STEP 1 - PERFORM SCAN
You can run:
- Quick scan
- Full scan
- Custom scan
- Context menu scan
To perform Quick Scan or Full Scan, on the left navigation menu, click the Scan Computer option.
With the dialog displayed, click an option of your choice:
- Quick Scan to launch a quick scan.
- Full Scan to launch a full scan.
Alternatively, right-click the adaware antivirus tray application icon (on your Windows taskbar, right-hand bottom corner of your monitor) and select Quick Scan to run a Quick scan. Or, on the Home screen, click the Full Scan button to run a Full scan.
If you want to scan specific locations on your computer, configure and run a Custom Scan.
To run a Custom Scan, proceed through the steps listed below:
- On the left navigation menu, click the Scan Computer option. Alternatively, on the Home screen, click the Scan options link.
- With the Scan computer dialog displayed, click the Custom button.
- On the Custom Scan Settings dialog, configure the scanning option(s), as needed, by selecting corresponding check box(es):
Scan archives. Archives containing infected files are not an immediate threat to the security of your computer. The virus can affect your system if the infected file is extracted from the archive and executed without having Real-Time Protection feature enabled. However, we recommend you to use the Scan archives option to detect and remove any potential threat. The adaware antivirus program will scan not only traditional archives, such as RAR, ZIP or GZIP, but also other compound file types, such as MIME encoded email messages, CHM files, all Installers, and even OpenOffice documents.
Scan rootkits. Select this option to scan for rootkits and objects hidden using such malware. A rootkit is a set of software tools which offer administrator-level access to a system.
Scan email. Select this option to scan plaintext emails and e-mail databases.
Scan processes. Select this option to scan the processes running on your system, ensuring that no malicious processes are running.
Scan cookies. This option only works for Microsoft Windows, and it only triggers IE cookie scanning. At this moment, the cookies associated with other browsers are not scanned.
Scan registry. Select this option to scan all the programs which are set as autostart in the registry, together with the services and loadable drivers.
Deep scan. Select this option to enable deep scanning inside CHM and installer files, greatly increasing scanning time and increasing detection rate. This option is not required for normal operations, but might optionally be selected for the so-called "paranoid" mode.
Smart scan. Select this option to store the scan result together with a file checksum in a local database. Subsequent attempt to scan the same file will return the previously stored result, speeding up scanning. The adaware antivirus program rescans the file periodically to make sure the file wasn't incorrectly detected as clean.
Scan boot sectors. Select this option to scan the boot sectors of your hard disk. This sector of the hard disk contains the necessary computer code to start the boot process. When a virus infects the boot sector, the drive may become inaccessible and you may not be able to start your system and access your data. - To select a drive/folder/file to scan, click the Add button and specify a drive/folder/file to be scanned.
- To remove an item from the Paths section, select the check box corresponding to an appropriate item and click the Delete button.
- Once you are done, click the Start Scan button to launch a custom scan.
The Context Menu Scan is a type of on-demand scanning. You can use this type of scanning in the following situations:
- You suspect a specific file or folder to be infected or dangerous.
- Scan a network share before copying files to your computer.
To start the Context Menu Scan, right-click the file or folder you want to scan, and select Scan with adaware antivirus.
Once you start scanning, the balloon appears notifying you that the Context Menu Scan has been started. Click the View details link to open the scan window and to see the scan progress.
The adaware antivirus program will start scanning the selected objects. You can see the real-time information about the scan status and statistics (including the type of the scan, the scan mode, the estimated time left, the current scan target and the elapsed time).
Wait for the adaware antivirus to finish scanning. The scanning process may take a while, depending on the complexity of the scan.
You can stop scanning anytime you want by clicking the Stop button. To temporarily stop the scanning process, just click the Pause button. Click the Resume button to resume scanning.
After the scan is completed and no threats are detected, or if the scan is cancelled, adaware antivirusopens the Scan Complete dialog.
If you run a Quick Scan and there are threats detected, adaware antivirus will automatically remove these threats and open the Scan Complete dialog.
STEP 2 - CHOOSE ACTIONS
If the scan process ends up with the threats detected, you will be prompted to choose the actions to be taken on the detected files. The detected files will be displayed in the Scan Summary dialog.
Here you can choose an action to be taken on the detected threat(s):
- Quarantine. Select this action to send malware-infected or suspicious files in a secure area named Quarantine. When a virus is in quarantine, it cannot do any harm because it cannot be executed or opened.
- Ignore. No action will be applied to the detected risks.
- Delete. Removes the infected files from the system.
- Disinfect. Attempts to remove infection from the infected files.
In some cases, the Disinfect action is not possible, because the detected file is entirely malicious. In such cases, the infected file is automatically deleted from the disk.
When adaware antivirus detects a threat, a balloon appears with a corresponding notification.
You can select an action to be taken to a particular threat:
Or, you can choose an overall action to be taken for all issues found:
To apply an action to the threat(s) detected, choose the required action from the drop-down combo box and click the Clean button.
By default, the action applied to each threat is Recommended that implies Quarantine.
Wait for the adaware antivirus to finish the cleaning process.
You can stop cleaning anytime you want by clicking the Stop button. To temporarily stop the cleaning process, just click the Pause button. Click the Resume button to resume cleaning.
STEP 3 - SUMMARY
Once the threats are cleaned, the Scan Complete dialog displays the summary and details of the scan performed. Your computer is now clean of viruses and malware.
With the Scan Complete dialog, you can view the scan report by clicking the View Report button.
If no action is applied to the risks found, the Scan Summary dialog displays each time you navigate to the Scan Computer screen or try perform a new scan.