Why you don't need to scan for viruses manually

Do you often open your antivirus software and run manual scanning (hand scanning)?Microsoft Security Essentials and other antivirus programs assume that your computer will likely face more security risks if you do not routinely perform manual virus scanning for your system.However, in fact, these manual scanning processes are not always really necessary and effective.In essence, your antivirus software can still do its job in the background without any help from you, simply send you warnings when it finds out. trouble.

Why is it not necessary to perform manual virus scanning?

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As mentioned, your antivirus software will always run in the background.It will constantly monitor all processes running on your system, thereby ensuring that no malicious processes can work in the system.Whenever you download a new file or open a program, antivirus software will quickly join the process of checking related files and make sure the files or programs are completely 'clean'. 'before allowing them to be launched.If you download a file containing a virus, your antivirus program will immediately send the message without scanning anything, which is the specific mechanism of this type of software.For example, try downloading an EICAR test file, you will see your antivirus program will immediately respond and take action without requiring manual scanning.

1. What to do if your computer has a virus?

This feature is often referred to as background scanning, real-time protection, on-site protection, on-demand scanning or a few other names with similar meanings.

In other words, you do not need to perform manual scans simply because your antivirus tools automatically check every file that contains malware when it accidentally enters the system.Antivirus software is also aware of all the software running on your system, which distinguishes which software is clean, and which software has problems.They simply operate independently and automatically, without you having to order.

However, your antivirus software may also have run its own manual scanning.Antivirus tools will often run system scans in the background periodically, which can be once a week without interrupting your other activities.

At this point it can be confirmed, the message above of Microsoft Security Essentials is particularly silly.If Microsoft Security Essentials really thinks manual scans are necessary, they should develop a feature that performs background scans instead of making the user's system error when trying to perform manual scans.

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When should you perform manual scans?

Also to correct the manual scan is not a useless function, it is still extremely useful in some cases, you simply do not need to regularly activate it.Here are the cases where you should run manual scanners:

1. When you install an antivirus software: When you install an antivirus software for the first time, it will immediately need to perform a full scan of your system.This allows antivirus software to ensure that your computer is in a completely "clean" state and that there are no signs of malicious programs hidden in unopened files on the hard drive.After performing a scan, your antivirus program can 'be confident' that your system is absolutely secure, it will still scan for malware files automatically when you open them. this software.
2. Check for previously ignored malware: Antivirus software uses files called definition files, and these files will be updated regularly.Definition files basically contain the list of identified malware, and your antivirus program will compare the programs that are running on the system with the names that appear in the definition files to Check if they are unusual or not.There may be some malware in the inactive state and hidden in executable files deep in the hard drive that you missed during the first manual scan.If the information on this type of malware has been added to the definition files or the diagnostic functions of the antivirus program have been improved, it will only detect malware that is not working when you Perform manual scanning.Of course, the virus will be detected if you try to run the file containing the virus or when the entire system scan is scheduled regularly.
3. Use as a second option: You should only run one antivirus program at a time.Because when there are so many antivirus programs running in the background, they can affect each other and create problems with your computer.If you want to scan your computer with many antivirus programs, then at the first scan you use the first program, let it scan itself.After that, performing a manual scan with the second antivirus program will give the most optimal results.

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Why is background scanning better than manual scanning?

You can completely disable background scanning in some antivirus programs and only perform manual scans, but you should not do so.

Think of your computer as a home and your antivirus background protection feature is a security guard who is always at the front door and checks everyone who wants to enter your home.Manual scanning can be considered as a security team trying to find every corner of your house to find unauthorized intruders.

Simply put, if you have already checked and cleaned up all those who have entered your home, then you will not need to check every corner to reveal illegal intruders.In this case, we can apply the phrase 'prevention rather than cure'.And in fact, it is better to focus on protecting your home right from the entrance area so that you can prevent threats before they can harm the system.If you catch someone when they hide in a dark corner of the house or here is your PC, you can't guarantee that they've done something bad until you find out. ?When the software is running on your computer, it also has the ability to hide into complex areas to avoid the control of antivirus programs, and even Windows' Task Manager task manager.Such effective hiding software is often called a rootkit.

1. Differentiate viruses, trojans, worms and rootkits

You will definitely want to prevent malware before it can cause consequences for your system (and infect other computers), so please pay attention to automatic background scanning instead. Because of the great interest in manual scanning.

Even if you proceed to scan all programs that you have downloaded manually before running, you should still use automatic scans to get maximum protection against zero-day attacks and Other security threats.

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Some security tools may delete cookies when you perform manual scans, because they treat these cookies as "threats".This is a great way to 'pretend' security tools that still work and are a trick to trick users.From there, it can be seen that using security tools to be effective and reasonable is also an important thing that you should master.

Wish you build yourself a healthy computer system!

See more:

1. 3 ways to check if anti-virus software on PC is working?
2. How to scan and repair computers infected with viruses or malware
3. How to identify computers infected with viruses with 10 characteristic signs
4. Instructions for finding and deleting the original Keylogger from your computer