The term virus is often associated with illness within people. Most viruses
are given prescription medication by a doctor and the virus is often at times
removed without too much effort. The same concept unfortunately does not apply
in the world of computers.

Ideally viruses attack computers in a completely different way than the way
a natural virus infects a person. A computer virus has the ability to attack
at many levels including the core files that help the computer run. When a
virus attacks system files it may make it so a computer loses the ability to
turn back on, and the only way to restore the computer is to reinstall all
of the software including the operating system.

Installing files generally takes a decent amount of time, but installing an
operating system is a much longer process. Think of the operating system or
Os, as being the software that runs all of the other software. That being said
the operating system is single handedly the most important piece of software
a computer has, and once a virus begins messing with OS files there is no turning
back, the computer needs to be reformatted.

Another aspect of OS re-installation is that most people don’t have their OS
disk readily available to them. Computers used to ship with their operating
systems on disks but now computers are designed with a portioned hard drive
that allows the owner to create the disk on their own, normally this is called
a recovery disc. Even if a user usually has their recovery disk they often
decide to not attempt to fix the dilemma and they seek outside help. Often
at time’s people will make the decision to take their computer to a repair
shop. This isn’t something that is necessary and will often require you to
spend money for things you can do yourself. Online computer forums are a great
place to find information and guides on how to successfully reinstall and OS.
If you still aren’t able to fix it, I suggest you still avoid a repair shop
and see if you have a friend or family member that knows a something about
computers that can take care of it for you.

If you don’t want to have to constantly reinstall your OS every time you get
a virus I’d suggest you get some anti-virus software, and a backup program.
The anti-virus program will act as a safe guard and will protect your system
from intruders. I don’t suggest you use Norton Anti Virus or McAfee; they both
are bloated anti-virus software’s that use a lot of system resources and cost
quite a bit of money. A good free alternative is AVG Free. The backup program
will serve as a utility to have copies of your important files. Even if you
don’t plan on getting a viruses having backups is important for example, what
if the hard drive fails? Regardless of your individual needs Virus protection
is a necessity you can't afford to be without.