12 Tips to Maintain a Virus Free Computer

Is your computer infected with virus? Do you often get mysteriouserror messages? Well this is a common problem faced by almost all thecomputer users across the globe. There are many viruses and worms outthere that could infect your computer. Some are harmless, but, they dohave the capacity to do any number of nasty things, up to andincluding, erasing all data from your computer. However there are waysto keep viruses away from your PC. Here are the 12 tips to maintain avirus free computer.

1. Email is one of the common ways by which your computer can catch a virus. So it is always recommended to stay away from SPAM.Open only those emails that has it’s origin from a trusted source suchas those which comes from your contact list. If you are using your ownprivate email host (other than gmail, yahoo, hotmail etc.) then it ishighly recommended that you use a good anti-spam software. And finally NEVER click on any links in the emails that comes from untrusted sources.

2. USB thumb/pen drives is another common way by which virusesspread rapidly. So it is always a good habit to perform a virus scanbefore copying any data onto your computer. NEVER double-click the pendrive to open it. Instead right-click on it and select the option“open”. This is a safe way to open a pen drive.

3. Be careful about using MS Outlook. Outlook is more susceptible toworms than other e-mail programs, unless you have efficient Anti-Virusprograms running. Use Pegasus or Thunderbird (by Mozilla), or aweb-based program such as Hotmail or Yahoo (In Firefox).

4. As we all know, Internet is the main source of all the maliciousprograms including viruses, worms, trojans etc. In fact Internetcontributes to virus infection by up to 80%. So here are the tips forsafe surfing habits so that you can ward off virus infection up to themaximum extent.

• Don’t click on pop-up windows that announce a sudden disaster inyour city or announce that you’ve won an hourly prize. They are theways to mislead Internet users and you should never trust them.
• You can also use a pop-up blocker to automatically block those pop-ups.

5. Most of us use search engines like Google to find what we arelooking for. It is quite obvious for a malicious website to get listedin the search results. So to avoid visiting those untrusted maliciouswebsites, you can download and install the AVG LinkScanner which is a freeware. This tool can become very handy and will help you to stay away from malicious websites.

6. Install a good antivirus software and keep it updated. Alsoperform full system scan periodically. It is highly recommended thatyou turn on the automatic update feature. This is the most essentialtask to protect your PC from virues. If PC security is your firstoption then it is recommended that you go for a shareware antivirussoftware over the free ones. Most of the antivirus supports theAuto-Protect feature that provides realtime security for your PC. Makesure that this feature is turned on.

7. Install a good Antispyware program, that operates against Internet malware and spyware.

8. Never open any email attachments that come from untrustedsources. If it is a picture, text or sound file (these attachments endin the extensions .txt, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .tif, .mp3, .htm, .html, and.avi), you are probably safe, but still do a scan before opening.

9. Do not use disks that other people gave you, even from work. Thedisk could be infected with a virus. Of course, you can run a virusscan on it first to check it out.

10. Set up your Windows Update to automatically download patches andupgrades. This will allow your computer to automatically download anyupdates to both the operating system and Internet Explorer. Theseupdates fix security holes in both pieces of software.

11. While you download files from untrusted websites/sources such astorrents, warez etc. make sure that you run a virus scan beforeexecuting them.

12. And finally it is recommended not to visit the websites thatfeature illegal/unwanted stuffs such as cracks, serials, warez etc.since they contribute much in spreading of viruses and other maliciousprograms.