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Questions tagged [anti-virus]

Software for protecting against, detecting, and removing viruses, malware, and other potential threats to a computer system.

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469 votes
18 answers
328k views

How can I remove malicious spyware, malware, adware, viruses, trojans or rootkits from my PC?

What should I do if my Windows computer seems to be infected with a virus or malware? What are the symptoms of an infection? What should I do after noticing an infection? What can I do to get rid of ...
124 votes
5 answers
24k views

Why does anti-virus software not delete the viruses, malware, etc., but instead quarantine them?

Why does anti-virus software not completely delete the viruses, malware, etc., but instead quarantine them? Is it not better to completely get rid of them? Why? And how can I manually remove them?
Sardar_Usama's user avatar
  • 1,841
64 votes
2 answers
11k views

How do anti-virus programs start at Windows boot?

When performing some testing, I noticed that after installing Avast and checking in both my "Run" registry key and my "Startup" folder that a startup entry wasn't present in either location. Taking ...
user965995's user avatar
  • 1,315
61 votes
3 answers
14k views

Bye Windows Defender, I need to turn you back off again

I am running Windows 10 on a fairly recent laptop. I'm using Avast (free version) as antivirus and before the update, Windows Defender was turned off as it should be in case a third party antivirus is ...
mickkk's user avatar
  • 955
59 votes
4 answers
207k views

Is my host machine completely isolated from a virus-infected virtual machine?

If I am running a Windows 7 virtual machine on a Windows 7 host using VMWare or VirtualBox (or anything else) and the virtual machine is completely overloaded with viruses and other malicious software,...
Diogo's user avatar
  • 30.5k
59 votes
6 answers
4k views

Is there a point in installing antivirus on Ubuntu?

I have recently started using Ubuntu. I am wondering about the point of installing antivirus programs on Ubuntu. On SuperUser, I found the opinion that it only detects "windows viruses" and removes ...
Piotr Krysiak's user avatar
55 votes
3 answers
10k views

How do antivirus softwares conflict with each other?

I've been taught that I should never install two antivirus (AV) softwares together, because they will conflict. Even Windows Defender (since Windows 8) disables itself upon detecting another AV ...
iBug's user avatar
  • 11.2k
54 votes
5 answers
4k views

How do anti-viruses work?

So I was thinking about viruses recently, and wondering how exactly antiviruses keep up? Considering anybody who'd been coding for a few weeks could hack together something do do nasty, nasty things ...
Phoshi's user avatar
  • 23.4k
42 votes
9 answers
64k views

How to disable Kaspersky Antivirus javascript injection?

Since the installation of Kaspersky AntiVirus 2016 every website I visit contains this line in <head>: <script type="text/javascript" src="http://gc.kis.scr.kaspersky-labs.com/...
tjati's user avatar
  • 619
39 votes
1 answer
15k views

Avast on macOS High Sierra claims it has caught the Windows-Only “Cryptonight” virus

Yesterday I ran a full system scan using my Avast antivirus software and it found a infection file. The file's location is : /private/var/db/uuidtext/7B/BC8EE8D09234D99DD8B85A99E46C64 Avast ...
Lonely Twinky's user avatar
29 votes
2 answers
28k views

Does Microsoft Security Essentials replace Windows Defender?

Does Microsoft Security Essentials replace Windows Defender?
Michael Ellick Ang's user avatar
26 votes
3 answers
4k views

Prevent user from installing software

My grandfather is pretty tech-savy for his age and loves to send emails, use Photoshop, and browse the web. I've made his computer pretty secure by installing AdBlock and teaching him how not to ...
Dragongeek's user avatar
25 votes
2 answers
5k views

Found new malware not detected by antivirus. How to evaluate the threat?

On a Windows 7 workstation running an up to date antivirus suite (Kaspersky) I found several suspicious processes. To look at the process activity I used the excellent ProcessMonitor from SysInternals....
Dima Chubarov's user avatar
24 votes
1 answer
10k views

What does Firefox do when "scanning for viruses" after download?

Never mind the fact that Firefox is a browser and not a AV tool, but what exactly does it do after a download? Even on systems that have an up-to-date AV this generates a pause of several seconds ...
Joey's user avatar
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19 votes
6 answers
2k views

Should I worry about malware on Linux? [closed]

I don't run an antivirus on Linux ( most people I don't AFAIK ) and I'm not at all concerned about any form of malware or spyware or any other_bad_ware. Should I by concerned? Of course I don't run ...
Robert Munteanu's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
46k views

Is there a way to disable MsMpEng.exe from monitoring file access during parallel computing operations? [duplicate]

I am using Windows 7 and have a 4-core Intel CPU, and was recently running a 4-kernel parallel computation written in Wolfram Mathematica that accesses a directory on an external hard drive containing ...
DumpsterDoofus's user avatar
17 votes
5 answers
26k views

How to be certain you don't have a virus when anti-virus scanners find nothing malicious? (Windows 7)

I recently spent many hours troubleshooting a laptop that could not connect to the internet. The laptop exhibited no other unnatural behavior, and so my first thoughts were to try connecting to other ...
JonathonG's user avatar
  • 359
15 votes
1 answer
12k views

How to report a malicious site to Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, etc. so that they will warn users [closed]

I completed a project a year ago. Now a few modification were needed. While trying to test the site, there was an index.html file with a malicious script which had an iframe to another site's jar ...
Jayapal Chandran's user avatar
13 votes
6 answers
6k views

Does the Virtual PC XP Mode need safety measures?

