How to Check a Virus Scanner
- 1). Click on the icon for your anti-virus program to see if it starts up properly. A disabled scanner will frequently result in error messages on the initial start-up.
- 2). Update your software by clicking the "Update" button to see if your virus scanner downloads new files correctly. If a virus has damaged it, the program will probably not be able to accept updated files.
- 3). Run a trial scan to test the program's behavior. Error messages are a bad sign, while a normal scan is indicative that the scanner is properly running even if it doesn't locate a virus.
- 4). Open a page in Notebook and copy in "X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*"
- 5). Save the file as "eicar.com." This is a dummy virus file that is designed to set off any virus scanner on your computer. The file will not do any harm to the computer, but if the scanner doesn't prevent you from saving the file and allows you to open it, the scanner is not functioning properly.
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