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Have you detected a virus? This is the first thing you should do

On certain occasions our system can launch a notice indicating that it has detected some virus. For example if we have Windows Defender, Avast or any other antivirus. This can happen when downloading a program from the Internet, downloading an attachment that has been sent to us by mail or any document on a website. What should we do if this happens? In this article we will discuss this topic. We are going to explain what you should do to avoid problems.

Options when detecting a virus

When this warning appears, in many cases it shows us different options: delete the file, put it in quarantine or clean it. This can raise doubts, since logically what we want is for our team to work well and we don’t want to mess up and make a mistake. That’s why it should always be right.

First of all we are going to explain what each thing is. When we see that the antivirus offers us the option of clean up, what it does is clean the files that it considers dangerous. This is useful if we need to keep that document and we only want it to remove the malicious part, which can really be a threat. This will depend on which antivirus we have, since not all of them have this function.

The second option that we are usually given is to put that file in quarantine. What the team does is isolate a document that may be malicious and places it in a safe area of ​​the system. The objective is that it cannot infect other files that we have and that malware spreads. Again, this can be interesting in case you have an important file that you can’t delete.

Finally, the third option is to remove. It is probably the most logical if we take into account that we may be dealing with malicious software. We just remove it and that’s it. But of course, sometimes it is not possible for different reasons and it is convenient to have the other two options.

One reason why it is sometimes not convenient to delete a file is because the antivirus detects that it is a threat but we know or believe that it is not. In this way we can try to clean it or put it in quarantine and thus not lose it.

Repair Windows if there are viruses

What to do when detecting a threat

So what do we do when we detect a virus? If it is a file that we have downloaded from the Internet, such as a program or something that comes to us by mail, the best thing to do is remove it. In this way, we will remove the problem as soon as possible and thus prevent it from compromising our security and the proper functioning of the system.

On the other hand, if, for example, you have connected a USB memory or an external hard drive and the antivirus alert has appeared but you think it is a false positive and it is also something important to you, you can choose to put it in quarantine. In this way you will prevent it from affecting other files and you will not delete it.

But our essential is to use a good security program. In this way you can better eliminate viruses and also avoid false positives that can be a problem. There are many options available for all types of operating systems. Choose well which one to install. You can always see if a file has been modified by looking at the hash.

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