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I’m often asked to remove viruses and other forms of malware from ailing computers, and many of those machines are running two or more antivirus programs at once.
The problem is, when it comes to antivirus apps, more is not better. I know that probably sounds like it can’t be true, but it actually is.
Before I discuss why that is, here’s a quick overview of the two primary types of anti-malware programs: [Read more…]
Question from Kim: I have a 2 year old Windows laptop that appears to be infected with viruses because it acts weird all the time and it runs really slow.
Also, my Norton software keeps finding two viruses that it can’t remove and I don’t know what to do next.
I’ve heard that resetting Windows will remove all the viruses from the system. Is that true or do you think I should just break down and buy a new laptop?
If you think I can just do the reset can you tell me how do to it? [Read more…]
Question from Marilyn: Rick, I’ve bought several new computers over the years and they all came with an antivirus program pre-installed.
I’ve always just kept using what was already on there because I figured it was probably the best antivirus program for that particular machine, but I now have doubts about that after reading some of your stuff on your blog.
Hence, this question: Is it best to stick with the security software that comes pre-installed on a new computer or replace it with something else?
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Question from Theresa: Rick, I was wondering if it’s possible for an infected email to load a virus onto a smartphone?
Last night I was using my iPhone to check my email and I accidentally opened an email that appeared to be from China while I was trying to delete it. When the email opened up it said it was downloading a file.
I haven’t noticed any problems with the phone so far. I’m cautiously optimistic because I’ve always been told that only Windows computers are subject to virus infections.
Do you think I have anything to worry about? [Read more…]
Over the years I’ve worked on lots of computers that exhibited all the classic signs of a malware infection.
And as you might expect, many of the owners of those machines insisted that the problem couldn’t possibly be malware because they regularly scan their systems with antivirus programs.
But when I ran my own scans on those systems, I often discovered that they were indeed infected, some of them with dozens of viruses, spyware objects, malicious toolbars and other digital nasties.
How could that be? [Read more…]