McAfee DR SOLOMON S ANTI-VIRUS 8.5 User Manual page 144

Using the WinGuard Scanner
3. Turn on heuristic scanning. Click Advanced to open the Advanced Scan
144 Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus
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.
NOTE: When the Download 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
scanned" on page
Settings dialog box (Figure
Figure 4-27. Advanced Scan Settings dialog box
Heuristic scanning technology enables the Download Scan module to
recognize new viruses based on their resemblance to similar viruses that
the module already knows. To do this, the module looks for certain
"virus-like" characteristics in the files you've asked it to scan. The
presence of a sufficient number of these characteristics in a file leads the
module to identify the file as potentially infected with a new or
previously unidentified virus.
Because the Download Scan module looks simultaneously for file
characteristics that rule out the possibility of virus infection, it will rarely
give you a false indication of a virus infection. Therefore, unless you
know that the file does not contain a virus, you should treat "potential"
infections with the same caution you would confirmed infections.
The Download Scan module starts out without any heuristic scan options
active. To activate heuristics scanning, follow these substeps:
a. Select the Enable heuristics scanning checkbox. The remaining
options in the dialog box activate.
b. Select the types of heuristics scanning you want the Download Scan
module to use. Your choices are:
"Current list of compressed files
318.
4-11).