Malicious software is sometimes referred to as malware. This software has very harmful impacts on the computer it resides in. There are many sources that your computer could get malware infection from. It could be your floppy drive, CD drive, pen drive, internet, or some other external source. Internet is by far the most common and talked about source of malware. In a most commonly set up trap, you would get a warning popup asking you to check your computer for virus. You would be offered a free scan for the same. Once you accept the offer, there will be more pop ups coming up asking you to install a free anti virus software. Sometimes you may be asked to pay for the so called anti virus as well. You would therefore end up infecting your computer and also paying for the same.

Scareware is another term used to refer the malware. Microsoft has reported more than 4.4 million computers that are infected by the malware as of today. Some commonly known malware programs are Personal antivirus, XP antivirus, DriveCleaner, RapidAntiVirus, Antivirus?09, and WiPC antivirus. You should only stay away from such programs.

How to fight the malware? In case your computer is suffering with malware, you may want to read on to discover the remedies. It is however not a cake walk to get rid of the malware. Below are the guidelines to do the same.

Take a back up of your important data, before you choose to do anything at all. Sometimes you may lose your important files when trying to clean up malware from your computer. Back up could be taken on your flash USB drive, Floppy drive (if sufficient), or on a CD drive. Once you have taken a copy of your important files, you are ready to fight the malware.

If you thought installing an anti malware software would do the trick, you are most likely to be wrong here. Only weak malware may fall a prey to your anti malware. However, most malware programs are smart enough to defend themselves. Installing an anti malware software was a good idea when your computer was clean and healthy.

An alternative is to install and run an anti malware software in safe mode. Once in safe mode, the computer would not allow the malware or any other programs to perform any independent operations. This will allow you to use your anti malware program to scan and clean up the computer. The sad part is that sometimes your OS may also be infected with malware. In such cases, the safe mode will not help the cause either.

Nothing works as well as disconnecting your troubled hard disk from the computer, and connecting it to another safe and malware protected computer. The hard disk must be connected as slave. The anti malware on the computer would do a good job cleaning up the slave hard disk. You may perform the operation on a variety of computers having different anti malware software installed. This would guarantee a clean hard disk.

In case it suits you, you could simply format your current copy of OS, and install a fresh one. The process is simpler and does not need you to bother about any remedies.