technology computer viruses

[Espurr 449]

Yeah, so I've gotten a virus from a game called Wizard101. Now I have a friend at school who has wizard101 on his computer and says he's had the game for 4 years now and I've only had it for a couple of months and I got a virus and he didn't. The weirdest part is he's not lying. He says he's a wizard master and he played the game and proved it to me and now I'm wondering how I got a virus from that game because i really liked it. Any advice from any one who's played the game because I have no idea what to do.

[Unikitty 1,212]

How do you know the source of the virus is Wizard 101? What is it actually doing? Just about anything you download has the potential to harbour a computer virus. The likelihood that such a game would have one, however, is more unlikely, unless you did something silly such as download from a non-official source.

[Thunderchild 875]

As @Unikitty said, it's not so much about the game itself as it is the site you downloaded it from. Your friend may have gotten a clean DL, while you got one that's been infected. It's always a good idea to have a decent anti-virus program, and to scan downloaded files before you install them. I have Norton 360 on all my machines-however there are many options, some of which are freeware. You can go to majorgeeks.com and check out reviews on these, as well as safely download them.

[Espurr 449]

How do you know the source of the virus is Wizard 101? What is it actually doing? Just about anything you download has the potential to harbour a computer virus. The likelihood that such a game would have one, however, is more unlikely, unless you did something silly such as download from a non-official source.

Well, i got it from the official source, but my computer was going slow and wasn't' turning on at times and sometimes it wouldn't start up at all and it had to be wizard101 or Pokémon.com said my mom but i gotten on pokemon.com for months by now and my computer hadn't messed up before...

[Adachi 772]

Did you check to make sure your computer meets the system requirements? Also, does your computer run slow all the time, or only when the game is running?

 

There's also the possibility that one or more parts in your computer are dying.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Princess of the Sun

[Unikitty 1,212]

The chance of it being Wizard 101 or Pokemon.com is relatively slim, as they are both secure and respectable sources. Similar to Princess of the Sun I think it's likely your computer may just be having general trouble running. If you know someone(a family member, or a good friend of your parents) who knows about computers, ask if they can take a look. They should be able to figure out the problem quickly enough.

 

Also, remember to make sure any websites you go to are safe. If you have an antivirus(if you don't, you really should get one for extra protection), it may be able to tell you when a website is possibly dangerous. Always check before going to unfamiliar websites, and if the antivirus says it might be dangerous, stay away, just in case.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Unikitty

[FractalMoon 378]

Well, i got it from the official source, but my computer was going slow and wasn't' turning on at times and sometimes it wouldn't start up at all and it had to be wizard101 or Pokémon.com said my mom but i gotten on pokemon.com for months by now and my computer hadn't messed up before...

Well, in this case your mom is most likely what we call 'Wrong'. It's probably just a disk space issue. Try defragging and getting rid of some of the crap on your drive. And for gods sakes run an Antivirus to make sure it's actually a virus.

[Gay Bird 421]

Well, i got it from the official source, but my computer was going slow and wasn't' turning on at times and sometimes it wouldn't start up at all and it had to be wizard101 or Pokémon.com said my mom but i gotten on pokemon.com for months by now and my computer hadn't messed up before...

Viruses generally don't cause these sort of problems. Most viruses try to steal information or flood you with ads to make money. The most likely cause is that your computer's physical components are breaking down. How long have you had this computer? It could also be a full hard drive so delete anything you don't need (including uninstalling useless programs) and run disk Defrag. If you can't afford a new computer, you can replace the hard drive fairly inexpensively. Just make sure you still have the discs with the OS and drivers that should've come with your computer before you do this. If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, you can take it to any computer repair shop.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Doge is wow

[CMQuickfireTK 751]

Reinstall your OS and never install that shet again.

[PsychedelicPony 440]

Well I don't know how you got it, but the most common type of virus nowadays is Malware, I would suggest starting the computer in safe mode, downloading MalwareBytes and run the diagnostics on there, it's a great program that works great.

[Celtore 2,770]

If you do have a virus caused by those sites (which is highly unlikely), it was likely a drive-by download from one of their ad services. The game itself is fairly genuine from what I've seen and heard of it and pokemon.com isn't mallicous at all. Your computer could be running out of hard drive space due to the size of the game, that's the only other thing I can think of.

 

As everyone has said, download a virus scanner and take that virus out if it exists! I recommend any of the following: AVG, Avast, MalwareBytes and Kaspersky. Microsoft Security Essentials is safe for use, but not really that effective of a product when compared to the others... Heck, the only reason I think people use it is because it's free and has "Microsoft" in the name. But enough of that, best of luck with your computer battles.