How Often Should One Scan The Computer Using Antivirus And Antispyware Programs?

January 6th, 2010 | by Frenday |

I use the free addition of AVG Anti-virus and Spydoctor. Usually in the instructions for all the anti-malware programs its given that you should scan the computer regularly using them. So how often does regularly means? I usually end up scanning everyday or the other day. Can scanning a lot have any affect on my hard drive or other components?

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  1. 8 Responses to “How Often Should One Scan The Computer Using Antivirus And Antispyware Programs?”

  2. By Gary on Jan 6, 2010 | Reply

    Most if not all anti-virus apps can be set to update & scan automaticly. I have mine run every nite because I leave it on to catch updates–Windows, ZoneAlarm, etc
    The anti-spyware apps I run 5-6 times a month. This because of the number of nasties that they typically find. If I happen to go to a number of new, or suspect, or porn sites, I run it more often, because it will get more stuff from those.
    The wear on the computer is negligible, it’s more about the time involved
    .

  3. By ? on Jan 6, 2010 | Reply

    I have mine set for once a week, depending on how much you use your computer I’d say once a week is good enough.

  4. By Maxy c on Jan 6, 2010 | Reply

    not very often…certainly no more than 1 time a week. maybe twice if you downloaded something your not sure of.
    :-) hope i helped

  5. By TravisO on Jan 6, 2010 | Reply

    The true answer is never… once you install and update to the newest definitions, run a full scan. But then you never need to scan again because your AV scans a file everytime you: read, write or download. Therefore no virus can ever sneak by.
    Running additional scans is a waste of time.

  6. By ELfaGeek on Jan 6, 2010 | Reply

    If your security tools find “Nasties” every day or two, do it EVERY day, faithfully. Better safe than sorry.
    No, it won’t hurt your hardware, but it WILL trash Windows, eventually.

  7. By triton on Jan 6, 2010 | Reply

    2 or 3 times a week if you don’t want to bother doing it manually you can schedule it tell it to e-mail you the
    latest scan status report.

  8. By Sri Lankan boy on Jan 6, 2010 | Reply

    you only need to scan about every week

  9. By get back with girlfriend on Jan 6, 2010 | Reply

    No more than once a week, you can leave it longer if you dont do much with it as theres less chance of anything bad being on your computer. Your resident protection should stop new threats anyway as they happen but just keep an eye on how your computer is acting and keep your software up to date.

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