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Viruses Can Cause Computer Freezes – Protect Your Computer

June 1st, 2010 No Comments

One thing that everyone needs to understand in today’s world is that the internet is becoming more and more accessible by not only people who want to use it for good purposes, but it is also being used by those who wish to cause trouble for your computer. It sometimes seems like no matter how much protection you have on your computer, or no matter how careful you are when surfing the internet, you will still encounter a viscous virus from time to time.

I have seen some viruses such as Windows XP Antivirus 2010 slip by all of the big named anti virus protection such as Norton, Trend or AVG. This virus is one of the most viscous and harmful viruses that I have ever encountered and can cause computer freezes or lock ups almost instantly. If you do not perform the right steps to get rid of it, you may be in line for a full system restore. There have been times even when I have had no choice but to just wipe the hard drive and start fresh.

There tons of legitimate websites being infected with viruses every day. A few years ago, you really only had to watch out for those ‘suspect’ websites. Most of the time, you new you were surfing a site that you shouldn’t have been and the result was you computer getting a virus that caused you a major headache. This isn’t the case now days though. You could be on a totally legitimate website and all of a sudden your machine will instantly slow down, your hard drive will start humming and your computer will be rendered virtually unusable. Although not best practice, if you can recognize this soon enough, it is sometimes best just to shut your machine off by holding the power button in. This may give you the opportunity to boot into safe mode and clean the virus out since it wasn’t able to fully infect your machine.

It is also best to use a malware/spyware removal software such as Malwarebytes along with your anti virus software. Even though anti virus software is updated daily, it still has problems detecting or removing some elements of more intense viruses. This is were a program such as Malwarebytes or Spybot will come in very handy.

Be sensible and very careful when surfing the web. Don’t ever click on something that you are not %100 sure of. Avoid computer freezes by having a good anti virus software installed, a good spyware/malware removal software and most important good judgment on your part.

Posted in Computer Freezes

Tags: blue screen of death, remove malware, remove spyware, spyware, windows 7, windows vista, windows xp

The Ugly Truth About Spyware and How It Makes Your Computer Keep Freezing Up

February 16th, 2010 No Comments

Speaking as a person who has been in the IT field for a good many years, spyware is a nemesis that makes your computer keep freezing up and usually takes a professional to fix. According to Lavasoft, there are an estimated 100 – 150 million computers that are being controlled by hackers at any given time. A lot of folks have a misperception that these vicious programs are being programmed by some computer guru. This is not the case. In most cases, there are huge networks of individuals working together to wreak havoc on users computers.

A person can have their computer loaded up with all of the latest antivirus software and spyware intrusion detection software, but this still does not stop many forms of spyware that can still slip past these barriers with ease. In most cases, a bad piece of spyware is downloaded onto a computer via a website that has been infected or has been programmed to install this software. You may be browsing a perfectly legitimate website, but if that website has been compromised in any way, your machine can become a victim of spyware.

On a personal note, one night about a month ago and I was looking over my wife’s shoulder as she was browsing the internet. She happened to go to one of the local newspapers websites and was reading some different news stories. All of a sudden, her computer started freezing up and a popup appeared saying something to the tone of ‘You Have Been Infected, Please Click to Remove’. When you get a popup like this, you have a couple of different paths you can take:

If you click the popup, you can almost guarantee that your machine will be infected and in most cases become almost unusable. This results in spending good money to have a professional fix it.
In most cases, if you don’t click the popup, you won’t get infected if you do one of the two following steps:
- Start Task Manager and end your internet browser program. This will immediately close your browser and should prevent any worms or trojans from infecting your computer.
- Hold in the power button and shutdown your computer. Although not the best alternative, it could save you a ton of time and money. You really should never just hold in the power button and shut a computer down, but sometimes this really is the only or best option.

I would also recommend doing a System Restore after encountering any kind of vicious spyware attack. Even if you stopped your machine from being infected, it would still be a wise decision to go ahead and run a system restore to prevent future computer freezes. Also make sure to do a full Virus Scan on your machine.

Don’t let your computer become a victim of spyware. The key is to not only have great software to stop potential attacks, but to also be an educated on this subject and know what to do when these situations occur. In the end, you will be able to avoid having your computer keep freezing up.

Cheers.

Posted in Computer Freezes

Tags: computer keep freezing up, intrusion, spyware, trojan