How to keep your PC virus free

You may be wondered that is there any way to keep the PC from the virus infection. Here are some tips to keep the PC from the viruses:
For keeping the PC from the computer viruses and other malicious applications we need mainly three softwares:

1. Anti-virus
2. Anti Malware Software
3. Rootkit Remover

Now let us see why we have to use these software. Let us took the case of the anti-virus . As you know anti-virus is used to find and destroy the virus. Knowing this most computer users install anti-virus. But many of the people using the anti-virus are not updating the anti-virus properly. This may put your PC in trouble. The anti-virus has generally two parts: 1. virus signature database and 2. anti-virus engine. Each virus has its own signature as a person has his own signature. The virus signature is nothing but a series of codes that is placed in every file it infect. This code is unique for that particular virus. So by simply comparing the virus signature with the data of a file it is easier to detect the presence of the virus. Since more and more viruses are released in to the cyber space daily, the anti-virus firms discovers the virus signatures of the new virus and put the virus signatures in the internet for the user to download. When we update the anti-virus, these signatures are downloaded in to the database of the anti-virus, and anti-virus gains the capability to detect the new viruses. The anti-virus engine compares the virus signature in the virus signature database with the data of the files. If a match is found, the file will be treated as an infected file and took the measures to prevent further infection and deletion of the virus and the recovery of the original file. It also scans memory for the presence of the virus.

The usage of the anti-virus will not guarantee the protection of the PC from all the malicious software. For that purpose we have to use the anti-malware software. Malware Bytes is one of the most common anti-malware software used internationally. The anti-malware software scan the memory as well as the storage device of the PC for the malicious software. This software can effectively remove almost all the malicious softwares in the PC. But there are some malware application that survive this anti malware software. We can use the rootkit remover software for removing that type of applications. Rootkits are capable of killing and hiding different processes running in the Operating System. Some softwares like demon tools use rootkits, but are not malicious software. Rootkit revealer is a rootkit remover tool used today.
These softwares are not enough to keep your PC from all attacks, if you have an internet connection. You must use a firewall to regulate the internet usage by the applications and to prevent the unwanted packets from entering in to the PC. I prefer Sygate Firewall than the windows firewall since it allows to block the unwanted applications from accessing the internet. But do not use more than one firewall for a PC since the firewalls works on its own set of rules and may clash if more than one firewall is used.
Always use the firefox 3.5 browser for more security. The add-ons must be downloaded if it is marked as recommended. Do not install add-on from the third party whom you do not trust.

Always download the softwares from the trusted sites like filehippo,cnet,brothersoft etc. Try to avoid downloading the softwares from the unfamiliar sites. I believe that these tips will help you to keep your PC clean.

DeepFreeze: Substitute for antivirus software

Most people install anti-virus and does not update it. This will give chance to the new viruses to escape from the virus scan done by the anti-virus software. Some anti-viruses even updated may do not have the virus signatures so the presence of certain viruses will not be discovered. A software by Faronics Corporation removes the difficulty for updating the anti-virus software. DeepFreeze is not an anti-virus software. But it will prevent the attack of the viruses very efficiently.



The DeepFreeze allows the user to freeze the drive he wants including the drive in which the operating system is installed. After freezing the drive we cannot save or make changes in data or files in the freezed drive. We can save a file in the freezed drive. But during the system restart the file will be lost. While saving a file in the freezed drive, no warning will be displayed about the loss of data during the next restart. So the usage of DeepFreeze must be done in a careful manner.
We can save a file or install a software permanantly in the freezed drive only after making the DeepFreeze in Thawed mode. For making the DeepFreeze in the Thawed mode press shift and click on the icon of the DeepFreeze in the system tray. A window will appear on the screen. The set a password and then you can chabge the DeepFreeze to Thawed mode in a few mouse clicks.

Vaccine For Virus

Now let us look into how to cure the viruses. We have a problem here is that we do not have a generalized solution. We have to deal with different viruses in different manner. This made the task tougher. But there is no other option.

The first thing we have to know is the type of virus. The next thing we have to know is the working of the virus. The working of the virus can be studied by carefully examining the virus program. Now there are several decompilers and simulators are available for this purpose.

Now let us start with Bootstrap viruses. Suppose a Bootstrap virus copies the contents of the location side 0, track 0 and sector 1 to a location side 0, track 0 and sector 7 (this is in the case of Stone virus).

In this case, we know the location where the virus will copy the original program. So the solution is simple. Boot from a non-infected disk and copy the contents of the location side 0,track 0 and sector 7 to the normal location of side 0, track 0 and sector 1. In the case of the partition table infected by the virus, we can copy-paste or cut-paste the original boot programs to its correct location. But whatever you do to remove the virus from the hard disk or from the floppy, the entire work will be futile as long as the virus is active in the memory. One of the solution is to boot from a safe disk. Most of the anti-virus program try to delete the virus from the memory. Some will end in success while others request for a reboot to kill the virus before booting. If you Avast anti virus you may notice that sometimes the anti-virus shows a message for scheduling a boot scan informing that the virus is active in memory. However the above mentioned era has been gone.

Now we have to deal with advanced viruses. The file viruses are one among them. In the case of file viruses, it attach itself to a file. This is done in different methods. One is to reduce the base address of the file by the size of the virus and get copied to the present memory location of the file. In this case our job become tougher. One solution is to continuously monitoring the size of the file. But this solution would fall when we edit that file or when copy a file from a infected disk. Here there is another effective solution. Each virus has its own signature. Signature is a unique set of codes for each type of virus. By reading the contents of the memory location of the file we are able to check for the virus. If the virus signature is present, we can easily detect the viruses, only provided we should know the codes in the virus signature. This can be done simply by writing a program for reading from the memory and comparing the content of the memory with virus code. If all the code match with any of the part in the file memory, then we can cure the file by reading the file contents only and deleting the virus code. In the extreme case we have to delete the whole file.

Most of the anti-virus has two parts- a database and a program. The database contains the virus signatures and the program compares for a match in the file code and the virus codes. If any of the mismatch occur in the codes occur then the program will leave the entire block since there is no chance for the virus infection. This is the reason why most of the anti-virus requires updates. The updating will enable by adding the virus signatures of the newly found viruses to the anti-virus database and the the anti-virus program is modified for detecting the new viruses according to there method of infection.

So for protecting your PC from the attack of the viruses you have to install an updated anti-virus software and update it whenever it is required. Care should be taken in selecting the anti-virus. Before selecting the anti-virus you must make sure that the anti-virus detects latest viruses and updates are available from time to time.