Computer viruses are very common, and can be very destructive. Some computer viruses were made as a joke, and don't do anything but spread themselves and prevent themselves from being removed. Some viruses were designed to destroy data. Some viruses were made to steal data. And, more recently, there have been more and more viruses that attempt to lock your system until you pay a large fee. What are your personal experiences with these malicious programs?

Personally, I had a run-in with something that wasn't really a virus, but it was crapware. I tried to install a piece of software that I wanted, and it forced me to install SweetPacks software to actually install it properly. I really wanted the software, so I installed it anyway...and I found that it installed a bunch of other SweetPacks stuff without my consent, changed my browser homepage, and forced me to use their search engine. I had to search for a removal tool to get rid of it.

Ransomeware in the form of a rogue antivirus, I was about 10 and had no idea what to do, so I ended up deleting all my files which sucked so much

Honestly, I don't think I've ever encountered any viruses for sure. One of the three computers at my grandparents' house is slow and a lot of ads. I think it was called unicoupons.

The exact same thing you did. Absolute "Crapware". I don't remember what I downloaded, but it even forced me to use a crappy "Snap.do" Search engine that I HATED. I couldn't even do anything about it. I had to just let it get to the point where I had to restore it. Learned a lot from that.

I needed to download something to help with the work that I was doing. Only to end up giving me a hard time. Like giving me new search to download which I didn't want at all, or what I didn't ask for. I had such a tough time with this. I had no choice, but to call my brother for help before it grew worse. He told me that whatever it was. That it was annoying, and I was looking at the way he was fighting the problem. It seemed that this software was trying to stay, and putting up a good fight too. My brother managed to outsmart them, and finally got rid of the problem :/

The only encounter I've had with any sort of malicious software was from my first attempt at torrenting... Lessons were learned that day about how to tell if a torrent is bad and how to remove adware. I think the software in question was called "IStart123" or something similar, easily removed after a little research. Basically, it forced me to use a new homepage and search engine. It also placed seemingly random ads in all of my browsers.... Turns out all I had to do was login to the computers admin account and shut off one normally hidden process which protected IStart123's files from deletion before I could actually delete its files, if I didn't stop this process it moved them to a different place on my system.



Side note, this is my 1000th post

My friend was a Reploid, and I am sad to say that he contracted the Sigma virus.

A Trojan horse or something like that, that attached it self to my elder scrolls oblivion lucky my anti-virus picked it up... I need to reinstall the game

2xNitro : Yeah, it really does suck. I don't think I've ever had something that bad in all the time I've actually been using computers.

mario102 : That's called adware. When installed, it...displays advertisements on your computer. It's simple, but annoying and sometimes difficult to remove. Coupon printing software commonly either is adware or is bundled with adware.

Mega Mewtwo X : Ouch. Thankfully, the stuff that I've had over the years hasn't been quite that severe.

Eniitan : That also sounds rough. Good thing your brother is good enough with computers to get rid of it.

Chindogu : Tactics like that are common with crapware and adware. Even if you don't want their software, they'll force you to keep it. Thankfully, there's always a way to rid yourself of it.

Another experience that I had when I was younger...essentially, I was browsing the Internet, and I came across Zango. In case you don't recognize the name, it was a portal site that forced you to install its adware to browse it. Neither I nor my mother knew that it was terrible, so I installed it. When my dad arrived home from work, he was kind of angry. He had a good reason to be, since it required him to spend several hours just getting rid of all its files from the system. Good thing my dad's knowledgeable about computers.

NovemberJoy : Its a good thing it was done and dusted. Who knows what would had happened? What's even worse is that this computer is new. So the last thing is a virus or a bot trying to destroy it. '-'

Mega Mewtwo X : Oh, I just HATE when they make you use these search engines and browsers and extensions. But here's the thing. I don't know how to restore the computer. It's a Gateway PC running Windows Vista.

Another type of virus I hate is the Open Download Manager one. I don't care what you say, that thing is a virus. It installed a crap ton of stuff too. Hell, IT may be the crapware I was talking about. And can we talk about the stupid "iLivid" downloads on every single website ever? You try to download something but oops! There's 200 buttons! And 199 of them are malware! Choose wisely sucker. Mainly when I'm trying to download something like a texture pack or mod for Minecraft more often than not, I'll find a few of these. and THEY. ARE. ANNOYING. not only do they do nothing, but they also install malware. Yay.

The documents on my NAS server got infected with Elkern.C a little while ago, probably from a faulty download. It was seriously the fist virus I'd ever encountered in about 4 years only due to Microsoft's antivirus not being able to remove it at the time. I was able to clean up the files using a better antivirus that came with my school laptop. I believe it spread to 30+ files.

Yesterday, I accidentally came up on one of those scam websites that claim you have viruses and that you should call a phone number to clean your hard drive; complete with popups, flashing GIFs, and sirens. I was quite tempted to give them a prank call.

Only had one virus experience, i was 8 and played flash games a good bit. I went to the Y8 flash games (still up to this day) and i was playing on it then my computer turns off. I turn it back on, everything normal, finally got to home screen, again still normal but i click internet explorer....all i can say is: porn everywhere and lots of it, everytime i tried to leave the site it would go back to it. Mom was not too happy but i explained where it came from so she got anti virus for teh computer and i never went to that site again. To this day im still a bit cautious of going on flash game sites

Does it count if I was helping a friend remove viruses? One of my friends once had a virus that had ads all over his desktop, as well as in his browsers. It also installed something called "Bobrowser" for his PC. I'm not sure what it was called, and I'm sure it was actually multiple viruses. Not very sure. Took us an hour to remove all of it. Was rather annoying, but oh well.

It was some kind of computer virus that putted ads on over my device. Or so I think. I'm not sure it was even a virus to tell the truth.

I've probably encountered every virus people have brought up in this thread (except ransomware), and I honestly forgot about most of them because they are basically no threat if you know how to handle it... just install an antivirus and things will pretty much be fine.

One type of virus I can add to this though are RATs. Remote Access Tool. Basically whoever has "ratted" you has complete control over your computer at all times unless it's off. Luckily for me it was a friend that was playing a prank on me so he didn't do anything terribly malicious.

[EDIT]: If you do discover that you have been "ratted" you need to download something called an anti rootkit. Normal antivirus will not find a RAT if it is in the registry or some other places.

I don't know what name it has, but the worst virus was when I went on a gaming website. It started to download itself onto my laptop, I tried canceling it, but that didn't work. Tried to forcefully cancel it via Task Manager, and still didn't work. Finally, I got my dad to help me out. Didn't work. The virus took over my laptop to the point where I can't even get passed the Start-Up menu (shows up when you boot up your computer). After many tries, my dad and I finally got it fixed and back to my laptop's original state. However, it took nearly 2 days to do all of that.

Not sure I really encountered any Virus that gave me any results expect for the almighty blue screen of death.


That happended on my past pc's, but not my current one.

I've never had any of the "famous" viruses that people talk about. Just your average Trojans and stuff on older computers that I was foolish enough to not have virus protection on a long time ago.

I remember one computer I had about 12 years ago had a virus so bad, that it wound up causing a PHYSICAL failure on my hard drive....that was about the craziest virus I've found on a computer that I've owned.