The ability to scan files for viruses is a crucial element in protecting your computer from malware. Malware is software designed to infiltrate and damage a computer system without the user’s knowledge or consent. File viruses can be especially harmful since they can infect files, replicate themselves, steal information, and attack other computers or devices on a network.
Why Scanning Files for Viruses Should Be a Regular Practice
Virus scanners use two approaches to scanning: signature-based and heuristic. The former involves looking for specific elements of a virus program such as the code that the virus author left in their program or the name of the file they created. If a virusscanner can identify these elements then it will be able to respond by cleaning or quarantining the program or deleting the file. This approach is problematic because virus authors can change their programs or create new ones quickly. Heuristic scanning on the other hand looks at the behavior of a program. It will look at what the program is doing and compare that to sets of instructions that are considered harmful (for example exploiting a known software bug). If the program’s behavior matches one of these then it may be considered a threat.
The best way to prevent a virus is to never open phishing emails or download files from questionable websites. However, that is not always possible. If you suspect a file might be malicious, you can run a quick or full scan of your device with Windows Defender Security Center. To do this, select the icon on the taskbar or click the Virus & Threat Protection tab on the Windows Defender Security Center home screen and then choose Scan options.