Trojan Scan Frequently Asked Questions

1. When I ran your Trojan scan it said that there were no infected files. But it also said that access to c:/system volume information was denied. This is where I believe I have a Trojan.

C:/system volume information is a special, protected system folder. Nothing, including anti-virus programs, can modify it.

All you have to do to get rid of this Trojan (which is not active by the way, but will be if you'll use the restore function of Windows) is to disable the restore Windows feature.

On Windows XP you can do this by right clicking on the "My Computer" icon then choose Properties, System Restore and check the box: "Turn off System Restore on all drives", hit apply, and restart the system. Your System Volume Information Folder should now be gone and the Trojan with it.

2. My computer keeps showing that your database hasn’t been updated for a long time. I found out that the scanner was being updated regularly. So how come the free online scanner on my computer cannot update? What can I do to correct this?

What you have to do is find the ActiveX component on your computer and delete it so the newest version of the TrojanScanner can be downloaded on your computer. The program gets downloaded in C:\temp\tdecntrl. To refresh it what you have to do is close Internet Explorer and delete the directory. Then reopen Internet Explorer and return to http://www.windowsecurity.com/trojanscan/ and you should be asked if you want to download the newest scanner.

3. I have a Trojan in my computer. I ran your Trojan scanner and it did not find it. Why?

A Trojan is a program that enters your computer undetected, giving the attacker who planted the Trojan unrestricted access to the data stored on your computer. A comprehensive and frequently updated database of known Trojans is a prerequisite for any good Trojan scanner. Our Trojan Scan has a comprehensive database which is updated with new Trojans on a weekly basis. Yet neither we nor anyone else can claim to have a Trojan database that includes every Trojan threat that exists. This means that every scanner available has the potential to miss certain (rare) Trojans, so our scanner may detect certain Trojans that other scanners do not and vice-versa. We tend to focus our efforts on Trojans that are unknown to other anti-virus/anti-Trojan scanners.

As mentioned, by using our Trojan Scan you would be able to scan for Trojans that other scanners may not detect and we therefore recommend using our scanner as a second line of defense. But the first line of defense must be for the user to exercise responsible habits on the Internet to prevent infections in the first place.

4. What does the 'bad request' message mean when the Trojan scan is complete?

Don’t worry about this, it doesn’t mean that your computer is infected. This is a small bug that we are still working on.

5. What does: 'C:\' recursive mean?

C:\ recursive means EVERYTHING under C:\ will be scanned. For example if you see 'C:\Windows\ recursive' than that would mean EVERYTHING under C:\Windows will be scanned but NOT above (so it will not scan C:\program files\ etc...).

6. During the free online scan the status bar at the bottom works but it stops before it reaches the end. Is the scan finished?

Yes the scan is finished. Once the scan is finished you will see the words:
Finished scan at <time>
Total number of files is <number>, number of infected files is <number>
Average files per second is <number>, average file size is <number>.

At this time WindowSecurity cannot offer any support for the Trojan Scan. Since it is a free service we also can’t offer assistance for any Trojans found on your system. If you have any problems that cannot be resolved try finding a solution on our Message Boards: http://www.security-forums.com/forum/