Is your computer infected with virus? Do you often get mysterious
error messages? Well this is a common problem faced by almost all the
computer users across the globe. There are many viruses and worms out
there that could infect your computer. Some are harmless, but, they do
have the capacity to do any number of nasty things, up to and
including, erasing all data from your computer. However there are ways
to keep viruses away from your PC. Here are the 12 tips to maintain a
virus free computer.

1. Email is one of the common ways by which your computer can catch a virus. So it is always recommended to stay away from SPAM.
Open only those emails that has it’s origin from a trusted source such
as those which comes from your contact list. If you are using your own
private email host (other than gmail, yahoo, hotmail etc.) then it is
highly recommended that you use a good anti-spam software. And finally NEVER click on any links in the emails that comes from untrusted sources.

2. USB thumb/pen drives is another common way by which viruses
spread rapidly. So it is always a good habit to perform a virus scan
before copying any data onto your computer. NEVER double-click the pen
drive to open it. Instead right-click on it and select the option
“open”. This is a safe way to open a pen drive.


3. Be careful about using MS Outlook. Outlook is more susceptible to
worms than other e-mail programs, unless you have efficient Anti-Virus
programs running. Use Pegasus or Thunderbird (by Mozilla), or a
web-based program such as Hotmail or Yahoo (In Firefox).

4. As we all know, Internet is the main source of all the malicious
programs including viruses, worms, trojans etc. In fact Internet
contributes to virus infection by up to 80%. So here are the tips for
safe surfing habits so that you can ward off virus infection up to the
maximum extent.

• Don’t click on pop-up windows that announce a sudden disaster in
  your city or announce that you’ve won an hourly prize. They are the
  ways to mislead Internet users and you should never trust them.
  
• You can also use a pop-up blocker to automatically block those pop-ups.
  

5. Most of us use search engines like Google to find what we are
looking for. It is quite obvious for a malicious website to get listed
in the search results. So to avoid visiting those untrusted malicious
websites, you can download and install the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] which is a freeware. This tool can become very handy and will help you to stay away from malicious websites.

6. Install a good antivirus software and keep it updated. Also
perform full system scan periodically. It is highly recommended that
you turn on the automatic update feature. This is the most essential
task to protect your PC from virues. If PC security is your first
option then it is recommended that you go for a shareware antivirus
software over the free ones. Most of the antivirus supports the
Auto-Protect feature that provides realtime security for your PC. Make
sure that this feature is turned on.

7. Install a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] program, that operates against Internet malware and spyware.

8. Never open any email attachments that come from untrusted
sources. If it is a picture, text or sound file (these attachments end
in the extensions .txt, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .tif, .mp3, .htm, .html, and
.avi), you are probably safe, but still do a scan before opening.

9. Do not use disks that other people gave you, even from work. The
disk could be infected with a virus. Of course, you can run a virus
scan on it first to check it out.

10. Set up your Windows Update to automatically download patches and
upgrades. This will allow your computer to automatically download any
updates to both the operating system and Internet Explorer. These
updates fix security holes in both pieces of software.

11. While you download files from untrusted websites/sources such as
torrents, warez etc. make sure that you run a virus scan before
executing them.

12. And finally it is recommended not to visit the websites that
feature illegal/unwanted stuffs such as cracks, serials, warez etc.
since they contribute much in spreading of viruses and other malicious
programs.

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