Should you be concerned about what your AntiVirus software finds?

Anti Virus programs typically provide two types of protection: 1) a real-time shield which will react to the presence of a virus as soon as it tries to infiltrate your PC or Mac, and 2) a file scanner which goes thru your disk drive, searching most files for patterns or 'signatures' which are recognized as part of a virus infestation.

The scanner program will neutralize known threats in several ways. a) You'll be asked what to do about the file, b) It will immediately delete the file, c) It will quarantine the file. So how should you respond?

In my humble opinion, if a virus scanner asks you about anything, you should allow the program to delete or quarantine it. Either way, the threat is neutralized.

Computer operating systems such as Windows XP or Mac OS X operate in much the same way as a book with an index or table of contents. In Windows, this index is known as the Registry, and for our purposes, consider the virus program as a page in the book. Deleting the file is the same as tearing the page out of the book; quarantining the file is the same as moving the page somewhere else, like an appendix. Either way, if the computer tries to follow the registry (index) entry, it finds nothing and therefore does nothing; the threat is neutralized.

Viruses and Spyware will typically consist of multiple programs and index entries -- it's not unusual for a single virus to have to be deleted in dozens of places (the virus doesn't want to be deleted, you see).

When a virus scan occurs after the software's "signatures" have been updated, sometimes it will delete or quarantine additional items newly recognized as parts of an older virus already gotten rid of. But don't worry, it doesn't mean a new infestation, just additional cleanup work is being done. As long as things are deleted or quarantined, you usually don't have anything to worry about.

But if you're ever in doubt, just call Professional Nerds. 1/2 our job is technical, and the other 1/2 is 'relieving anxiety' !