Questions about antivirus and viruses.

[philips08]

(Question 1) When your antivirus finds a infection and it sends it to the virus vault and you remove it, is it completely out of your computer?

(Question 2) Where does the virus go and what happens to it when your antivirus finds the infection and removes it ?

(Question 3) Is it common to catch a infection and should I still to worry once the infection is removed by my antivirus?

thanks,phlips08

[Arie]

(Question 1) When your antivirus finds a infection and it sends it to the virus vault and you remove it, is it completely out of your computer?

(Question 2) Where does the virus go and what happens to it when your antivirus finds the infection and removes it ?

(Question 3) Is it common to catch a infection and should I still to worry once the infection is removed by my antivirus?

Your question is more difficult as it first seems. I'll try to keep it plain and simple. A virus is software, just like Notepad is software for example. Notepad lets you write text, save it, print it, et cetera. Notepad does things which you want, which you like it to do. A virus is software which does something which you don't like. It sends itself to every person in your address book or it corrupts files on your hard disk for example, et cetera. Software which you remove from your computer doesn't actually get removed as you would for example throw away a book from your shelf in the garbage, which is really gone once the garbage man has emptied your bin. Your hard disk is like a book. Every file on your hard disk is referenced in the index of your hard disk, this way your computer knows where to find which files, as it simply looks in the index. If you remove software, the files don't get removed, but the reference in the index is. This way your computer doesn't even know the files exist, as it can't find the removed files in the index anymore. The physical position on your hard disk where the file used to be still contains the file in question, but as it can't be found, it can't do any harm. If you install new software, it normally doesn't overwrite existing files as it looks at the index where it can place its files. Once software is removed, software which you install at one moment will physically overwrite the removed files. So, to answer your questions: 1. No, the virus is still on your hard disk, but it's not referenced in the index anymore and will be overwritten by other files at one moment. 2. The reference to the virus gets removed from the index, damaged files will be attempted to be repaired. 3. I never "catch" a virus as I never really download illegal software which is sometimes infected with a virus, I don't download from P2P networks, I keep my computer fully up to date and properly configured, I keep my anti-virus up to date and I keep my anti-spyware up to date, et cetera. Still if you happen to have "cought" a virus, always double check if it really got removed from your system. Perform an extra scan using an online anti-virus scan for example. But once clean, there is no need to worry anymore. The most important barrier against "catching" a virus is your brain, so use it

[phiber0ptik]

Thats what I call an answer Nice job Arie.