Operating Systems and Viruses

Computers can be very fragile pieces of equipment when it comes to their operating system and viruses. Without the appropriate anti-virus software, computers can become easily infected with viruses. Even with some anti-virus software, computers can still become infected and are a hassle to clean up. Some computers become so infected that they are impossible to clean up, except maybe by a professional, which is the case in my personal experience of computer operating systems and viruses.

When I was younger, around middle school, my family had a desktop Dell computer. My brother and I downloaded a program called Limewire, which was a file sharing program, to help fill up our ipods with music. Apparently Limewire was later sued and forced to shut down in the fall of 2010. But, after about a year or two of using the program, our computer steadily declined in speed. I'm not sure what it was that caused the decline in speed, if it was a virus or not, because we did have ant-virus software and it claimed the computer was clean. The anti-virus software that we had was Mcafee, which we had since we first got the computer but it just didn't seem to do the job. I would not recommend Mcafee to anybody that is looking for a reliable anti-virus software. With the continued decline in speed and increasing problems on our desktop computer, we finally decided to get rid of Limewire and try to clean the computer of any viruses it had. But even with the file sharing program gone, the computer would freeze often and would sometimes take upwards of 20 minutes or more just to bring up internet explorer. The final attempt to clean the computer was to re-install the operating system to an earlier time when the computer was supposedly clean of any viruses. This seemed to increase the speed a little bit, but it was only a short amount of time before our computer was back to its usual ways. Then one day I went to turn it on, but while it was at the "windows are loading" screen, an error popped up and it never would go to the home screen. I can't remember exactly what the error said but I'm pretty sure it  had something to do with the hard drive and it was damaged. Every time we tried turning it on this error popped up. I don't know how this occurred or what it was that killed our computer but I have a pretty good feeling it had to do with the file sharing program and the lackluster anti-virus software called Mcafee.

It is safe to say I've learned my lesson though when it comes to any file sharing programs. Now that I have my own laptop I am in charge of making sure my computer stays safe and virus free. The anti-virus software I have is Kaspersky and after two years it has kept my laptop running like new.