Everyone knows what a virus is and when we think of it ,we think "infected and bad news" and that's exactly what viruses are all about. Did you know that the first computer virus build was in 1970 called "the creeper" that was created as a project which infected itself to other files and spread its affective disability.The creeper virus also displayed a message to the user saying "I'm the creeper, catch me if you can!". The Reaper program was created as a antidote to delete Creeper.
Back then all viruses like the creeper were just in media hardware and had a limit on expanding itself to other computers since the networks and spread of the internet was not really invented yet.So you're probably asking "how does it spread and whats the process?"
Heres what wiki said
In order to replicate itself, a virus must be permitted to execute code and write to memory. For this reason, many viruses attach themselves to executable files that may be part of legitimate programs. If a user attempts to launch an infected program, the virus' code may be executed alongside. Viruses can be divided into two types, on the basis of their behavior when they are executed. Nonresident viruses immediately search for other hosts that can be infected, infect these targets, and finally transfer control to the application program they infected. Resident viruses do not search for hosts when they are started. Instead, a resident virus loads itself into memory on execution and transfers control to the host program. The virus stays active in the background and infects new hosts when those files are accessed by other programs or the operating system itself.
It does infect itself to host such as floppy,DOS,such as COM files and EXE files in MS-DOS, Portable Executable files in Microsoft Windows, and ELF files in Linux (thats alot) and if you think you can just download a anti-virus program into your computer is the easies way to get rid of them, let me tell you that some of these viruses curropt the program before it detects the virus causing the anti-virus to just stop responding or do other anoying things such as freeze,go to websites,flash,or just shut down.
Operating systems such as Windows XP,ME,ect. have a system restore point that will take you back on a saved spot and fix everything BUT as we all know sometimes the virus interrups that restore point and just cuts the computer off during the restore point process causing the pc to just hang.
So what advice can i give? download the AVG anti-virus i have posted on our WORKSHOP and be sure to update twice to get the lastest virus list, be sure you also unistall any crazy programs that you mite suspect to have viruses right before it took effect. Its alot easier to know if you are infected if your pc is doing things you dont want it to do.
LIMEWIRE,BEARSHARE are a NO NO, these programs are good for downloading your favorite songs and videos (porn) lol but they also have tons of viruses that you may not know about and its a faster way for your pc to get infected. Its also an ADWARE program which you can learn here.
Remember to protect yourself when you first get a pc and keep updating your software so you can fight back against Viruses.