3 types of virus scans and the right time to use

Regularly scanning your system with antivirus software is one of the easiest ways to keep your system safe. Along with a set of anti-malware software, antivirus software is a core feature of system security.

But what type of virus scan should you run? Is there any difference between full scan, fast scan and custom scan? See what happens when you click the 'Scan' button through the following article.

How does antivirus software work?

Before looking at exactly what each type of virus scanner will do, let's learn about the role of antivirus in general.

Your antivirus software primarily works in the platform of the system. It regularly notes system files. When a file is modified, the antivirus software scans it to make sure the changes are not harmful to the system.

The antivirus feature checks the properties of the file to ensure that the file is not part of the malicious program. Similarly, your antivirus suite has a long list of malicious codes. If you download the file containing the malicious code that has been recorded, the antivirus software will handle it - but sometimes there is a risk.

Another antivirus tip is to use behavioral analysis to evaluate unknown viruses. In this case, the antivirus software has no information in the database to compare it to that file. Instead, anti-virus software monitors file actions, checks interactions on the system. If this file tries to perform certain operations on the system, the antivirus software will check the file.

Anti-virus software suites will combine these two defense tactics and many other strategies to keep your system away from malicious programs.

Different types of virus scans

Most antivirus software has two or three different scanning options. Generally, these options are usually a 'Full' system scan, a custom 'Custom' system scan and a 'Rapid / Hyper / Quick' quick scan option. This option is sometimes called the 'Smart' smart scan. The names of these types of scans give you some idea of their function.

Full scan

Full scan performs a thorough inspection of the entire system from the inside out. Depending on the antivirus software, the antivirus software will scan the following objects:

All hard drives, removable storage drives and network drives
System memory (RAM)
Back up the system
Startup folder
Subscriptions

Scanning the entire system will take a few hours, depending on the amount of data you have stored. In particular, scanning the entire system is an in-depth analysis of everything on your system.

When should I use a full system scan?

Use a full scan when you need to check the entire system. Some security experts recommend performing a full scan every two weeks. But for most people, one scan per month is enough.

Custom scanning

Next, custom scanning allows you to scan with the same functionality as a comprehensive scan, but you can choose the location to scan. For example, the system has an SSD and three hard drives. Using Microsoft's Windows Defender to scan for viruses will take hours to complete the entire system scan.

However, if you switch to custom scanning mode, you can notify the antivirus software to ignore some specific drives. If your system uses a C: drive to save the operating system and download folders, focus on scanning the drive. At other times, if you encounter any suspicious behavior, install antivirus software to scan specific folders.

Some antivirus software add "Scan from this location" function to the right-click menu in Windows. Similar functions are also available on MacOS and many Linux versions.

When should I use custom scans?

Use custom scans to quickly analyze individual drives. Custom scanning is a reliable way to check external memory and other removable media if the computer has a problem.

Quick scan of Hyper / Smart / Quick

Finally, some antivirus tools have a quick scan option. This type of quick system scan has different names, depending on the antivirus software you use. How to distinguish fast scan and comprehensive scan?

Files and folders are often infected
Processors and threads are running
System memory (RAM)
Startup folder
Subscriptions

The quick scan list will be very similar to the entire scan list, right? Right. However, there are two major differences (again, again, these differences are due to antivirus software).

First, quick scanning only analyzes locations where malware can hide, instead of all files on the system. This greatly reduces scanning time. Second, some antivirus software programs only scan files that have been modified since the last scan. In this case, the antivirus software will scan the data until a valid message is found.

In most cases, fast scanning at least detects a virus, even if it does not directly identify the variant or even the infected root directory. If a quick scan detects something serious, you can always switch to full scan to find out more infected files and information about what is being processed.

When should I use fast scanning?

Quick scan is a handy daily tool. While a full scan is time-consuming, quick scanning won't take more than a few minutes to complete. It gives you a great overall picture of the entire system as well as tells you if there is any need for further action.

Are there any other types of virus scans?

The answer is no.

The malware detection suite is widely used with similar scanning criteria (startup directory, processes, subscriptions, etc.) with antivirus software. The difference lies only in the object that the anti-malware program is targeting. For example, Malwarebytes uses another malware detection code and triggers better behavioral analysis than Windows Defender.

It would be better to use both anti-virus software and malware detection software. MalwarebytesPremium is an excellent anti-malware solution for real-time protection (the free version is just a scanning tool). However, there are also some great free anti-virus and anti-malware tools. If you want a free tool, check out the latest version of Avast Free Antivirus. Avast bought the competitor AVG last year and the merger has significantly improved the malware detection rate for the free version of Avast.

Scan your computer for safety

Now you know the difference between different types of viruses, as well as when you should use each. Regardless of who says what, you should remember to install and update anti-virus tools regularly.

See more:

How to identify computers infected with viruses with 10 characteristic signs
5 best free antivirus software for computers
Top 7 best free antivirus software for Linux

antivirus software malware detection software

Lesley Montoya

Update 26 May 2019

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