How To: Detect and remove malware and viruses

Learn how to detect and remove malware and viruses from your computer with these troubleshooting tips. Malware is software that is intended to damage or disable a computer or computer system. As a result of infection, your computers or apps may run slowly or perform erratically. You can use tools such as McAfee Internet Security to run a virus scan on your computer.

Signs your computer may be infected

Symptoms of a computer that has been infected by malware include:

  • software not operating normally
  • email clients not responding
  • computer processing slowdown
  • Internet browser issues
  • other strange and abnormal behaviour

How to detect malware and viruses

If you think you might have malware or viruses on your computer, you should use an antivirus program to scan your system, identify anything malicious, and remove it completely.  Antivirus programs are for PC only. Antivirus programs with free or trial versions include:

Running a virus scan on your computer can help to discover and eliminate the threats caused by malicious software such as viruses and spyware. McAfee Internet Security is available free of charge as an additional benefit included with your Shaw Internet service. 

About: McAfee Internet Security

How to remove malware and viruses

  1. Run a virus scan. Once you have an antivirus program installed on your computer, you can run a virus scan in an attempt to identify malware. If given the option, choose to run a "full scan" and not a "quick scan" or "selective scan".
  2. You will be shown a report which displays any potential malware found on your computer, and can decide how the program should handle these threats (eg. quarantine them, delete them or ignore them). In most cases, you will want to quarantine or delete any malware that the antivirus program has identified.
  3. After removing the threats, reboot your computer to see if the issues you were experiencing have been corrected.
  4. If your antivirus program is unable to detect any malware, or your computer is functioning in a way that prevents you from installing, loading, or running a virus scan, you may need to restart your computer in safe mode. This will prevent non-essential programs from running on your computer, and limit the effect that malware and viruses are having so you can safely remove them

If you are still experiencing problems after running a virus scan in safe mode, contact a computer repair professional with your concerns.

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