Viruses and Trojans
If mIRC is running when your Windows first starts up, or is sending files to
other users on IRC by itself, or joining channels without you asking it
to, or sending messages to channels or users that you have not typed yourself,
then it is possible that you may have downloaded a trojan or virus onto your
If you have found mIRC on your computer and you have not yourself
visited the mIRC website and downloaded mIRC, this means that you have
downloaded a trojan/virus from some other website or through an email, and
this trojan/virus has itself installed a non-official copy of mIRC on your
The official version of mIRC can be uninstalled via the Windows Control
Panel Add/Remove section, the same as with all Windows applications.
Unfortunately, the trojan/virus you have downloaded will most likely
prevent you from uninstalling mIRC. Even if you were to find a way to
remove mIRC, the trojan/virus itself would still remain. You must ensure
that you are removing the trojan/virus itself, otherwise your computer
will still be at risk.
The only way to remove a trojan/virus is to use anti-virus software that
recognizes the trojan/virus that you have. If your anti-virus software
does not work, you will need to contact an anti-virus company to ask for
How did this happen?
There are several ways that this could have happened: you may have
downloaded a file from another user on IRC, or from a website, or
received an attachment through an email, which was a trojan or virus.
It is also possible to become infected just by visiting a website, if
the web browser that you are using has a security vulnerability, which
unfortunately is quite common.
Other potential causes are having an insecure internet connection, or
a security problem in Windows which allows someone to infiltrate your
system. This is usually fixed by Microsoft quite quickly, however the
onus is on you to make sure that you have applied the lastest security
fixes to your Windows operating system.
If you have been infected with a trojan or virus, it is quite possible
that your computer may be at this moment infecting many other people,
so it is important that you resolve the issue as soon as you can.
A trojan/virus infection is not something you can solve simply by
deleting some files or uninstalling mIRC.
The only way to solve your trojan/virus issue is to download anti-virus
software, and if that doesn't work, you will need to contact an anti-virus
company to ask for help.