A computer virus is a piece of computer program or software that is created and developed by someone with bad motives and intentions to damage and cause confusion on computer and computer systems. They are made up of programming codes that can create copies of them or duplicate inside the computer without the permission of the owner. They are very invasive and work in various ways. They can cause significant damages on the operating system files or can collect important and confidential information about the user that was infected by the virus and relay back the information to the creator of the virus. Also, they are capable of producing those annoying advertisements that pop up and can easily crash websites before you think of it. After causing destruction on your computer, they easily spread themselves when you are online to other computers by utilizing your Internet Connections. The spreading of virus takes only a short period of time. They are able to send emails even without you opening an email program to all contacts that are in your address book. Virus are then spread widely through these related connections that your computer is maintaining in the Internet.

How then can you get infected by the computer virus? Most of them can inject infection on computers by application files. These are commonly in the form of attachment files with the extensions .SCR or .EXE. The file can start infecting if the user itself had opened the application file. However, they just do not come as an attachment to email messages, but the new trends of infecting viruses are advanced that it will harm your computer by an open connection to the Internet.

Obviously, virus creators developed viruses to collect and gather important and significant information like the credit card numbers and other confidential data for their malicious intent. Other motive is to crash websites, Blaster worm, for instance have been developed last August 2003 to destroy the website of Microsoft.

Computer users are now anxious on how to protect themselves from these harmful destructions. One basic and recommended way is to have a virus scanner. Before, intelligent users can avoid being infected by the virus. In our most advanced technology today, this is not applicable; instead computers must be regularly updating their virus scanners. Moreover, be very careful in opening suspicious application files that are used as attachments. Oftentimes, these emails came from people you know. You must confirm with the person if he had attached applications on the email before opening them.

Runtime errors are very common problems in operating systems like Microsoft Windows’ XP and Vista software. Because of the occurrence of these runtime errors, there are files or programs that cannot be accessed and therefore slows down the computer and affects the entire efficiency.
The registry is the specific place in the computer and is controlled by the operating system of Windows. It is the place where information about the hardware and software are being stored. Every time you are using the computer, more information is added to the registry including information about the programs you are installing and deleting. Every now and then, the computer registry becomes larger and in the end run, becomes unmanageable causing runtime errors and worst of all, making the computer crash.
Below are the following steps in troubleshooting runtime errors.

1. Using the Task Manager command, close one at a time the current applications you are using. By stopping the suspected programs, this will help you determine if it is the real cause of the errors. Task manager can be accessed in three ways:

o Cntrl+Shift+Esc

o Cntrl+Alt+Del

o Start Menu, then click Run and enter in the text area the term “taskmgr”

2. If step 1 does not work, check for patches or upgrades. There are bugs associated with the software itself. The manufacturer is aware of this and had created program downloads to correct it. Get these downloads free online on the manufacturer’s website. Search for the PC problem you are experiencing. If there is no available solution, try the last option in step 3.

3. When none of the 2 steps indicated above can fix the problem, you need to reinstall the program or your operating system entirely. Make sure that you back up all the application programs of your Pc for they will be erased during the procedure of re-installation.

Dealing with runtime errors can affect your productivity and can be bothering. Therefore, it is better to take extra precautions to avoid the risks of these problems. Below are the preventive steps:

1. Have your hard disk defragmented regularly. When your data is saved in the hard disk, they can either be saved far from the other files that have the same format and are related to it. If you need to use the program, it can use up more time locating some of its related files if it is far located to each other. If they are placed together, you can access the files easier.
2. Update regularly your antivirus and anti-spyware to its new version. If they are not updated, they will lead to the harmful runtime errors.