Re: Files to exclude from scan

From: Karl Levinson, mvp (levinson_k_at_despammed.com)
Date: 05/04/05 

Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 07:04:37 -0400

"Susan" <Susan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B5C5188D-A391-4122-9214-F1A8BC5B7E38@microsoft.com...
> I hope this doesn't sound like a stupid question, but...I have LOTS of
clip
> art & photo files on my PC (that come in Program Files\Microsoft
> Office\Media\...). What is the likelihood that any of these could become
> infected? When I scan for viruses and malware, it takes FOREVER to get
> through all those files. If I don't really need to scan them, I could
> exclude them from the scan processes. Just wondering...

I don't think it's likely that those image files could become infected
today, but several years ago people wouldn't have thought it possible for
them to become infected at all. You never know what tomorrow's malware will
look like. You could take a chance and exclude those files from your scan.
That would add a small risk, and maybe it would be a risk you are willing to
take.

Typically, however, the virus scan you run is intended to catch the things
that the on-access AV scanner that runs all the time misses. The on-demand
scan you run should run automatically, for example in the middle of the
night, and take as long as it needs to scan every file on your system just
in case, instead of sitting and watching the AV scan run. This is what I
would recommend.

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