How To Tell You Have A Virus

Here are some of the indications that you have a virus.

• Reported by an anti-virus scan.
• Erratic or poor performance (response time, loss of memory, loss of disk space)
• Odd messages on the screen
• Loss of data or other files
• Inability to use all of the functions of an application
• Inability to save files where you want them
• Unexplained macros in applications

Please note, not every computer problem is a virus. Most problems are be caused by "pushing" the computer too hard (having too many programs open at once). This practice usually leads to one program interfering with the memory from another program. Sometimes programs don't always give back all the memory they use even when they are closed (this is called a memory leak).

Reboot the computer. If the problem goes away and does not come back immediately, then it wasn't a virus.

There are also a whole host of other things that can go wrong that aren't viruses including: bad hard drives, bad memory chips and corrupted files.

Viruses Can Be Sneaky

Viruses have different ways to pick the time and place in which they will appear.

• Some viruses manifest themselves as soon as you get infected.
• Some don’t kick in until you reboot.
• Some only work or start working on a certain date.
• Some only work or start working when you execute a certain function.