how do you know youve got a virus and if you have what do you do?

[cheesesarnie]

i am clueless.
yesterday a friend on facebook sent me and about 8 other friends a message saying something odd.i replied saying something like what are you on about?.he replied back saying 'i didnt send it check to see if you have virus?'.so do i?how do i find out and what do i do?

The most obvious explanation is that his Facebook account was compromised. Either it was a phishing attack, a security leak or someone somehow knowing his password.

I wouldn't worry as the problem seems at his end/his FB account, not your PC.

If you are concerned run a security scan, it'll pick up/ clear any nasties.

thanks both.i thought it odd that it would come from me if the weird message came from him.i wonder if the other friends got the message and replied?

how do i run a security scan?

I have just come back online after 3 days dealing with a nasty we have picked up on facebook.
Luckily I know a little bit about computers. and we still lost everything, we were very lucky that the computer didnt go in the bin or end up costing hundreds to have repaired.

I don't use facebook so I don't know if the message system can be used to pass a virus. In case it can you should use your antivirus program to run a full scan of the hard drive.

Your Antivirus may be called Mcaffee, Norton, AVG, Avast for example and probably lives in the system tray (bottom right corner)

If you don't have one then a free one that is quite good can be downloaded here.

AVG Free The left hand download link

ive got avg and did a thingy update recently.so i should be ok ya?

sorry for my cluelessness

Yes, you should be ok. Assuming you never altered the default settings it will keep itself up to date and scan daily at least. It will check when something comes in from the net anyway.

thankyou-i wouldnt know how to change settings !