How do you tell if your computer has a virus

[Rudi]

An article I received today from PC Pitstop contained this article listing 17 signs of an infected PC. We know most of these signs, but a good reminder nevertheless.

How do you tell if your computer has a virus
Is your Windows computer infected? Learn to recognize malware infections and signs, symptoms that will tell you if your Windows PC has a computer virus. In this post we will see some of the symptoms of malware infection, that will tell you if you computer was compromised or infected with computer virus.

Symptoms of Malware Infection
The typical symptoms that your computer may have been compromised are:

• Change in your browsers home page or default search
• Your web browser hangs or becomes sluggish
• Your computer starts behaving sluggishly or hangs often
• You are unable to open security-related sites or Microsoft.com domains.
• You get re-directed to web pages you did not intend to visit
• Unexpected toolbars in your browser
• Security software or Firewall disabled
• Your security software throws up warnings or its icon turns red or something.
• Pop-ups while browsing, unknown or excessive
• Balloon Notifications from your system tray
• Excessive CPU or Memory utilization
• Internet or data transfer activity – Modem appears to be working overtime
• You start seeing unexpected Windows error messages
• Some programs start automatically
• Some important Windows functions or features disabled. Eg, Task Manager, Registry Editor, Control Panel, Command Prompt, etc.
• New unknown unwanted software installed, etc.
• You see new icons on your desktop suddenly.

If you see any of these signs, if is quite possible that your computer may have become infected with a virus or malware.
A followup link with info on how to remove malware...