Anti-virus scans for other user accounts

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Guest

When I run anti-virus scans in the adminitrator account (like McAfee, Spybot,
Ad-Aware), will it scan the other user accounts that I created? Or do I have
to open up each user account and run a new scan in each one?
 
Hello,

in general, as far as I know, you have the option to do a full system scan. This will search all accounts created for harmful files.

Greetings,
P. Di Stolfo
 
For virus scanners like McAfee, it is generally sufficient to run it from on
administrator account. For spyware scanners like Spybot and Ad-Aware, it is
best to run them on all accounts. This is absolutely necessary if you know
a machine is heavily infected. It's less critical if you're running them
for purely routine maintenance. Virus scanning mainly checks files against
a database of signatures of known infection items. Spyware checking also
searches the registry, among other things. It cannot check individual user
hives unless run under each user.
 
If I browse the internet using user A's account, can my computer get a virus
or spyware under user B's account?
 
In short Yes, but details can get complicated. Some types malware
parasites are more likely than others to cause global infection, user rights
at the time (admin/limited) might affect this, etc.
 
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