Click the Start Scan button on the left of Spyware Doctor's screen, to go to the System Scan screen.
Selecting the scan type
There are three different scan types available in Spyware Doctor. Select the one you require by selecting the appropriate radio button on the System Scan screen:
- Quick Scan - This function scans system folders and other locations likely to contain malware on your computer.
- Full System Scan - This option is useful for a complete, in-depth scan of your system. This function scans all fixed drives on your computer. Note: more time is required for this scan to complete.
- Custom Scan - This option is useful for more advanced users, and allows specific scan tools to be selected for use in a scan. For example, you can selectively scan for malicious ActiveX objects or actively running processes only.
Note: When you run Spyware Doctor for the first time, it is highly recommended that you conduct a Full System Scan.
Scan Tools
The following is a list of current scan tools in Spyware Doctor. You can select any combination of these when you select Custom Scan.
- General Scanner - This is a fast scanner that detects and removes sophisticated malware which can be difficult to detect using the other scanners. It is recommended that you include this scanner in all Custom Scans.
- Process Scanner - This tool scans all processes currently running on your system and detects those associated with malware infections. It is highly recommended that you include the Process Scanner in your Custom Scans.
- Startup Scanner - This tool scans the registry and Windows startup files for references to malicious programs that run at startup, and detects malicious files in Windows startup locations.
- Registry Scanner - This is a fast scanner that analyzes the Windows Registry for traces of known malware.
- Hosts File Scanner - Your Windows Hosts file contains a list of IP addresses mapped to host names (that is, web site addresses). Some types of malware can alter this file, resulting in Internet Explorer redirecting you to other malicious sites. This tool scans the Windows Hosts file for any mappings that may have been altered as a consequence of malware activities.
- Browser Defaults, Favorites and ZoneMap Scanner - This scanner checks to see if your browser home page or favorites has been altered by malware present on your computer. This scanner also examines your Internet Properties security settings to determine if malware has incorporated any malicious sites into your Windows Trusted Sites list.
- ActiveX Scanner - Browser Scanner checks your Internet Explorer browser and Windows Explorer for the presence of browser hijackers and other malicious ActiveX controls. This tool disables these hijackers, although for complete hijacker removal, you may need to use this scanner in combination with the Disk Scanner.
- Browser Activity Scanner - This scanner finds tracking cookies on your system which are likely to have been placed there by browsing the Internet. This scanner can also find malicious Temporary Internet Files in the Temporary Internet Folder, since malicious web sites often use this location as a staging area for installing and launching malware.
- Disk Scanner - This scanner scans your file system for the presence of malware-related files. In a Custom Scan, you can select which disks and folders to scan, as well as excluding files based on a variety of exclusion criteria.
New tools may be added or modified periodically, via Smart Update.
Scanning and Scan Results screens
To commence scanning:
- Click the Start Scan button on the left of Spyware Doctor's screen and select the type of scan you wish to conduct.
- Click the Start Scan button beneath the scan selection radio buttons. It may take a few seconds for the scan to commence, then Spyware Doctor runs through each of the selected scan tools. You will see the name of the tool currently being used, the tool progress and the total progress.
- Alternatively, click the Scan Computer Now button, which commences an immediate Full System Scan by default. You can change the default action of this button to initiate a Quick Scan or Custom scan, through the Settings -> General Settings screen.
Upon scan completion, if infections are found, the Scan Results screen displays. If no infections were found, the Scan Results Summary screen displays. On the Scan Results screen, each infection is displayed with a colored bar (
) filled from left to right, depending on the level of risk assigned to it. To find out more about the criteria used to determine the risk level of an infection, click on the appropriate risk level:
To quarantine or remove all detected malware from your computer, click the Fix and Continue button. (All detected malware is selected for removal by default.)
Infections are either removed or quarantined, depending on the setting selected in the Settings -> General Settings screen. It is recommended that the Quarantine infections before removal check box remains selected on the General Settings screen, unless absolutely certain you will not need to restore the malware you intend to fix at a later time.
To quarantine specific malware items:
- Ensure the check boxes of the items to quarantine are selected.
- Right-click in the infections list and select Move to Quarantine and Remove.
The items are removed from your system and moved to the Quarantine List, where you may be able to restore them at a later point in time. The infections are not active when quarantined.
To remove specific malware items:
- Ensure the check boxes of the items to remove are selected.
- Right-click in the infections list and select Remove Only.
The items are removed from your system, and they will not appear in the Quarantine List.
To ignore malware detections:
You may want Spyware Doctor to ignore specific items detected in a scan, such that they will remain on your system and not be reported in subsequent scans. To do this, complete the following steps:
- Ensure the check boxes of the items that Spyware Doctor should ignore are selected.
- Right-click in the infections list and select Move Checked to Ignore List.
The items are moved to the Threat Ignore List, and they will not be reported in subsequent scans, until they are removed from this list.
In the list of infections found, the following actions reveal further information about individual infections:
- When any component of an infection is highlighted, a full description of the infection is displayed on the right (Details) section of the Scan Results screen. The Details section has the following functions:
- Hide and show details - click hide details to hide the Details section. When the Details section is hidden, click the set of dots at the top right-hand side of the Scan Results screen to reveal the Details sections again.
- Copy Description to Clipboard - right-click in the Details section and select Select All from the menu to select all text in this section. Select Deselect All from this menu to deselect all text in this section. Alternatively, use the mouse to select the required text from this section. When the required text is selected, select Copy Description to Clipboard to copy the selected text to the clipboard.
- Save Description Into File - right-click in the Details section and select Save Description Into File to save the full description of the infection into a text file. A Save As dialog is displays and the text file is given the default name "report", which may be changed at this point.
- Learn More About This Threat - click Learn More About This Threat to display more information about the infection on PC Tools' online Infection Database at http://www.pctools.com/mrc/infections/.
- Right-click any component of threat and select Learn More About This Threat... from the resulting pop-up menu to display more information about the infection on PC Tools' online Infection Database at http://www.pctools.com/mrc/infections/.
- Click the '+' symbols next to and within individual threats to reveal further details about their specific components.
Note: Clicking (click to select which infections should be fixed) displays the same pop-up menu and functions that appear when right-clicking within the infections list.
Scan Results summary screen
If no infections were found in the scan, or after having modified the results list or clicked the Fix and Continue button, the Scan Results summary screen displays.
The Scan Results summary screen displays the following information:
- Total items scanned - the total number of items on your system such as files and registry entries which were scanned.
- Infections detected - the total number of infections that were detected in the scan. Each component of a threat is considered an individual infection.
- Infections ignored - the number of infections that were ignored in the scan as a consequence of being placed in the Threat Ignore List.
- Infections not removed - the number of infections that were not removed due to a reboot required by Spyware Doctor for complete removal of the infections. These instances are uncommon.
- Infections removed - the number of infections that were removed in the scan. This includes infections that were removed either with or without quarantining.
- Infections quarantined - the number of infections that were quarantined in the scan.
- Click View Log to reveal the complete log of the scan. The log also shows a summary of the Scan Tools used and the details of each infection component detected.
