Is my Antivirus actually working?

Share & Enjoy

• 

Or is it just taking up space on my hard drive and slowing my system down?

As we become more and more dependent on our computers for our everyday living, the derelicts and viral developers out there have also become more aggressive in devising new ways of infiltrating our precious systems.

As bewildering as it may seem to us law-abiding citizens as to why people would develop viruses, I simply chalk it off to “wasted talent”.

In any case, no matter how much we will rant and rave about the subject matter, it doesn’t preclude any of us PC users from not having a good antivirus system.

If you are already a Make It Work customer, you probably have AVG or Microsoft Security Essentials installed. If not, then you might have some other variant of some antivirus software in your system. If you don’t have any yet…. GET ONE.

Now the question often arises…is this so called “Antivirus” actually working? Sure, I trust my favorite Make It Work tech but sometimes it just gets me to bed that much quicker knowing that I also know that it’s working.

Fortunately, there is a standardized system that most legitimate antivirus software developers conform to and it is called the EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File.

For those of you who are like me and have this slight OCD ( Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) need-to-alway-know-what-acronyms-stand-for symptom, EICAR is short for: European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research.

This test file allows you to test your antivirus to see if it’s working without actually introducing a virus on your system. What it will do is test your real-time scanner component of your AV (antivirus) so that you can see if your AV software will stop a virus on time before it infects your computer.

Here’s how you can create this test file:

1. Open notepad.exe in your windows accessories folder.

2. Copy and paste the following text:

X5O!P%@AP[4PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

***NOTE*** Though unseen, there is a space needed after the asterisk above, so make sure it’s there, or this test will not work!

3. Save the notepad file as EICAR.COM (Make sure you change the file type in notepad to All Files so that it doesn’t append a .txt after EICAR.COM)

At this point, if your AV is real-time scanner is working, an alert should have gone off already. If not…you should definitely take a second look at your antivirus software and/or its settings.

And there it is! Happy testing and good luck!

—-

If you enjoy learning about new trending tech topics, gadgets, toys, and other digital creative fun stuff, you won’t want to miss out on our monthly Stress-Free Digital Lifestyle Newsletter!

We cover Tech Tips & Tricks, Creative Software, Important Security Updates, and the tech news stories you want to know about.

It’s FUN, it’s FREE, and it takes less than 10 seconds to sign up. Now that’s fast!

Share & Enjoy

•