A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a

computer. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to
other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware
programs that do not have the reproductive ability. A true virus can spread
from one computer to another (in some form of executable code) when its host
is taken to the target computer; for instance because a user sent it over a
network or the Internet, or carried it on a removable medium such as a floppy
disk, CD, DVD, or USB drive. Viruses can increase their chances of spreading
to other computers by infecting files on a network file system or a file system
that is accessed by another computer.
Some Viruses can Crash your PC. Check out the Types of Viruses
People have a very general view that there are many types of computer viruses
and are those programs that cause damage or make the system crash.
Malicious code is the general word used and virus is one type of malicious
code. Worms and Trojans are different from computer virus and destructive
types of worms are sometimes termed as internet types of virus. Computer
viruses have made their mark on the PC's since the 90's with different types of
viruses causing damage to computers.

The earliest viruses made the most impact as no anti-virus programs were
available. The advent of anti-virus programs spelled a death blow to many
common types of computer viruses that were written by the various tools to
generate types of computer virus. Those who were inept at programming used
these various tool to generate the virus. Devious mind always find new ways
when they found that the anti-virus software's were able to disinfect and
remove the different types of computer viruses they went on to new methods
and that is how Trojans and worms came up.
There are a few main types of computer viruses and these computer virus
types are classified below depending upon the infection methods:

1. Boot sector/Master Boot Record Computer Virus

Means of Infection
Boot sector is that area of the computer that is accessed when the computer is
turned on. A boot sector virus infects this portion. Once the boot sector is
infected the virus is loaded into memory when the computer is turned on. This
virus then infects boot sectors on floppies or other removable media Master
Boot record virus only infects the Master boot record and not the boot sector

Damage Caused
Boot sector viruses gain complete control of the master boot record or the DOS
boot sector by replacing the operating system contents with that of its own.
This allows the virus to spread fast and cause damage:
 By gaining control of the master boot record and the DOS boot sector the
boot sector viruses can sometimes hide the resources that the computer
has( the floppy drive even though attached may not be present)
 Some boot sector viruses contain instructions to redirect disk reads.
 Some boot sector viruses move the master boot record to another
location causing the system to crash when it boots up. Other boot sector
viruses cause damage to the master boot record
 Some boot sector viruses damage the File Allocation Table (FAT) which is
the index of all the files on the drive. This causes loss of data
Removal
The best way to remove boot sector virus is to boot the computer with using a
clean boot disk and then rewrite the files with the good operating system files
on the infected disk. These viruses were very much prevalent in the ninety's
and a host of antivirus programs are now available to detect and clean them
effectively

2. Program/File infector computer virus

Means of Infection
This virus infects which contain code that can be executed and usually this
virus infects files that can execute code like .exe, .com, .drv, .dll, .bin, .ovl and
.sys files. These are also known as parasitic viruses and are activated when
the executable file containing the virus is executed. The virus then remains in
memory and infect other executable files when these files are opened or run.
The vast majority of these viruses have been on the Microsoft windows, OS/2
and Apple Computers.
Damage Caused
The File infector virus can cause irreversible damage to files. By overwriting
files it permanently destroys the content of these files. Some files viruses have
also operated as email worm and Trojan horse as well.
Removal
The only way to disinfect files from the file virus is that the files affected with
the file virus have to be deleted and restored from back up.

3. Macro Computer Virus

Means of Infection
Macro is a set of commands written by the user to be executed, later. The
different ways to create macros would be the macro recorder or Visual Basic
for Applications. Macro Viruses uses the macro language for its program.
Microsoft office has got the macro language built into its application and so
most of its application programs are affected by this virus. Word Documents,
Excel Spreadsheets, Power point presentations, and Access Databases are
mostly affected. The document template is affected and hence every file that is
opened is affected. Some macros viruses contain a trigger which is usually a
date on which the virus is programmed to start the actual damage. Some
other Macro viruses share the characteristics of a computer worm by
spreading across networks by using the macro facility available in Microsoft
Outlook.
Damage Caused
Some common macros are
 AutoExec
 AutoNew
 AutoOpen
 AutoClose
 AutoExit
The existence of the 'auto-exec' macro makes it possible to create many macro
viruses. The 'auto-exec' macro is executed in response to some event and does
not depend on the user command. The autoexec macro and other auto macros
are dangerous tools for the virus writer. Other existing Macro viruses are
those which replace command names (existing commands like save, open etc.)
with their code. Unlike the auto macros which can be disabled; commands
cannot be disabled. Once the macro virus uses these commands it can copy
itself to other files and even delete files.
Removal
Prevention is better than cure and the ways to prevent the virus from running
is that the autoexec macro can be prevented from executing by starting word
from command prompt. Use the following command to start word 'winword
/m'. The auto macros are disabled if we use the command
'DisableAutoMacros' in any macro that is written. It can also be disabled by
holding down the shift key while opening a document. Word documents
cannot contain macros only word templates can. You can mask a template as
a document file to prevent it from infection.
Removal can be done by an anti-virus scanner that needs to be updated
regularly. The other ways are using the organizer to find and remove macros.
In case you know you are infected just shut down word without saving and
then find the normal .dot template and delete it. The other way to remove
macro viruses is to open the organizer's dialog box and delete all the macro
project items listed. The organizer dialog box can be opened from 'File
Templates' command or from 'Tools Macro' command. Then close the file.

Other Types of Viruses

A type of computer virus that normally shares a few characteristics of worms
or Trojans or other methods used by the main types of computer viruses is
differently classified. The nomenclature used is different. We detail some of
those below.
Multi-Partite Viruses
Some computer viruses appear to behave like many other viruses and
sometimes more than one type. These are hybrids and are called as multi-
partite computer viruses.

Polymorphic Viruses
These viruses are written such that it changes its code whenever it passes to
another machine so that it is difficult for an anti-virus scanner to locate them.
Flaws in the program code make it easy to track down these viruses. It is
usually the encryption of the code that changes every time.

Stealth Viruses
Whenever a virus attaches itself onto another file the size of the file increases
and this is indicated in the File allocation table. The stealth virus uses
techniques to avoid detection by redirecting the disk head to read another
sector or alter the file size shown in the Directory listing.
Script Viruses
A subset of file viruses these are written in a variety of script languages like
JavaScript, VBS, BAT, PHP etc… They are also able to infect other file formats
such as HTML (if the file format allows script execution)
ActiveX & Java Applets
Active X and Java Controls are being used in Web browsers to enable and
disable sound or video and a host of other controls. If not properly secured
this is another area that virus writes use to get private data from your
computer.

Many types of viruses do more than viruses do. Some are file type viruses and
then a trigger may activate a code to make them behave like a worm. Therefore
classification becomes difficult in these cases. The basic behavior of a virus
which makes it different from a Trojan is that it replicates very fast.

A computer virus is usually hard to detect if it's disguised as a harmless file,

in the case of a Trojan horse virus. This type of virus doesn't replicate itself
like most viruses, but instead opens your computer up to malicious imposters.
Leaving you to wonder, how can you tell if you're computer is infected?

Some signs that may indicate that your computer is infected include:
 
 Your computer functions slower than normal
 Your computer responds slowly and freezes often
 Your computer restarts itself often
 You see uncommon error messages, distorted menus, and dialog boxes
 You notice applications on your computer fail to work correctly
 You fail to print correctly