Define Infected PC:
Well, my definition of an Infected computer is that it has some virus or worm or trojan or some spyware. There may be a case that it is infected with all of these….god bless that user 
How do you know if you are infected?
Although there is no hard and fast rules, but the most common symptoms of an infection are:
- Your PC get very slow overnight or in 2-3 days.
- Your hard disk space magically get filled up.
- The default homepage of your browser changes to some weird address.
- You get Popups or alerts randomly.
- You can NOT enable the option to “view hidden and system files”
- When you click your Drive Icon or USB drive icon, you get a “Open With” dialog box.
- You get some unknown and random Toolbar installed on your browser.
How to clean the PC?
Now thats a million dollar question 
I understand installing an Antivirus software may slow down your PC by a fraction, but trust me it is still very important before you go online. In fact a Antivirus alone is ineffective in todays Web 2.0 world. You need Antivirus, AntiSpyware and a basic firewall. I would advice you to use AVG Free 8
However if you are already infected, chances are you will not be allowed to download and / or update any Antivirus software. But no worries, thanks to Combofix. It is an amazing free tool to clean up your PC. Just run it and within 10 mins your PC would be clean as new. Once combofix has done its job, dont forget to install and update an Antivirus software (preferably AVG FREE 
.
May the forces of AVG be with you
PS: If you found this post helpful, you may want to try to “How to speed up your PC“.
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