McAfee AVDCDE-AA-AA User Guide - Page 101

Using the VShield Scanner • Scan files on floppy disks. Boot-sector viruses can hide in the boot blocks of any formatted floppy disk, then load into memory as soon as your computer reads your floppy drive. Select the Access checkbox to have the System Scan module examine floppy disks each time your computer reads from them or writes to them. Select the Shutdown checkbox to have the module scan any floppy disks that you leave in your drive as you shut down your computer. This ensures that no viruses can load when your computer reads your floppy drive at startup. 3. Specify the types of files you want the System Scan module to examine. You can • Scan compressed files. Select the Compressed files checkbox to have the module look for viruses in compressed files or in file archives. This option ensures that viruses do not spread from compressed files, but because the module uncompresses these files before it scans them, choosing this option can lengthen the time it takes to scan a given set of files as you work with your computer. Š NOTE: When the System Scan module examines a file archive, it will scan only the file archive itself, not the compressed files within the archive. To learn which files and archives the module scans, see "Current list of compressed files scanned" on page 292. • Choose file types for scanning. Viruses cannot infect files that contain no executable code, whether script, macro, or binary code. You can, therefore, safely narrow the scope of your scan sessions so that the module examines only those files most susceptible to virus infection.To do so, select the Program files only button. To see or designate the file name extensions that the System Scan module will examine, click Extensions to open the Program File Extensions dialog box (Figure 4-10). Figure 4-10. Program File Extensions dialog box User's Guide 101