Is a computer virus alive?
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Viruses themselves are not alive. Most virologists consider them non-living, as they do not meet all the criteria of the generally accepted definition of life. They are similar to obligate intracellular parasites as they lack the means for self-reproduction outside a host cell, but unlike parasites, viruses are generally not considered to be true living organisms. Among other factors, viruses do not possess a cell membrane or metabolise on their own.\n\ncompter viruses are not alive either.
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Let's explain this in human terms- \n\nA virus to a computer is like a viral infection to a human.  It is like the air bound bacteria that travels through the air that cause us to get ill if contacted- such like a common cold.  Unlike us, a computer doesn't have a natural immune system to protect it from bad elements, and that why an Up-To -Date Anti-Virus Program with  auto-updating virus definitions is very essential.  Computer viruses and all other pest and scary crawlers are all over the virtual web.  \nA computer can easily catches a virus by us clicking on a link, more opening a document that already has a virus in it, etc....  Consequently, the level of damages a virus can do to a PC depends on its incubation period(how long b4 noticed) and its characteristics(the purpose in nature. ex- keylogger, hacker, etc...).  A general virus symtoms are 1.  Your PC runs extremely slow all of a sudden. 2. changes in display resolutions.  3. frozen. and 4. "if it sneezed."  HA!  HA!\nI have a theory that computer viruses is evolving although there hasn't been proofed facts about computer virus mutations.  By observing the similarities of different viruses' habitats and the linkages btw their family trees(1), I came with the theory that many new viruses are actually evolved from the previous ones within that family.  Relevantly, other more serious bugs like worms, swans, and etc are actually albinos mutated from the many virus families; which is one of the reasons why these are harder to get rid.
864867
yes, but beware of viruses
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Sometimes there's no evidence at all.\n\nIf you know your computer's normal operation, sometimes you can detect abnormal disk activity or abnormally slow connection when you're online, but those could also be due to many other things.\n\nTo avoid having someone hack in to your computer, always:\n\n1. Have an anti-virus program installed, and keep the definitions up-to-date.\n\n2. Keep your operating system up-to-date with the latest fixes from the vendor (Microsoft for Windows, Apple for Macs, etc.)\n\n3. Install a software firewall such as ZoneAlarm. The one provided by default in Windows XP isn't always enough to protect you.
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You may have transfered a virus onto your computer
22961
I would start the answer by the famous quote, "Why do computers get viruses. They're little boxes. They shouldn't." ~ Janelle\n\na virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. A computer virus behaves in a way similar to a biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells. Extending the analogy, the insertion of a virus into the program is termed as an infection, and the infected file (or executable code that is not part of a file) is called a host. Viruses are one of the several types of malicious software or malware.\n\nn order to replicate itself, a virus must be permitted to execute code and write to memory. For this reason, many viruses attach themselves to executable files that may be part of legitimate programs. If a user tries to start an infected program, the virus' code may be executed first. Viruses can be divided into two types, on the basis of their behavior when they get executed. Nonresident viruses immediately search for other hosts that can be infected, infect these targets, and finally transfer control to the application program they infected. Resident viruses do not search for hosts when they are started. Instead, a resident virus loads itself into memory on execution and transfers control to the host program. The virus stays active in the background and infects new hosts when those files are accessed by other programs or the operating system itself.\n\nCheck out this movie on Virus replication :\nhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9192961636386984286&q=computer+virus\nhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7821323279275205551&q=virus\n\nALso check out the movie ANTIVIRUS:\nhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3481400607478146088\n\nThe best Antivirus to prevent Virus Infection is Norton Antivirus, but it is heavy on system and is generally in 60 day trial version forms. I personally like Avast, because it is light weight and is free.\n\nI have a few Free Antivirus programs I can reccomend:\n\nhttp://www.avast.com/ avast!\nhttp://www.free-av.com/ AntiVir HBEDV\nhttp://free.grisoft.com/doc/ AVG Free Edition\n\nAlso, if your willing to experiment:\nhttp://www.microsoft.com/windows/onecare... Windows OneCare Beta\n\n\nThe best resource for antivirus:\nhttp://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-virus/alt-faq/part1/\nhttp://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-virus/alt-faq/part2/\nhttp://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-virus/alt-faq/part3/\nhttp://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-virus/alt-faq/part4/
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Hey pal,\n\nNowadays making a virus is not so difficult, every programmers who worked more than 1 year can do this.\n\nSo there are alot of virus to find out.\n\nCiao,
676520
Hey, lots and lots of viruses are produced by hackers every day, it's impossible to tell how many either...
