View Full Version : How to check whether AV is actually working
Agapantha
2017-07-22, 20:50
I have Spybot+AV and it says internet protection is full and that it is being updated. I don't have live protection enabled because it slows down my system so much. But System Mechanic (iolo) gives me a warning that I don't have any real time anti-virus protection. Also a computer repair person told me I don't have any anti-virus running. He said there should be an icon in the lower right toolbar if it was running. How can I check to see whether Spybot AV is working?
Another issue is that it says it's being updated but when I click on update I get a lot of updates installed. Seems like if it was being updated I wouldn't be able to install more updates.
Hi, there. :)
This is an explanation of the update message:
https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/it-constantly-says-this-software-is-being-updated-in-the-start-center/
The paid edition should have an update scheduled when you logon by default, and repeats every five minutes indefinitely. There are multiple updates when using Spybot + AV editions:
https://www.safer-networking.org/updating/
I suppose it would be possible to catch one or two updates by updating manually, but if there are always a lot of updates then I think you ought to contact Support. Perhaps there might be an issue with the scheduled task, or something like that:
https://www.safer-networking.org/support/ticket/technical/
Live Protection is the real-time protection part of Spybot. If it isn't enabled at all, then System Mechanic and the computer repair person are correct, you do not currently have any real-time protection on:
https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/what-is-live-protection/
On a side note, if your Live Protection shows as Partial, then this is what that means(just in case that is what you have):
https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/what-is-live-protection-partial/
Without Live Protection on, that means Spybot will only look for viruses (and malware) when you start a Spybot system scan yourself, and will not scan for them in the background. Spybot does use immunization to help protect you, among other things. However, it would be best if you had some form of real-time protection. In a case where Live Protection is disabled, then it wouldn't use up too many resources, etc if you had another antivirus with real-time protection enabled, as with Live Protection off Spybot wouldn't be constantly scanning in the background along with another real-time protection component. One of the issues with using two antiviruses is that if they both have real-time protection scanning in the background it uses up resources. With one real-time protection program disabled, that's not really a problem. So if you prefer to keep Live Protection disabled, you might want to choose another antivirus with real-time protection and install it.
If you change your mind and would like to re-enable Live Protection, this article says how to:
https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/how-do-i-turn-on-live-protection/
If your computer has Windows Defender on it, and you would like to use it's real-time protection, this page shows how to do that:
https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/spybot-defender-windows-10/
Agapantha
2017-07-23, 19:55
This was very helpful. I tried manually updating today and got a long list of updates again so I put in a ticket. I also enabled live protection again. Thanks very much.
Hi, there. :)
This is an explanation of the update message:
https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/it-constantly-says-this-software-is-being-updated-in-the-start-center/
The paid edition should have an update scheduled when you logon by default, and repeats every five minutes indefinitely. There are multiple updates when using Spybot + AV editions:
https://www.safer-networking.org/updating/
I suppose it would be possible to catch one or two updates by updating manually, but if there are always a lot of updates then I think you ought to contact Support. Perhaps there might be an issue with the scheduled task, or something like that:
https://www.safer-networking.org/support/ticket/technical/
Live Protection is the real-time protection part of Spybot. If it isn't enabled at all, then System Mechanic and the computer repair person are correct, you do not currently have any real-time protection on:
https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/what-is-live-protection/
On a side note, if your Live Protection shows as Partial, then this is what that means(just in case that is what you have):
https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/what-is-live-protection-partial/
Without Live Protection on, that means Spybot will only look for viruses (and malware) when you start a Spybot system scan yourself, and will not scan for them in the background. Spybot does use immunization to help protect you, among other things. However, it would be best if you had some form of real-time protection. In a case where Live Protection is disabled, then it wouldn't use up too many resources, etc if you had another antivirus with real-time protection enabled, as with Live Protection off Spybot wouldn't be constantly scanning in the background along with another real-time protection component. One of the issues with using two antiviruses is that if they both have real-time protection scanning in the background it uses up resources. With one real-time protection program disabled, that's not really a problem. So if you prefer to keep Live Protection disabled, you might want to choose another antivirus with real-time protection and install it.
If you change your mind and would like to re-enable Live Protection, this article says how to:
https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/how-do-i-turn-on-live-protection/
If your computer has Windows Defender on it, and you would like to use it's real-time protection, this page shows how to do that:
https://www.safer-networking.org/faq/spybot-defender-windows-10/