How to Get Rid of Viruses on Your Computer for Free

get rid of viruses on your PC for FREE

If your PC is infected with viruses, you can rid them. It will only take a maximum of a few hours. Best of all, you can get rid of malware from your computer for free.

Things You'll Need

• Blank CDs or DVDs

Instructions

1. Research your PC manufacturer (such as HP/Compaq, Dell or Acer) and learn how to perform a System Recovery for you computer. A system recovery will erase all data that you have accumulated on your computer since you bought it and re-install the entire operating system to its factory settings. This means that any files or program that you have on your PC will be forever deleted (that's why you should back-up your data). This also applies to viruses and other infections. Any infectious file on your computer will be totally erased.

   Most computers have a partition reserved in the hard drive that has an exact copy of your operating system at factory settings. So once you have found out how to perform a system recovery, all you have to do next is back up your files.

2. Prevent carrying infected files back into your clean computer after it's been recovered. Before backing up your files, perform a virus scan of your entire computer. Free anti-virus programs are available to scan your computer for infections, including AVG (avg.com), Avast! (avast.com) and Microsoft Security Essentials (Microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx). Download and install the free version of that program and run an extensive scan on your computer. Download multiple scan programs to ensure that you found every file.

3. Select the files to back up. Depending on the amount of files you have, backing up your data can be simple or time consuming. The best way to make sure you have all or most of the files you want is to create a new folder and just put all the files you want to keep. Categorize it as you want with other folders within subfolders.

4. Save the files on blank CDs or DVDs. Alternatively, can load your back up folder onto a flash drive or external hard drive.

5. Perform the actual system recovery. Depending on you PC, there may be different ways to perform a system recovery for your particular PC. This may take 1 to 2 hours to restore your system.

6. Restore your backed up files onto your computer. To do so, copy the files back onto the hard drive. Your computer is now infection free.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure you do your research before trying to do this.

• Search youtube if you need a more visual aide.

• Utilize you manufacturer's website [Hp.com, Dell.com, etc.]

• When performing the scan on your PC, also scan any USB devices that have been connected to your computer just to make sure.

• Try these FREE removal & protection software:

• - Super Antispyware

• - Avast! Virus Cleaner Tool

• - McAfee Stinger

• Beware of any programs you have that require strict activation [Adobe]. As it may be difficult to use the program if you don't consult with the software customer service first.

• Most computers are basically the same anyway, but they do not apply to each other.

References

• Windows: Understanding Security and Safer Computing