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Automatic vs. On-Demand
| To be sure that your
anti-virus program is being used, you might want to
have it operate automatically. Such programs protect the
system without requiring you to take any explicit action. This protection
can be accomplished by installing resident anti-virus programs when the
system is started and by running non-resident programs, either at startup
or periodically at a specified time.
Otherwise, you can run
the anti-virus program when you choose to or put it on
a task scheduler. This is running it on-demand.
If users have to remember to run an
anti-virus program periodically, experience has shown that they will
forget, increasing their risk of infecting their systems with a virus and
of spreading the virus to other systems. |
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Resident vs. Non-Resident
| Some
anti-virus software is memory resident and is
loaded as part of the machine's startup boot. By being
resident, it is always actively monitoring your system for viruses.
Resident programs have the advantage of
checking programs for infection every time you run
them.
They work continuously by
checking for boot viruses on start up, checking any disk as it is
accessed for boot viruses, checking any files accessed for file
viruses, and checking any files being loaded on the hard
drive.
One problem with memory resident programs is
that unless they are carefully constructed, they can
cause delays in program loading and execution.
Non-resident programs
have the advantage of looking for and dealing with
viruses on your entire system at one time. The
best anti-virus software package is one that utilizes
both memory resident and non-memory resident
strategies.
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