Does the Virtual PC XP-Mode (or any other virtualized mode) require safety measures, such as antivirus or a firewall? I'm just wondering if the XP-Mode would be a large security loophole, since it's ...
Ivo Flipse's user avatar
  • 24.8k
13 votes
3 answers
130k views

Is it okay to run Windows Defender and another antivirus program at the same time?

We all know that it isn't recommended to run more than one antivirus program at a time. But since Windows Defender comes with Windows, is it safe to have it and another antivirus program (AVG, Avast) ...
Egghead99's user avatar
  • 1,755
12 votes
9 answers
102k views

How to disable a McAfee service?

I am trying to disable a McAfee Real-Time Protection service, but if I go into Services/Properties, then try to set it to Manual or Disable - it says that unable to open service McShield for ...
AngryHacker's user avatar
  • 18.7k
12 votes
4 answers
946 views

How do I explain how Anti-Virus protection works to a non-Super User?

I found this question which expalins a little in detail of how Anti-Virus softwares work exactly. But I just had a client ask me this, and I really couldn't give him a good, simple, easy to understand ...
James Mertz's user avatar
  • 26.4k
12 votes
2 answers
7k views

Windows Defender: Disable real time; keep scheduled and on demand scanning

I just upgraded to Win 10 (RTM build). I have disabled the built in AV's (Defender) real time protection because I do not run it, never did and have never gotten a virus (and I've had a computer for ...
Gaia's user avatar
  • 7,089
12 votes
1 answer
22k views

How to remove Bitdefender root certificate from Firefox/Thunderbird/Chrome

I'm using "Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition 1.0.9.54" on my Windows 10 home PC Antimalware Engine 7.73769 During the last days I got a popup which asked me to shutdown Firefox/Thunderbird/Chrome in ...
Simone Avogadro's user avatar
11 votes
8 answers
1k views

Is Anti Virus Software needed for a Mac (OS X); If so free solution? [closed]

I have a MacBook that I use for programming and graduate school work. Since I bought it, I've not given much thought to putting an anti virus on it. I bought it about 6 months ago and for some reason, ...
Frank V's user avatar
  • 1,043
11 votes
9 answers
6k views

Antivirus software that doesn't run in the background

Is there such a thing antivirus that doesn't run in the background? Every antivirus I have tried runs in the background even if I stop protection, quit, or etc; there still are drivers/services of the ...
Emma's user avatar
  • 127
11 votes
3 answers
764 views

Does an antivirus also scan for viruses targetting other OSes other than the one it runs on?

Today my company has some external support personnels coming over and 1 of them bought a thumb drive containing the files for the fix to the driver problems. The IT manager of my company requested ...
snowpolar's user avatar
  • 215
11 votes
4 answers
4k views

Recommended offline on-demand virus scanners

I have never run full anti-virus on my Windows XP systems. Instead I use various anti-malware tools to manually perform scans every few weeks. This approach, combined with Windows updates and ...
Ash's user avatar
  • 2,811
11 votes
1 answer
44k views

How to disable/enable Microsoft Security Essentials from the command line?

I would like to know how to disable and enable Microsoft Security Essentials from the command line. This is a common procedure on build machines in order to speed-up the build process.
sorin's user avatar
  • 11.9k
11 votes
1 answer
2k views

How does avast! add a signature into my webmail?

I have the free version of avast! installed on my computer. When I just sent an email on https://mail.google.com with Firefox a signature was added, saying that the sent mail is Virus-free. www....
hirse's user avatar
  • 223
10 votes
3 answers
81k views

Why pirate / crack software often detected "is containing virus"?

Sometime you have been told to whitelist the file to run the crack, it is false positive. Why some AV is detecting such virus "is containing virus"? I know some of the crack is a fake file to crash ...
Bilo's user avatar
  • 1,524
10 votes
4 answers
17k views

How does the performance of Microsoft Security Essentials compare with other Anti-virus products [closed]

Are there any solid data (i.e. benchmarks) comparing the performance of Windows Security Essentials with other anti-virus products? In particular, I'm interested in how much overhead it imposes on a ...
Samuel Jack's user avatar
10 votes
5 answers
252 views

How can I make my OS appear as if it is running virtualized?

