im always paranoid of having a virus.

[z]

hey ya'll, in the past 5 months i want to say I've factory reset my computer more than 20 times. Sometimes it would be twice a day. I would download something and if I feel like it is not safe, I would factory reset, No matter if malwarebytes says I have no viruses, I will still reset. Now yesterday I factory reset my computer and everything was going well. Until I realized I forgot to install an antivirus for 2 whole days. In those 2 days, I downloaded and deleted ublock origin and opera, went to some sites I don't know (but i found them all on google) and downloaded stuff I know is safe like steam, discord, etc. And I want to factory reset SOOO badly right now.

Now I need you guys to tell me some facts that will... idk calm me down? Im just always so paranoid I have a virus. I've done virus scans from both avast and malwarebytes and they both said I'm clean. So I don't know why I'm like this. I used to be able to download stupid stuff like gift card code generators or stuff that have rats 100% but I didn't give a damn and I was fine.

Also, when you guys think you have a virus, do you just do a virus scan and if it says you're clean do you just say ok cool and roll with it? I need to start doing that.


So if you guys can help me somehow stop being so paranoid, I would gladly appreciate it. Thanks :D


p.s is it likely for me to get a virus from a website? xD

[Muppet among Puppets]

Only load safe things from safe sources.
Keep things updated.

There are security programs that ask you for everything that wants to run once. That way you know what can run. Maybe thats for you.

Thats for sure easier than to have to reinstall the os like you do.

No antivirus, doesnt mean infection. Having an antivirus, doesnt mean no infection.

[Rednidedni]

As long as you have a good anti-virus and don't run anything shady (shady meaning you got it from some weird website that you don't know of many other people using) you're good. Even if you visit somewhat shady sites (like popups), I'd guess 99% of virus infections only come from you manually opening or running some program containing that virus. A good antivirus can even spot a virus at that point.
If you know a lot of people use something, you can be pretty sure it won't have a virus.
Virus infections dont happen often.
Google and read through the top anti-viruses - that'd give you some perspective on how this stuff works. Beware that the internet has quite a few free anti-viruses that are actually just viruses themselves, especially if in some popup that tells you that you were infected.

[Carolynne]

Originally posted by Quan:

So if you guys can help me somehow stop being so paranoid, I would gladly appreciate it. Thanks :D

I tend to be very cautious with what I do on the PC, but over the years I've been more confident in myself. Many times I've had a PC without an anti-virus for ages. For many years now I have always only used the standard Microsoft security essentials, it's not the best but it comes automatically with the operative system and barely takes up any CPU or RAM so I'm not too bothered by it.

Last time I caught something nasty in my PC was in the late 90's, ever since I simply haven't.

It's simple really, internet is a dangerous place for everyone, if any website that may cause any user to contract a virus in their computer, that website is going to get slandered into oblivion, because people love drama.

Thus many websites fear for their reputation, so only visit trusted websites because they're just as paranoid as you are.
Hopefully that'll put your mind at peace.

- And don't forget to avoid clickbaits.

[z]

Originally posted by Carolynne:

Originally posted by Quan:

So if you guys can help me somehow stop being so paranoid, I would gladly appreciate it. Thanks :D

I tend to be very cautious with what I do on the PC, but over the years I've been more confident in myself. Many times I've had a PC without an anti-virus for ages. For many years now I have always only used the standard Microsoft security essentials, it's not the best but it comes automatically with the operative system and barely takes up any CPU or RAM so I'm not too bothered by it.

Last time I caught something nasty in my PC was in the late 90's, ever since I simply haven't.

It's simple really, internet is a dangerous place for everyone, if any website that may cause any user to contract a virus in their computer, that website is going to get slandered into oblivion, because people love drama.

Thus many websites fear for their reputation, so only visit trusted websites because they're just as paranoid as you are.
Hopefully that'll put your mind at peace. :x3:

- And don't forget to avoid clickbaits.

I tried to only going on trusted sites or sites that I only know. Its kinda hard xD. Whats a good rule when you go on a site you don't know?

[z]

Originally posted by Rednidedni:

As long as you have a good anti-virus and don't run anything shady (shady meaning you got it from some weird website that you don't know of many other people using) you're good. Even if you visit somewhat shady sites (like popups), I'd guess 99% of virus infections only come from you manually opening or running some program containing that virus. A good antivirus can even spot a virus at that point.
If you know a lot of people use something, you can be pretty sure it won't have a virus.
Virus infections dont happen often.
Google and read through the top anti-viruses - that'd give you some perspective on how this stuff works. Beware that the internet has quite a few free anti-viruses that are actually just viruses themselves, especially if in some popup that tells you that you were infected.

I usually just stick to avast for realtime protection and malwarebytes for scanning! And I would run what everyone else would use but sometimes I would see like my email getting logged out for no reason.. Thats what scares me. Or my computer randomly slowing down. But I guess I just gotta stop being a little ♥♥♥♥♥

[Rednidedni]

Originally posted by Quan:

Originally posted by Rednidedni:

As long as you have a good anti-virus and don't run anything shady (shady meaning you got it from some weird website that you don't know of many other people using) you're good. Even if you visit somewhat shady sites (like popups), I'd guess 99% of virus infections only come from you manually opening or running some program containing that virus. A good antivirus can even spot a virus at that point.
If you know a lot of people use something, you can be pretty sure it won't have a virus.
Virus infections dont happen often.
Google and read through the top anti-viruses - that'd give you some perspective on how this stuff works. Beware that the internet has quite a few free anti-viruses that are actually just viruses themselves, especially if in some popup that tells you that you were infected.

I usually just stick to avast for realtime protection and malwarebytes for scanning! And I would run what everyone else would use but sometimes I would see like my email getting logged out for no reason.. Thats what scares me. Or my computer randomly slowing down. But I guess I just gotta stop being a little ♥♥♥♥♥

Yeah, your computer has billions of parts and a hundred necessary programs running in the background so of course sometimes a thing happens that you don't quite understand. My own PC just very recently bluescreened like once a day while being awefully loud. Turns out I just neglected dusting off the fans so it overheated.
If somethings weird with the PC itself, dont get afraid and just watch it over a few days. Its probably not a virus - those wouldn't just make your PC behave microscopically weird, they'd just run off with your valuable data or brick the entire thing before you got any chance.
If something looks weird with a non-virus program, its the program and no virus.
I think you swallowed a lot of hype around the dangers of Viruses. They arent common and you usually need to do something seriously stupid to get the chance to be infected by one.
I can't think of a single place you can reach over google that gets you a virus just by visiting.


BTW, I'm not all that good with this stuff myself, but I at least know that computer viruses arent like the common cold.

[Sapph]

Think of it this way: If you keep doing the reset, it makes your hard drive/SSD wear out faster. As it always does big chunk of re-writing and reading when it does this.

So the more you do it, the more you damage your drive.

So in order to stop wearing it out, stop doing the reset often.