i know it's stupid but it detects them but doesent do anything with them. is there something i have to do to get it too dispose of the viruses?

You wrote:

"is there something i have to do to get it too dispose of the viruses?"

ClamWin doesn't automatically clean viruses. You can configure ClamWin's General Preferences to automatically remove infected files, but that is not a good thing in the case of false positives. What you should do is to configure the ClamWin general preferences to Move Infected Files To Quarantine Folder (which is normally located on your computer at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\.clamwin\quarantine). Then check your scan logs and/or look in your quarantine folder after a scan. If anything has been placed there, you can delete it yourself. Before doing this, however, I like to verify that a file really contains a virus. You can upload a file for free at https://www.virustotal.com/en/virustotalf.html, and they will check it for you with about 30 scanners, including ClamWin and give you a report when finished. If a couple of other scanners find a virus, it's probably the real thing. If ClamWin is the only scanner finding a virus, it may be a false positive.

Regards,

This may seem like an idiotic question but how do you scan a folder once it's been quarintined and how do you determine whether or not i has a virus? Please help

Hello:

The General Preferences tab in ClamWin will tell you where the quarantine folder is. On a Windows XP machine, the default quarantine folder is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\.clamwin\quarantine.

If ClamWin finds a virus and puts it in quarantine, to verify if it is a virus and not a false positive, go to the VirusTotal Web site I previously mentioned. At the top of the VirusTotal screen, you will see a Select File box and a Browse box to the right of the Select File box. Click on the Browse. Then Click on the arrow in the Look In box to open up your compter's directory. Select C to open up the hard drive. Then select Documents and Settings. Select All Users. Select ClamWin. Select Quarantine to open up the Quarantine folder. Then select the file. After that, you will be back at the VirusTotal Web page. Select Send to send the quarantined file to VirusTotal for checking with 30 or so scanners. You may have to wait for a while until VirusTotal finishes checking what other people have already sent in for checking. After a while you will get a report on screen as to what all the scanners found. You can print this out if you want.

If no other scanner besides ClamWin found a virus, it is probably a false positive, and you can Restore it on your computer to wherever ClamWin found it. If one or more other scanners found a virus, then it is probably a real virus, and you should Delete it from your Quarantine folder.

If it was a false positive, before restoring the file, you should send it to ClamAV so they can update their virus signature database to exclude it. The ClamAV Web page for this is at https://cgi.clamav.net/sendvirus.cgi. Just follow the instructions, and be sure to indicate it is a false positive.

Regards,

Thank you very much I appreciate your help

I need an honset opion here from people who know about computers. Clam Win said I had an infected file and when I took it to virustotal it did a scan and only 3 places determined it had a virus. That was Clam Win, Bit defender and Ikarus. Should I report this as a false negative or should I consider deleting this file. I mean 3 outta how many that were on there isn't much but it is something.

My opinion for what it's worth: it is probably some kind of malware if more than one scanner finds something. Bit Defender is one of the better antivirus programs, not the best--but in the top 5 or 6. What you have is probably adware/spyware and not a "virus." Some of the antivirus software companies don't try to identify spyware/adware, and a few of them don't have the resources to identify many trojans. This is changing, however--the AV companies now are starting to realize that malware is malware--no matter if it's a virus, adware, spyware, or whatever, and they had better start working on identifying all malware--rather than some narrow definition of a "virus."

It's good to use one full-time resident scanner and another scanner as an on-demand "backup." One scanner may find something that the other doesn't. However, don't use more than one resident scanner because multiple resident scanners will use too much of your computer resources--they will wind up scanning each other as they open files.

Regards,

So I should git rid of it. I do't understand the difference between Spy ware and Malware. It's all foreign to me. I'm still learning. Thanks for all your help on this post and previous one's Hope your days are good.

Malware is anything that is placed on your computer without your consent. This covers a broad category of items--including viruses, adware, spyware, trojans, keyloggers, dialers, and God knows what else. Adware consists of programs that target you for advertisments on the Internet. At the worst, they can "hijack" your Internet Explorer Web browser and send you to Web sites that you don't want to go to. Spyware consists of programs that keep track of Web sites you visit, passwords you use, bank accounts you access online, etc. At the worst, spyware can send this information to criminals that use it to steal your identity/money by using this information.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

It's all alot clearer now thanks alot. I'll be posting more if I get more questions so I'll talk to you later:) Thanks again for all your help