I am getting a message that I have a virus or spyware, what should I do?

A message like this can be one of the most worrisome things in the PC world.

The first thing you want to do is not make any rush actions.  Often a virus or spyware infection will not be very severe, but misrepresent itself, telling you that your machine is infected with all kinds of problem.  The infection itself represents itself as a cure and asks you to purchase software to remove the bogus infection.  So don’t immediately take the recommendations of any popups on your system if you don’t know where they came from,  and definitely don’t purchase any unknown software that promises to fix your problems.

Second thing is to determine the magnitude of the infection.  Are you constantly getting popups as soon as you turn on the machine, or just when you browse the web?  Is the system suddenly extremely sluggish and non-responsive?  If the system is running quite differently than you remember, then the system may have a severe infection.  If you are only getting one or two indications of infection, the system may not be affected as badly.

Third, decide on a course of action.  If there is only a light infection of the system, you may be able to clean the problem yourself.  Update any antivirus software you have installed and run a complete system scan.  Make sure you have the absolute latest version of the software, both the software itself, as well as the definitions, as they are different. There is a plethora of free and for-purchase software that can be used to clean your system.  Multiple forums and guides exist online that can walk you through cleaning an infected machine.  If the system is quite infected or you cannot remove it through normal means, you may want to call a professional to clean the system for you.  Depending on the severity of the infection, what exact infection is involved, system specifications and other factors, cleaning can take one to eight hours.  Talk to your removal professional about costs up front, see if a flat rate can be obtained, or get an estimate before beginning any work.

If the infection is too severe, or the cost of removal too high, there is usually another option.  Most systems come with some way of restoring the system back to original factory settings.  Doing this will, in most, if not all cases, completely remove the infection. A backup of any data should be done before wiping the system, and antivirus and antispyware software should be installed before restoring any data.  Also, all software, printers, configurations will have to be reinstalled once the system is operational, which can add cost and time to the final repair.

Once you have a clean system you want to keep it clean.  Get reputable antivirus AND antispyware software.  You can get software that does both, or one for each. Update the software on a regular basis, and make sure to update to the latest version on a yearly basis.  Run regular scans to keep the system clean and safe.  Choose the most thorough options to do the most in-depth scans possible.  Be wary of software that you download from the Internet, and scan anything before installing.  Keeping a system clean is much easier than cleaning an infected one, and it costs a lot less too.

A note about OS X and Macintosh. There have been viruses for Macintosh, but most of these were for the operating systems before OS X (OS 10).  While there have been proof of concepts and demonstrations of viruses for OS X, there have not been any real widespread infections.  This doesn’t mean there won’t be viruses in the future, but in general, one can say that the Mac doesn’t get viruses.  You may still want to get antivirus software if you exchange files with PC users on a regular basis.  You can still pass on infected files to PC users.  The infected files will not affect the Mac, but you may be blamed when the recipient gets a virus from an already infected file that you send them.

I welcome your feedback below.

Bryan can be reached at datilus@gmail.com