Scan for Viruses

Home › How-Tos › Scan for Viruses

Anti-virus software can be used to identify, thwart, and eliminate computer viruses and other malicious software using two approaches: scanning files to look for known viruses, and recognizing suspicious behaviour through real-time auto-protection.

Windows machines installed by DECS are configured to use auto-protection. In addition, users are able to scan their computer, individual files, and network drives for viruses.

Below are steps for virus scanning your computer with Symantec Anti-virus. However, these steps will be similar for most anti-virus products. If you need assistance with using your specific anti-virus scanner, please contact us at support@egr.msu.edu.

Virus Scanning

Prior to scanning for viruses, make sure the virus definitions are up to date. You can either manually update the definitions or simply enable auto-updating .

Steps to scan your computer:

You may want to be logged in to an account with administrative access since some files may not be properly cleaned without administrative rights.

  1. Open Symantec Anti-Virus.
  2. Select "Full Scan".
  3. Click "Scan" to start the process. Depending on the size of your hard drive and the speed of your computer, this may take several minutes to several hours to scan your system. You can continue using
    the system while the virus check is running, though you will notice a decrease in performance.
  4. You will be notified if any viruses have been found and have the option to clean them.
  5. If Symantec Anti-Virus is unable to clean a file, please contact us at support@egr.msu.edu for assistance.

Steps to scan an individual file:

  1. Locate the file.
  2. Right click on the file and select "Scan for Viruses".
  3. Depending on the size of your file and the speed of your computer, it may take several minutes to scan the file. You can continue using the system while the virus check is running.
  4. You will be notified if any viruses have been found and have the option to clean them.
  5. If Symantec Anti-Virus is unable to clean the file, please contact us at support@egr.msu.edu for assistance.

Steps to scan your M:\ drive:

  1. Open Symantec Anti-Virus.
  2. Select "Custom Scan".
  3. Select the "M:\drive" checkbox.
  4. Click "Scan" to start the process. Depending on the size of your hard drive and the speed of your computer, this may take several minutes to several hours to scan your system. You can continue using
    the system while the virus check is running, though you will notice a decrease in performance.
  5. You will be notified if any viruses have been found and have the option to clean them.
  6. If Symantec Anti-Virus is unable to clean a file, please contact us at support@egr.msu.edu for assistance.