I wager that the person asking this question is not an expert in this field and has been exposed to a lot of misinformation which leads them to falsely believe that they know something about computer viruses.
Let me first say that Win32 malware by definition is not a virus. No, win32 malware can’t infect other computers or get passed from computer to computer as easily as viruses are capable of doing.
A “Win32 malware” also cannot function completely autonomously on your system like many viruses do. They need you (the victim) to be operating your infected computer for the infection process to work properly – so no, vast majority of infections happen because some mindless user wanted something specific out of it and then got tricked into installing a piece of software that has malicious code or what usually called a “malware” inside it.
In short, win32 malware is not a virus. It might have some qualities that resemble those of a virus but as I’ve stated above – those are only accidental similarities and they do not define any one infection as being a member of the larger virus family.
I wager that the person asking this question is not an expert in this field and has been exposed to a lot of misinformation which leads them to falsely believe that they know something about computer viruses.
Let me first say that Win32 malware by definition is not a virus. No, win32 malware can’t infect other computers or get passed from computer to computer as easily as viruses are capable of doing.
A “Win32 malware” also cannot function completely autonomously on your system like many viruses do. They need you (the victim) to be operating your infected computer for the infection process to work properly – so no, vast majority of infections happen because some mindless user wanted something specific out of it and then got tricked into installing a piece of software that has malicious code or what usually called a “malware” inside it.
In short, win32 malware is not a virus. It might have some qualities that resemble those of a virus but as I’ve stated above – those are only accidental similarities and they do not define any one infection as being a member of the larger virus family.
Win32 malware is not a virus; it’s simply an easier way to refer to malicious software.
Malware has been part of the Internet from the beginning. It was in 1994 that one of the very first (known) public viruses surfaced, and this led Microsoft to create their own anti-virus protection tool called “Microsoft Security Essentials”. What makes malware different than a “regular virus” is that there are two versions: Automated, and manual. Automatic means it’s hidden somewhere on your hard drive (most likely deep inside). Manual means you have access to what you’re installing, but you have no idea what kind of information or control it might be taking over when installed.
The short answer of course is no. Win32 malware Gen is not a virus. However, it does use processing power and RAM to operate, so it’s not something you want running on your computer if you need the space or performance for other tasks like gaming or video editing.
No.
A virus is an invasive, typically self-replicating piece of technology that attacks a host program and uses the host’s capability to replicate its own code. Microsoft Windows has been successfully operating for decades without the need for antivirus software and there have been no but a few ever-more-common exceptions on win32 malware over the course of many years on which they’ve become extremely common in recent years because not enough people pay attention to what they download or click on what other folks are sharing with them.
To be fair, I would have to say that since there are many different definitions for “a virus” then I can’t really say whether it is or not.
The most common definition of a “virus” is a computer program that infects other programs, usually by replacing them with an infected version in order to make itself run every time the other programs are loaded. This means that if gen won’t replace any files on your computer (install as administrator to ensure) then it’s not a virus. That said, malware and viruses share many similarities such as hidden installations, and they often require antivirus software coverage because some malware uses anti-antivirus techniques such as using emulation tricks or encrypting itself so the antivirus can’t see it.
Gen cannot be added to that list because the only thing it does is wait for .evtc (encrypted) files to appear, extracts them and passes their names on to other virus modules. It uses loader code in order to interact with encrypted files (the data remains encrypted but acts like another executable).
No.
Win32 is a platform (aka operating system) and not a virus! The question of “Is the Gen virus Win32 malware?” is thus nonsensical, because it doesn’t make sense to refer to different systems as if they’re viruses. It should either be clarified to specify that they are using the Windows operating system or clarify that they mean malware for the 32-bit Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems and then answer the question with an “Yes.”
Win32 malware does not classify as a virus.
Win32 malware is a computer term that refers to any type of malicious software designed to work on Windows platforms. It is the oldest and most commonly running malicious code available for these types of computing devices. That said, it can be just as destructive and devastating as any other virus out there.
