a-squared Scanner - Custom Scan

With the custom scan you can configurate all scanner parameters:

Scan folders

In the list of the folders to scan all local hard disks are registered by default. You can add more folders to scan to the list with the button "Add folder".

Scan Objects

There you determine the scanner modules which shall be used. Available are:

• Scan memory for active Malware
  That activates the Memory-Scan which inspects all active programs with the Malware signatures.
   
• Scan for Spyware Traces
  a-squared Anti-Malware includes a list of traces which indicate Spyware. Thereunder are registry entries or known file paths which are used by Spyware by default. Registry entries marked as Trace.Registry.* does not hold danger by themselves but they can see to it that Spyware will be loaded with start of system automatically. File or index traces are announced as Trace.File.* or Trace.Directory.*. You should be careful with deletion of these traces because regular software possibly uses the same paths like Spyware. The use of the quarantine operation is recommended in that case.
   
• Scan for Tracking Cookies
  Cookies are small information files which the browser dons for making a website able to recognize you at a later visit. Cookies are not dangerous but they can be used to draw user profiles up and so to interfere your privacy. a-squared Anti-Malware detects Cookies of known websites which possibly don user profiles.
   
• Heuristic scan for unknown Malware
  Heuristics means an universal detection module which detects Malware without signatures. Heuristics are primarily used where there are a lot of variants of a Malware, i.e. Dialer or certain Spyware. A heuristic detection isn't of course as secure as a signature based one but it features extra protection from plenty of new and unknown Malware.

Scan Settings

• Alert Riskware that is often used by Malware
  a-squared Anti-Malware detects plenty of software tools which are not dangerous themselves but can be used by Malware with dangerous intent. Thereunder are remote administration tools, IRC clients and other machine-oriented tools. You can spot located Riskware in the format of Riskware.*.
   
• Scan in compressed archives (zip, rar, cab)
  In many cases Malware reaches the PC in archive files. While a Malware file is packed in an archive it is not dangerous. But as soon as it is unpacked and started it could be unsafe. So a-squared Anti-Malware scans the main archiv formats like zip, rar and cab and dozens of derived therefrom formats for Malware.
   
• Scan in NTFS Alternate Data Streams
  With the NTFS file system on Windows NT/2000/XP it is possible to store divers hidden data streams in one file. The scanner is also able to search for Malware in these Alternate Data Streams and to delete them cleanly.

Scansets

For not being due to configurate everything again before later scans all chosen options can be saved in so-called Scanset files. Scansets have the file extension .a2s. You can store an often used Scanset on your desktop for example and start the scan with just a double-click on the icon.