A lot of malware these days is able to detect when it is running virtualized under VMWare, VirtualPC, WINE, or even in a sandbox such as Anubis or CWSandBox. This essentially means that malware will ...
Mick's user avatar
  • 1,961
10 votes
3 answers
14k views

How do I scan a single file with Windows Defender?

The number one way people are used to using virus scanners is by scanning a single file. The number one OS viruses are found on is Windows. Microsoft's official virus scanner, Windows Defender, ...
Jonathan's user avatar
  • 1,772
9 votes
3 answers
17k views

what does this clamAV message mean?

I am running a clamAV scan on a linux box, using this command: $ sudo clamscan -r -l ClamScanLog -i / [sudo] password for e: msxml.xml:14: parser error : Extra content at the end of the document ^ ...
j0h's user avatar
  • 1,470
9 votes
6 answers
49k views

Windows Home Server anti-virus recommendations [closed]

Have just got myself a new Windows Home Server (a Tranquil PC model) and loving lots of the features, but I can't help feeling that with all of my valuable data concentrated in one place, it's ...
9 votes
2 answers
3k views

What's the difference between "anti-virus", "anti-malware" and "anti-spyware" tools?

Many products (such as Norton or McAfee) advertise as "anti-virus" tools or suites, while others advertise as "anti-malware" (like Malwarebytes), and even more as "anti-spyware" (Spybot S&D). Are ...
user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why do scan results of hacked/hacker applications always indicate infection? [closed]

Whenever I scan a patch, keygen or a hacked application (using an online scanner service which scans with 20+ different antivirus software) the results always say that the file is infected. Do hackers ...
hkBattousai's user avatar
  • 3,151
9 votes
1 answer
959 views

Windows 10: Why I can't create a folder named "a" or "b"?

Specification: Windows 10 with Norton Antivirus and CCleaner. When I try to create a folder named "a", it disappear from the explorer just after the action. I noticed the explorer says a message "...
Eduardo Xavier's user avatar
8 votes
4 answers
6k views

How is ESET Smart Security able to intercept my HTTPS traffic?

Yesterday, ESET showed a notification to install the latest version of Smart Security, so I’ve clicked “Install”. Now, it appears that ESET can intercept HTTPS traffic in my browser. In Firefox, I ...
Šime Vidas's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
4k views

How to scan and detect spying software

I have a friend who caught his landlord in his apartment using his laptop (he moved out afterward). The next time he tried to log in, his password was changed. I fixed the password problem but I got ...
Mister Tea's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
1k views

What happens if you install an antivirus program with another already installed? [duplicate]

Antivirus software always warns that any other antivirus currently installed should be uninstalled to avoid serious problems. From what I understand, one program may see another AV as a potential ...
mowwwalker's user avatar
  • 1,604
8 votes
2 answers
7k views

What is the difference between - Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials?

What is the difference between - Windows Defender and Microsoft Security Essentials? Should I run both?
Charles Faiga's user avatar
8 votes
4 answers
37k views

How can I tell if ClamAv is running?

How do I know if ClamAv is actively running? I installed it with sudo aptitude install clamav But I don't see it anywhere and am not sure if it's actually doing anything.
lipton's user avatar
  • 899
8 votes
3 answers
1k views

How to Benchmark an AntiVirus Software

We just installed Windows 7 in our brand new PC that we build ourselves. There are heaps of antivirus software out there, avast, panda, avg, etc. We would like to balance between speed and security. ...
zfranciscus's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
5k views

Does Windows 8 require any sort of Virus protection? [closed]

I have read about how Windows 8 is better and has better built in security... So the question is, do I really need third party Virus protection, or is the built in security good enough?
TheXed's user avatar
  • 1,941
8 votes
2 answers
2k views

Can I fool Windows into thinking a virus scanner is installed?

I'm trying to allow programmatic access to Outlook without getting an annoying popup. This is configurable under Tools -> Trust Center, however my outlook warns Antivirus Status: Invalid. Which is ...
stimms's user avatar
  • 908
8 votes
2 answers
4k views

Avast Antivirus downloading data from net even when told not to update

This is a strange problem that I have never seen before. I have two machines, both running Win 7 and running the latest version of Avast, both seem to be downloading large amounts of data. I noticed ...
Nathan W's user avatar
  • 216
8 votes
8 answers
31k views

How to copy Kaspersky 2013 virus definitions update to another computer?

I have 5 computers and installed the same anti-virus (Kaspersky Internet Security 2013) on all of them. Now I want to update the anti-virus on the computers. Since my bandwidth and time are limited, I ...
Ravi's user avatar
  • 167
7 votes
6 answers
5k views

Clean up infected computer from viruses [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: What to do if my computer is infected by a virus or a malware? I have a computer which had AVG Free installed from day one. After several months of operation, it starts ...
ripper234's user avatar
  • 11.6k

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