> I'm using windows vista home premium edition and I just downloaded clamwin anti virus. My question is, what is the best option as far as prefernces go to use clamwin? should I choose report only, remove virus automatcally once detected(use carefully)option, or simply quarantine the files after the virus is found? I don't know much about viruses and I would like to use the automatic removal option, but why do you say use carefully? Thanks for your help.

You should be careful of using the Remove option in case of a "false positive," in which ClamWin classifies a file as containing a virus when it really doesn't. This happens sometimes, and in such cases you don't want to remove a good file/program. ClamWin relies strictly on a database of virus signatures, so it doesn't have very many false positives. Many other antivirus programs use "heuristics" in which they "guess" there is a virus based on the appearance or behavior of a file, and they can be subject to more false positives. Therefore, it's probably best to use either the Quarantine or Notify options and forget removal. I use Notify, and let me explain why below.

I originally used the Quarantine option until ClamWin thought an important Windows file on my computer contained a virus and put it in quarantine. After that, I was unable to even acces my computer. Luckily my Dell had a Norton Ghost snapshopt of the original setup, so I was able to restore it, but it took a few days until I was back like I had been. Since then, I have configured ClamWin to Notify me of any viruses. The scan report tells me the location of the virus, and I upload the file containing the virus to VirusTotal, which checks it against 30 virus scanners for free. If a couple of the other scanners also find a virus, I delete the file. If no other scanner finds a virus, I assume it was a false positive.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Which is the link to where I can upload my suspicious virus file to have them checked? and as far as updates, will clamwin update the definitions automatically or do I have to do it myself. Thanks again for your help.

The link for VirusTotal is https://www.virustotal.com/en/indexf.html. Don't put the ending period period in--it's just the end of my sentence.

You can download a file at VirusTotal that when installed allows you to automatically send a file on your computer to VirusTotal by right clicking your mouse and opening up the Send To option. To download it, click on the arrow at the end of the Virus Total Uploader new item.

ClamWin will update automatically from the Internet if you set Internet Updates to automatic. You choose the time period--hourly or daily, and you can also select for it to update when you boot up your computer.

Regards,