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What Is A Virus

A virus is computer code, which makes copies of itself, without the computer user's (victim's) knowledge. Viruses attach themselves to other files or programs on the victim's computer - and often take complicated steps to disguise their presence.
Some viruses are deliberately harmful or malicious - they carry a "payload". For example, erasing data from the victim's hard-disk.


Other viruses simply attempt to make copies of themselves. Even these viruses can be harmful as they often have unintended consequences, and they always use computer resources (example: disk-space) without the computer user's knowledge or consent.
Very often, a virus can lay dormant for a long period of time (or until a given date), sometimes even years, before copying itself or executing its payload.

Viruses are usually designed by the virus writer to attack a particular type of computer or software. Most viruses are targeted at (and therefore can only infect) users of Microsoft operating systems (MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows) and/or Microsoft products (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook Express, etc.). However there are also viruses which affect other types of computers and software.