Lists of frequently asked questions

Dr.Web Scanner can detect viruses in some mailboxes, but SpIDer Mail has a number of advantages:

• Not all popular mailbox formats are supported by Dr.Web Scanner, and if you use SpIDer Mail, infected emails do not even reach mailboxes;
• Dr.Web Scanner scans mailboxes, but only at the user's request or on a schedule, and not while a mail client is retrieving emails; and this action is very resource consuming and takes a considerable amount of time.

Thus, when all the Dr.Web components are configured with their default settings, SpIDer Mail is the first to detect viruses and prevent them and suspicious objects spread via email from reaching your computer. Its operation is highly advantageous in terms of computing resources; the remaining components don’t need to be used to scan email files.

There are several ways to start the scanner.

• On the desktop, find the icon with the spider on a green background — Dr.Web Scanner. Double-click the scanner to run it.
• Open the Dr.Web menu (right-click on the Dr.Web icon in the system tray) and select Security Center. Next, select Files and Network, and then Scanner. Select the desired scanning mode: express, full, or custom.
• To scan a specific object (file or folder), right-click on it. In the context menu, select Scan with Dr.Web (the icon with the black spider on a grey background). The Scanner will start immediately, and the file will be scanned.

SpIDer Mail will scan both incoming and outgoing mail on your computer, regardless of which mail client you use.

The Move action for suspicious and incurable objects means the file is moved to a special quarantine folder. After having been moved, the file loses its extension. This means the virus has literally been disarmed and rendered non-operational and, therefore, harmless. Later, you can open the Quarantine Manager (Security Center → Tools → Quarantine Manager) and delete the files if you do not need them.

The Dr.Web anti-virus is a set of programs (modules), each of which is responsible for protecting its own section of your computer. Removing (making unavailable) or disabling at least one component greatly reduces the overall reliability of the anti-virus protection, so we strongly advise you not to disable any of its modules unless absolutely necessary.

The Automatic Updating Utility and the Scheduler included in the comprehensive anti-virus are subsidiary programs.

To answer this question, you need to understand the difference between an object infected by viruses and malicious software.

Typically, a virus adds (appends its code) to an infected file so it incorporates its own code and the virus's code. Together, they represent a virus-infected file. Most of these files can be cured (and are cured) by Dr.Web anti-virus. Here we are speaking about curing files of viruses rather than curing viruses.

Malicious software in itself operates as a separate computer program, so it cannot be cured but only removed. In some cases, we can speak about curing a system (but not malicious software). This includes removing the detected threat and restoring the compromised objects.