Most users feel that they are adequately protected against malware infections. However, an astounding 86% of home computer users who are connected to the Internet have some kind of virus, spyware, adware, or other kind of malware hiding on their systems. The reason behind this startling fact is that most of us assume that our computers will take care of themselves and since some of us have anti-malware software installed, we feel that we are protected. On the other hand, the criminals behind these malware programs are getting smarter by the day and finding new ways to attack your system without your knowledge.
This article will help you follow guidelines that will protect you from various sources of malware infections. It will also help you identify some common PC problems like EXE errors that are caused by malware that infects our systems.
EXE files are the most sought after files by malware programs because these files have the power to run codes on your computer. Malware programs often exploit this power to plant malicious EXE files, such as d.exe and winivstr.exe on your computer. After these malicious files gain access to your PC they start infecting your healthy files, generate errors, slow down your PC dramatically, and prevent you from doing any work on your PC. At times, malware programs copy files that are the same or similar to legitimate Windows files, such as wcs.exe, and make their detection tougher.
The following are some of the common symptoms that you may come across if your computer is infected with a virus:
- You will notice junk characters in file names.
- Applications will take much longer than normal to load.
- Date stamps on files change without you making any changes to them.
- Your hard disk may fill up for no reason and program files may show sizes larger than their default size.
- You notice several new processes running in the Task Manager.
- Several new EXE and DLL files seem to be added to the hard disk.
- Your desktop may show strange characters moving across the screen.
- Your programs may freeze for no reason and force you to hard boot your PC.
These are just some of the problems that malware infections can cause to your system. In severe cases, they may erase your entire hard disk and even cause physical damage to your hardware components.
To keep your PC secure from malware and to remove d.exe and other malware from your computer, you need to become a vigilant and aware user. You must make sure that you have a robust and up to date antivirus tool with you and also ensure that its definitions are updated regularly to enable it to combat the latest threats. On your part, you must schedule regular full system scans, daily if possible, to ensure that no malicious data stays on your disk.
You must also take care not to download and install freeware and shareware software from suspicious web sites. Also, stay away from pirated software and websites that provide cracks to enable you to use them.
Malware programs are also known to attack the Windows registry and fill it up with a large amount of malicious entries. Many times, your antivirus may fail to detect some of these entries and viruses may still come back even after you clean it up. This is the reason why, it is essential for you to scan and clean your registry too.? You can do this easily by using a trustworthy and efficient third-party registry tool such as RegServe.