUN’ to begin the installation.

You will be presented with the AVG setup program and for the most part you should be able to use all of the system default settings.  Click Next to proceed.

In most cases the loader will need to download additional support files to complete the installation so be sure that you have an active Internet connection during the installation.

At this point you will more than likely be prompted to accept the license agreement, simply check the box and hit Accept.

Choosing the Standard Installation should suffice for the majority of typical users but feel free to experiment with the custom installation if you feel inclined to do so.

Click next and choose whether or not you would like to install the AVG Security Toolbar and set Yahoo as your default search provider.  (I personally never install toolbars).

The software may force your web browser to close but we’re almost finished with the installation at this point.

As the installation process concludes you will be prompted to ‘Optimize scanning performance’.  This takes a few minutes to complete but helps improve the performance of future scans.

After the optimization process is completed a full system scan should be performed.

AVG may have minimized itself to the taskbar so you might have to either open the command console by either clicking on the taskbar icon or using the desktop shortcut.

Once you have opened the command console select ‘Computer Scanner’ from the menu on the left and then select ‘Scan whole computer’ from the menu that opens.

This could take some time so you may wish to engage yourself with some other activity and check back periodically to monitor the progress.

With any luck any infections your system may have harbored will have been detected and quarantined.

Keep in mind removing Spyware can be tricky; it is possible that not every infection will have been detected by just this one attempt.

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