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If you stupidly opened said file out of curiosity, then there is the heightened risk of having let a worm or virus and the like into your computer.  Could be innocent hoax or could be harmful crash?
96926
GO TO:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus
306982
of course, anything computer program or file can carry a virus.
52528
maybe your coumpter have viruses.
44656
In computer security technology, a virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. A computer virus behaves in a way similar to a biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells. Extending the analogy, the insertion of a virus into the program is termed as an infection, and the infected file (or executable code that is not part of a file) is called a host. Viruses are one of the several types of malicious software or malware. In a common parlance, the term virus is often extended to refer to worms, trojan horses and other sorts of malware, however, this can confuse computer users, since viruses in the narrow sense of the word are less common than they used to be, compared to other forms of malware. This confusion can have serious consequences, because it may lead to a focus on preventing one genre of malware over another, potentially leaving computers vulnerable to future damage. However, a basic rule is that computer viruses cannot directly damage hardware, but only software.\n\nWhile viruses can be intentionally destructive (for example, by destroying data), many other viruses are fairly benign or merely annoying. Some viruses have a delayed payload, which is sometimes called a bomb. For example, a virus might display a message on a specific day or wait until it has infected a certain number of hosts. A time bomb occurs during a particular date or time, and a logic bomb occurs when the user of a computer takes an action that triggers the bomb. However, the predominant negative effect of viruses is their uncontrolled self-reproduction, which wastes or overwhelms computer resources.\n\nToday (as of 2006), viruses are somewhat less common than network-borne worms, due to the popularity of the Internet. Anti-virus software, originally designed to protect computers from viruses, has in turn expanded to cover worms and other threats such as spyware.\n\nDefinition:\n===========\nA virus is a type of program that can replicate itself by making (possibly modified) copies of itself. The main criterion for classifying a piece of executable code as a virus is that it spreads itself by means of 'hosts'. A virus can only spread from one computer to another when its host is taken to the uninfected computer, for instance by a user sending it over a network or carrying it on a removable medium. Additionally, viruses can spread to other computers by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is accessed by another computer. Viruses are sometimes confused with worms. A worm, however, can spread itself to other computers without needing to be transferred as part of a host. Many personal computers are now connected to the Internet and to local-area networks, facilitating their spread. Today's viruses may also take advantage of network services such as the World Wide Web, e-mail, and file sharing systems to spread, blurring the line between viruses and worms.\n\nViruses can infect different types of hosts. The most common targets are executable files that contain application software or parts of the operating system. Viruses have also infected the executable boot sectors of floppy disks, script files of application programs, and documents that can contain macro scripts. Additionally, viruses can infect files in other ways than simply inserting a copy of their code into the code of the host program. For example, a virus can overwrite its host with the virus code, or it can use a trick to ensure that the virus program is executed when the user wants to execute the (unmodified) host program. Viruses have existed for many different operating systems, including MS-DOS, AmigaOS, Mac OS and even Linux; however, the vast majority of viruses affect Microsoft Windows.\n\nA legitimate application program that can copy itself as a side-effect of its normal function (e.g. backup software) is not considered a virus. Some programs that w
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Check for viruses on Ur computer
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One of the few solid theoretical results in the study of computer viruses is Cohen's 1987 demonstration that there is no algorithm that can perfectly detect all possible viruses.\n\nHe has also many other works related to computer viruses.
200969
I DON'T KNOW, BUT HERE'S AN INTERESTING TIMELINE ABOUT VIRUSES\n\nhttp://www.exn.ca/nerds/20000504-55.cfm
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Unfortunately, a lot of virus/malwares have codes imbedded that will make it appear you have NOT been infected.  They also disable a lot of Window's, and other anti-virus programs, security features.  So, that message does not necessarily mean you are still ok.   You probably need to reformat your hard drive, which means you will lose all information on it, but will MOST LIKELY get rid of the virus/worm/whatever.  \n\nAlways keep an UPDATED anti-virus program on your pc!!  I actually use 2, AVG (free) and Norton's Anti-virus.  I'll be getting a different one besides Norton's soon...I'm not that happy with them lately....I was infected twice and AVG caught it while Norton's didn't.\n\nGood luck to you!