These are simple tests you can perform to see if your computer is infected with malware or has malware damage:

NOTE: This is not a definitive test, but rather a quick initial test. If your computer passes these tests, it doesn't mean that your computer is virus free. If your computer fails these tests, but your antivirus software finds no malware don't be surprised. During my recent testing of the so-called "Google redirect virus", seven antivirus software programs did NOT catch it! One anti-virus software that did catch it, unfortunately was unsuccessful at removing it. The best method was to manually fix it. Palisades Computer Repair specializes in virus removal.

Quite often when a computer is infected with viruses, attempts to visit legitimate web sites related to antivirus software will result in your browser being "hijacked" or redirected to strange unrelated sites.

Test #1

Run a search query for "antivirus" at www.Google.com.

Click some of the resulting links to free.avg.com, www.avast.com, www.mcafee.com, and www.symantec.com to see if you are properly directed to the real websites. The two images below are from the real web sites...

   

 

Test #2

Click this link: http://www.filehippo.com/software/antimalware/antivirus

(NOTE: FileHippo.com is a legitimate site that provides links to safe, tested software)

Hopefully you get directed to the REAL site, which looks like this....

However if you get redirected to strange sites (like the two pictured below) then your computer (and/or router) is almost certainly infected or has been altered by malware...

Test #3

Click to visit this page http://www.malwarebytes.org/

It should look like this...

If you are redirected to some other page then your computer (and/or router) is almost certainly infected. Often an infected computer is redirected to a site (like the one below) that looks like the real thing but is not....

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Since 8/12/2010