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If you have an up to date virus program running on your computer, should it definitely pick up a virus when you run a scan or might it still not pick it up?
Nothing's 100%. It's a good idea to run more than one scan if you are concerned about it. Malwarebytes is free and will pick up just about everything, and Superantispyware is free too and also very good.
Every antivirus/antispyware program has a lag between the time a new piece of malware is released into the world and the time they update their program to detect it. If you catch something during that lag period, even once you update (assuming you still can) it may not detect the malware because the malware effectively owns your operating system and can thwart your software's attempt to clean the computer. Since you can never really prove that there isn't something malicious in your computer, the best you can do, short of nuking the PC, is to scan the drive with several programs from a clean environment (boot CD, known-clean PC) and hope for the best.
Every antivirus/antispyware program has a lag between the time a new piece of malware is released into the world and the time they update their program to detect it. If you catch something during that lag period, even once you update (assuming you still can) it may not detect the malware because the malware effectively owns your operating system and can thwart your software's attempt to clean the computer. Since you can never really prove that there isn't something malicious in your computer, the best you can do, short of nuking the PC, is to scan the drive with several programs from a clean environment (boot CD, known-clean PC) and hope for the best.
But once the antivirus program finally updates and adds that virus on, should it still pick it up? Would it be too late to remove it then? Or should it be able to remove it?
If you have an up to date virus program running on your computer, should it definitely pick up a virus when you run a scan or might it still not pick it up?
Definitely maybe. Odds are probably over 99.9% that it will find it, but nothing is perfect.
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Originally Posted by Glad2BHere
But once the antivirus program finally updates and adds that virus on, should it still pick it up? Would it be too late to remove it then? Or should it be able to remove it?
Somewhere between maybe and probably. In this scenario, you're talking about a new virus, so it is probably more stealthy than older ones. However, if the virus scanner will run, it has a fairly good chance of working. Some of the relatively newer virus-type infectors will try to disable your virus protection.
Since you started the thread about a virus, I think it is worth mentioning that it would be a crap shoot to run Malwarebytes alone expecting it to remove a virus. That is not its intended purpose.
But once the antivirus program finally updates and adds that virus on, should it still pick it up? Would it be too late to remove it then? Or should it be able to remove it?
There is no yes or no answer to this question, so don't look for one. There is stuff out there that no AV app can remove.
If you have an up to date virus program running on your computer, should it definitely pick up a virus when you run a scan or might it still not pick it up?
As the other posters mentioned, it *should* pick up a virus when you run a scan, provided the antivirus manufacturer's software definitions are programmed to recognize it. There is normally a lag between when a virus is released and when antivirus can catch it. Sometimes that lag is minutes, other times days. The other issue is that some viruses work by exploiting security holes in the operating system, and no amount of antivirus can fix that (damn you conficker! ).
Your best option is to have an up-to-date antivirus program checking for updates every hour, a software firewall (Windows firewall is sometimes enough), and a hardware firewall on your home network (don't connect from cable/dsl modem direct to your PC - even using a linksys router will help). Also, at least 1x/month, run a spyware check using AdAware and/or Spybot S&D. There are also some rootkit checkers that can be periodically run to try to find any garbage that might have slipped through.
run a spyware check using AdAware and/or Spybot S&D. There are also some rootkit checkers that can be periodically run to try to find any garbage that might have slipped through.
Where is a good place to download spybot safely? thanks!
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