I have never gotten a computer virus in my 30ish years of using a PC. I’ve purposely downloaded viruses to see if the damn scanners detect them, in addition to decompiling them to see how they work. I don’t use a virus scanner now; but then, I take pride in knowing what’s on my machine and what’s safe to download. I do sometimes manually scan something.
All major virus scanner manufacturers have adopted a simple test to see if you scanner works. Here’s what you have to do:
- Create a text file and enter the following:
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*
- Save the file as test.com or test.exe… some file extension that your scanner will scan immediately. You should see a notice that a virus was detected in that file when you save it. The file won’t run: its contents is just to test virus scanners.
Yeah, maybe your scanner is developed to ONLY detect that pseudo-virus, but that’s highly unlikely. I don’t know if the test works on operating systems other than Windows.
I created an anti-virus test file for you to download. Just change its file extension from “txt” to “com” or “exe” to test.
I thought only Mickey Mouse VB coders wrote viruses, hence so many viruses on the PC.
There are so many viruses on PCs because there are so many dumb users.
virus? Is that something you get when you do not wash your hands before and after you use your keyboard? Is it contagious?
from one of the “dumb users”