Viruses get into your computer when you load infected software into your computer (from the Internet, for example) and then start it. Since viruses embed themselves into the code of other programs, they are harmless unless their host program is started, which means that downloading a piece of infected software from the Web or inserting a diskette into your computer is harmless until you start the software or open the file.

Once you have started an infected application or file in your computer, it can spread to other applications and files. Once this happens, software or files you share with friends or co-workers via diskette, the Internet, or Local Area Network, may be infected, and you could pass the virus to someone else's computer.

It is important to realize that viruses can not be transferred via e-mail messages or Web pages, since these are both based solely on text, and text can not contain computer viruses. However, you can get a computer virus from a file attached to an e-mail message, if the attached file is a piece of software or any file susceptible to infection, such as a Microsoft Word or Excel file. However, again, you would have to actually start the attached software or open the attached file for it to infect your computer.

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