Have you ever had a problem with you computer and been told that it's a computer virus? In this article, we will be looking what is a computer virus and the importance of an antivirus software.

What is a Virus?

A virus is a small program which is written by some programmers to intentionally harm your computer. Most viruses can easily be detected by antivirus software.

What is a program or software?

A program, in short, is a file which has instructions for the computer to perform a particular task. Remember one thing, a computer cannot think, so if you ask the computer to delete some system files, it will do it happily. This is why having an antivirus is very important.

What is an antivirus?

An antivirus is also a software which constantly scanned every file you access.

So how does the antivirus software know that the file you are accessing is a virus?

When you are trying to access a file, the antivirus will check the signature of the file against its database. If it's in his database, the antivirus will warn you of the potential harm that this file can do to you computer. Signature base detection mean the software will check for known patterns of data. What this also means is, for new viruses to be detected, the software must have the existing signature in its virus dictionary otherwise you got a virus, worm or Trojan.

What should you do if you think you have a virus?

Firstly, don't panic!! It would be wise to switch off you computer immediately and call a computer repair technician. Explain to the technician the possible symptoms, sluggish, files keep duplicating, small windows keep popping up… these are the most likely symptoms that you have a virus.