[mandilly]

I currently use Norton Anti-Virus 2006. I just had to remove and reinstall it do to an issue. The issue was corrected, but now when I go to run a Full System Scan, it scans only about 900 files before saying that the scan in complete. I'm well aware that I have about 160,000+ files that I used to scan before I had to reinstall it. I'm not sure if it's just a matter of a setting that I need to fix, or what, but I couldn't find anything in the Options for Norton that would fix this. Any idea of what I should do? I'm sure if this is just a matter of changing a setting--I'm not really computer knowledgable, so if this is wasting your time, than I'm very sorry.

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First let me say I no longer use NAV, but almost all AV utilities have user-selectable options for choosing how thorough you want the scan to be. Bear in mind that a virus attaches itself only to 'executable' files (otherwise known as program files) such as those ending in "exe", "com" "bat" "sys" or "pif". Therefore, by default, most AV programs only check these types of file and ignore all the others such as text, files, image files, etc. since checking them everytime would take much longer for no good reason.

But if you really want to satisfy yourself that ALL your files are clean you just need to look for an option in the on-demand scanner which says "check all files", or it may be a choice between "quick scan" and "thorough scan".

Mind you, if you are really concerned about being free of viruses (and you are quite right to be), you could do a lot better with something other than NAV. It was recently put to shame in a controlled test involving 9 competing products -- one of which was the free AVG Ant-virus. AVG beat NAV by a wide margin in detecting viruses which are currently in circulation, and unlike NAV it doesn't slow down your PC by nearly as much.

I'm not necessarily recommending you switch to AVG, just advising you that while Norton AV may be a very big name with a presence in almost every software shop, that doesn't make it the best.

Edited by pip22, 18 May 2007 - 12:49 PM.

[pip22]

First let me say I no longer use NAV, but almost all AV utilities have user-selectable options for choosing how thorough you want the scan to be. Bear in mind that a virus attaches itself only to 'executable' files (otherwise known as program files) such as those ending in "exe", "com" "bat" "sys" or "pif". Therefore, by default, most AV programs only check these types of file and ignore all the others such as text, files, image files, etc. since checking them everytime would take much longer for no good reason.

But if you really want to satisfy yourself that ALL your files are clean you just need to look for an option in the on-demand scanner which says "check all files", or it may be a choice between "quick scan" and "thorough scan".

Mind you, if you are really concerned about being free of viruses (and you are quite right to be), you could do a lot better with something other than NAV. It was recently put to shame in a controlled test involving 9 competing products -- one of which was the free AVG Ant-virus. AVG beat NAV by a wide margin in detecting viruses which are currently in circulation, and unlike NAV it doesn't slow down your PC by nearly as much.

I'm not necessarily recommending you switch to AVG, just advising you that while Norton AV may be a very big name with a presence in almost every software shop, that doesn't make it the best.

Edited by pip22, 18 May 2007 - 12:49 PM.

[mandilly]

There is no option in the option menu to change what files are scanned, and it is only scanning that amount of files on a full system scan. I'm not running a partial scan. Now, today, instead of scanning the mere 900 or so files, it's only scanning 400 files on the same full system scan.

[Retired Tech]

See if you can run any or all of these

Online Scans

Panda Scan

House Call

If Trend Micro freezes during updating, close then retry

Kaspersky Online Scan

If you are unable to run any or all of those

Please follow the procedures outlined here: Malware Removal Guide

You will need a PC which can connect to the internet

Run all the programmes as advised then post a current Hijack This Log in a new topic in the Malware Forum

For the purpose of accurate malware analysis, Hijack This Logs are only dealt with in the Malware Forum. Posting them anywhere else will result in a delayed response

If you are unable to run any of the programmes, please ask for advice in the Malware Forum

[mandilly]

My computer has no problem running any of those programs. However, those are not the programs that I want to use. I would prefer to use the program that I am paying for, whether or not it may be the best. Therefore, all I want to do is fix my program so that on a full scan, it scans all the programs instead of only 900 of them. Can you help me correct this error? I AM running full scan. It is only scanning 900 programs (now for the past day, it has been only scanning 400). I cannot seem to find an option in the option's menu to correct this. I'm using Norton Anti-Virus 2006.

[Retired Tech]

The online scans were simply to determine if complete scans were possible, malware can prevent the running of programmes which could detect and remove it

If you use add and remove, is there an option to change the install of Norton, or is it remove only