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Anti-virus Software

• About Anti-virus software
• How to Configure Daily Updates
• How to Use Live Update
• How to Scan
• What to do if your PC gets infected

About

Norton Antivirus (NAV) and Symantec AntiVirus (SAV) are the supported antivirus applications by the University of Connecticut due to their reliability and compatibility with university systems.

Law School faculty and staff should already have Norton Antivirus (NAV) or Symantec AntiVirus (SAV) installed and running on their PCs.

To confirm that NAV or SAV is running on your machine, look for this icon: in your system tray. (The system tray is the rectangular area at the bottom, right-hand corner of the screen, where the clock is.)

How to Configure Daily Updates

It is important that your antivirus software update itself against new viruses automatically every day.

Double-click the tray icon to open the main application window, or right-click on it and select "Open Symantec AntiVirus..."

Go to "File" > "Schedule Updates...", click the "Schedule..." button, and select the "Daily" radio button. Pick a time early in the day when the computer will be turned on. Click "OK" twice to return the the main Symantec Antivirus window.

Your computer will now protect itself against new viruses every day. If you are worried about a new virus you may have heard about run Live Update to make sure you are protected against it.

How to Use Live Update

Double-click on the tray icon to open the main application window, or right-click on it and select "Open Symantec AntiVirus..."

Now press the button titled "Live Update" in the lower right-hand corner of the application window. Click "Next >" all the way through the Live Update process, and it will download and install the latest virus definitions.

When it is done with Live Update it should display a new date next to the Live Update button. If that date is more than a few days old, run Live Update again to be sure you have have the latest update. If it says "Update not Necessary" you know you have the latest virus definitions that are available.

It is strongly recommended that you configure Symantec Antivirus to automatically update its virus definitions every day. See above for more details.

How to Scan

If you think you may have gotten a virus, or if your computer is acting strangely, it is a good idea to scan it completely for viruses.  To do this, first open the application by double-clicking on the small gold shield in the system tray.  Then select  "Scan Computer" in the left-hand pane (under "Scan").

Now select each drive you want to scan by clicking once in the small box next to the drive icon.  Most computers will have one or two hard drives ("Local Disk")  to scan, usually called "C:" and "D:".  You do not need to scan any CD or network drives, which are usually listed after your hard drives.  Selecting all drives that are after the floppy drive icon and before the CD drive icon works best for most computers.

Once your have selected the drives you want to scan, click the "Scan" button in the lower-left corner.  This will take a long time, and it is important to let it scan completely.  Once it is finished it will display a summary of what it did and what it found.

It is strongly recommended that you do a full system scan anytime you think you may have come in contact with a virus, or once per month even if you think you have not been infected.

What to Do if Your PC Gets Infected

Symantec AntiVirus is very good at intercepting any viruses that may try to infect your computer. If you do get a message saying it has found a virus, or it detects a virus after a system scan, do not panic! It will either clean the file for you, or quarantine the file if it is unable to clean it. It will never spread the virus or allow it to infect other files, and there is no danger in reading the alert it pops up.

If you have any questions about what to do after Norton AntiVirus finds, cleans, or quarantines a virus for you, contact the Help Desk.