Virus?

[zombieslayer]

Hey everyone! This is a really stupid question, but better to look stupid than be sorry later, right?

So, a little thing in the corner of my screen pops up from my McAfee antivirus and it's red and said "Your computer may be at risk." So I clicked it and it opened my anti-virus and said "1 virus was detected and removed in your last scan." Just to be safe, I ran a full scan and it came back okay. It now says my computer is under no threat.

Is everything okay? Should I worry?

 

[Badjedidude]

What it did was (basically) kill the virus's running process. I don't know what virus it was, so it's difficult to talk about it in too much detail, but mostly antivirus software these days just basically "de-fang" a virus, leaving the ACTUAL virus still intact but unable to operate... usually. Like I said, it's very complicated and it depends on the virus. I think McAfee uses a "vault," another standard measure of protection. Basically what that does is takes the infected file and seals it away with a "DO NOT READ/USE" warning for your computer's operating system, so the file won't be utilized by your system and it's safely shut away (but not erased).

Some antivirus suites DO remove viruses... but really for common usage if your antivirus software says it's OK than you're good to go. Don't worry about it too much.

If you're REALLY REALLY anal and upset about it, you might look at McAfee's virus logs and look up the type of virus it is (there are databases online for this) and learn a bit about how it works and whether it may or may not be entirely erased.

Mostly, you probably don't have to worry. Sorry about the confusing explanation. lol

 

[zombieslayer]

What it did was (basically) kill the virus's running process. I don't know what virus it was, so it's difficult to talk about it in too much detail, but mostly antivirus software these days just basically "de-fang" a virus, leaving the ACTUAL virus still intact but unable to operate... usually. Like I said, it's very complicated and it depends on the virus. I think McAfee uses a "vault," another standard measure of protection. Basically what that does is takes the infected file and seals it away with a "DO NOT READ/USE" warning for your computer's operating system, so the file won't be utilized by your system and it's safely shut away (but not erased).

Some antivirus suites DO remove viruses... but really for common usage if your antivirus software says it's OK than you're good to go. Don't worry about it too much.

If you're REALLY REALLY anal and upset about it, you might look at McAfee's virus logs and look up the type of virus it is (there are databases online for this) and learn a bit about how it works and whether it may or may not be entirely erased.

Mostly, you probably don't have to worry. Sorry about the confusing explanation. lol

Thank you so much!

I don't know much about computers, so this was a really helpful explanation.

Gracias

 

[Badjedidude]

^^^Heh no problem.

 

[ron77hays]

what's your anti virus?

 

[starynicks]

Virus is not good for our PC. You can make the PC hang. Antivirus protection for PC id well. Can protect our PC from viruses, AVG antivirus is one of the best antivirus.