Click on the Start Scan button on the left of Spyware Doctor's screen, to go to the Start Scan screen.
There are three different scan types available in Spyware Doctor. Select the one you require by clicking on the appropriate radio button on the Start Scan screen:
Quick Scan - This is the default startup scan. It scans system folders and other locations likely to contain malware on your computer.
Full System Scan - This is useful for a complete in-depth scan of your system. It scans all fixed drives on your computer. Note that you must allow more time for this scan to complete.
Custom Scan - If you are a more advanced user and know which scan tools you want to use, you may wish to use Custom Scan. For example, you may want to scan only tracking cookies on startup.
Note: When you run Spyware Doctor for the first time, it is highly recommended that you scan your PC using Full System Scan.
The following is the list of current scan tools in Spyware Doctor. You can select any combination of these when you select Custom Scan.
General Scanner - This scanner detects and removes sophisticated malware, which can be difficult to detect and remove using the other scanners. This is a fast scanner and it is recommended that you include it in all Custom Scans.
Process Scanner - This tool scans all processes that are 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.
LSP Scanner - This tool scans for malicious Layered Service Providers (LSP) on your system.
Startup Scanner - This scanner finds references to malicious programs that run at startup in the registry and Windows startup files, as well as malicious files in Windows startup locations.
Registry Scanner - This is a fast tool which scans your Windows Registry for traces of known malware.
Hosts File Scanner - Your Windows Hosts file contains a list of mappings of IP addresses to host names (that is, web site addresses). Some types of malware can alter this file, which can result in Internet Explorer redirecting you to other sites. This tool scans the Windows Hosts file for any mappings that may have been altered, which may result from malware activities.
Browser Defaults, Favorites and ZoneMap Scanner - This scanner checks to see if your browser home page or favorites have 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 will disable these hijackers, although for complete hijacker removal, you may need to use the disk scanner as well.
Browser Activity Scanner - This scanner finds tracking cookies on your system that are likely to have been placed there as a result of browsing the Internet. This scanner can also find potentially 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. When conducting 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.
To start scanning:
Click on the Start Scan button on the left and select the type of scan you wish to conduct.
Click on 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.
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, you can select one or more malware infections on which to perform an action. Each infection is displayed with a colored bar (
) that is 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:
Right-click in the Infections list and select "Select All" from the menu to select all infections for removal, or select all infections individually by selecting each infection's check box.
To remove the selected items, click the Fix and Continue button.
Infections are either removed or quarantined, depending on the setting selected in the Settings -> General Settings screen. It is recommended that you always select the "Quarantine items before removal" check box in Settings -> General Settings, unless you are absolutely sure you will not need to restore items that you had removed.
To quarantine specific malware items:
You may want to quarantine specific Malware items only. To do this, complete the following steps:
Select the check box of the required infection.
Right-click on the infection and select "Move to Quarantine and Remove".
The item is quarantined to the Quarantine List, where you may be able to restore it at a later point in time.
To remove specific malware items:
You may want to remove specific Malware items only. To do this, complete the following steps:
Select the check box of the required infection.
Right-click on the infection and select "Remove Only".
The item is removed from your system. Note that it will not appear in the Quarantine List.
To ignore malware detections:
You may want Spyware Doctor to ignore specific malware items, such that they remain on the system and are not reported in future scans. To do this, complete the following steps:
Select the check box of the required item.
Right-click on the item and select "Move Checked to Ignore List".
The item is moved to the Ignore List, and will not be reported in subsequent scans, unless it is removed from the Ignore List.
In the list of infections found, the following actions reveal further information about individual infections:
When 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 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 the infection - click "Learn More About This Threat" to display more information about the infection on PC Tools' online Infection Database.
Right-click the item 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.
Click on the "+" symbols next to individual infections to reveal further details on its specific components.
If no infections were found in the scan, or after having modified the results list and clicked the Fix and Continue button, the Scan Results summary screen displays. This screen shows a full summary of the scan process and your actions (how many items were removed/quarantined, failed to remove/quarantine, etc.).
On the Scan Results summary screen:
Click "View Log" to reveal the complete log of the scan. The log also shows a brief scan summary.
Click "Back to Scan Results" to view the Scan Results screen.
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