Of course the best way to get rid of virus infections on your computer is to have up-to-date anti-virus software installed on your system. In addition you may need a software package to get rid of spyware.

Virus infections are no longer the only kind of annoying or malicious code with which computer users have to deal.

Spyware gathers information on users' Internet activities while adware can flood a machine with unwanted and maddening "pop up" advertising. Either of these can slow down a computer's ability to function beyond the fact that they are annoying and unwelcome.

In the event of a straightforward virus infection, however, what do you do if your anti-virus software says it cannot remove the problem? It's good to be aware of a few pointers on how to get rid of computer viruses in that event. (This information also relates to how to get rid of Trojan virus infections, worms, and other variants of such infections). Although it is rare for an antivirus program to be unable to destroy computer viruses, it does happen.

Update Your Virus Software
The first thing to do when your antivirus software signals that it cannot deal with a current infection is to attempt a manual update of the software's virus definition file. Open the software and look for an update option. The software will either tell you that you have the latest information or will download and install a new virus definition file. In the event of the latter, when the file has installed, run your virus scan again and see if your software will now delete or quarantine the infecti