Preparing System Scan

Preparing System Scan

Previous Next

Important Note! Before performing a scan, be sure that you have the most recent definitions file by using WebUpdate. This can be done manually from the main status screen. See the Getting Started or Update the definition file chapters pages for instructions.

Select scan mode
Perform smart system scan
The smart system scan is a fast system check and should be used only for daily system maintenance; i.e. you are sure that your system is clean and have performed a full system scan or an in-depth custom scan on your main hard drive at least once during the month. If this is your first scan, you suspect that your system has become infected with suspicious content, or you have used another antispyware product prior to installing and/or using Ad-Aware SE, please be sure to perform a full system scan (see below).

In most cases a Smart Scan will detect all content present on your system as Ad-Aware SE is capable of determining if further scanning is required. This does not include archived content however so a first time full system scan is highly recommended and at regular intervals to ensure that your system is clean.

When performing a smart scan the following scan settings are used:

- Full Memory Scan is performed

- Registry Scan is performed

- Deep Registry scan is performed

- Cookie-Scan is performed

- Favorites are scanned

- Hosts file is scanned

- Conditional scans are performed

Note! Smart scan does not scan within archives.

Perform full system scan
This is the in-depth scan mode that scans your whole computer for Spyware infections. The full system scan is highly recommended for the first time you use Ad-Aware SE, if you have reason to believe your computer is infected with Spyware which isn't found using the smart scan, or you have used another antispyware product prior to installing and/or using Ad-Aware SE. The full system scan is notably slower than the smart system scan, but has a higher probability to detect Spyware infections in archives or has been installed on drives other than your main hard disk.

The full system scan uses the same scan settings as the smart system scan, but also scans all fixed drives and archive files.

Use custom scanning options
You can customize Ad-Aware SE to scan on specific folders or drives. This option allows you to select or deselect drives and folders

Customize: Takes you to the Scan Settings screen. On this screen open the drive and folder selection screen by clicking on the "Select drives & folders to scan"

Scan ADS on drives\folders
The ADS (Alternate Data Streams) scan is performed in two steps. In the first phase, a regular disk scan is performed during which information is accumulated and cached. Any file scanned during this phase is being counted as a separately scanned object.

During the second phase detected streams are examined and, if appropriate, scanned. Every stream is counted as a separately scanned object during this phase. This design makes sure that the ADS scan does not bypass critical objects, just because they have none or are not attached to a DataStream.

Select: The ADS scan requires that the user manually selects one or more folders and/or drives to be scanned.

Search for negligible risk entries
Negligible risk entries are not considered to be a threat. They consist of MRU (Most Recently Used items) lists which store information about the most recently used items, for example files, search words and programs. The MRU lists can be removed if the user desires.

Previous Next

v 1.06