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Sophos Anti-Virus: how to enable full scan mode

Please note: this article contains information about products that have been retired. For information about setting up 'full' scans in the most recent versions of Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows, please refer to 'Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows: enabling extensive scan mode in version 4.5 and above'.

By default, Sophos Anti-Virus performs a 'Quick' scan which checks the areas of a file most likely to be infected by a virus. A 'Full' scan checks the whole file. This is much slower and is more likely to report a false positive since there is a small chance that some data in the file might match a virus identity. For most platforms, a 'Quick' scan should be used unless a virus alert or description indicates that a 'Full' scan is necessary.

To detect certain viruses you need to have full scanning enabled.

This document describes how to enable full scan mode for Sophos Anti-Virus in Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, NetWare, OpenVMS, and UNIX, and for SAV Interface and MailMonitor.

What to do

1. Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003
2. Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows 95/98/Me
3. Sophos Anti-Virus for NetWare
4. Sophos Anti-Virus for Macintosh
5. Sophos Anti-Virus for OpenVMS
6. Sophos Anti-Virus for UNIX
7. SAV Interface
8. MailMonitor

1. Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003

You must enable full scan separately for immediate, scheduled and on-access mode.

In Immediate mode:

A similar process is used to enable full scan for scheduled and on-access modes.

2. Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows 95/98/Me

You must enable full scan separately for immediate, scheduled and on-access mode.

In Immediate mode:

A similar process is used to enable full scan for scheduled and on-access modes.

3. Sophos Anti-Virus for NetWare

You must enable full scan separately for each mode.

In Immediate mode:

The method of setting scanning level is similar for each of the other modes.

4. Sophos Anti-Virus for Macintosh

Files are given a full scan by default.

5. Sophos Anti-Virus for OpenVMS

Files are given a full scan by default.

The /QU switch can be used to select 'quick mode' which will only report the 'outermost' virus in a file with multiple infections.

6. Sophos Anti-Virus for UNIX

Add the command-line parameter -f to enable scanning in full mode.

sweep -f

7. SAV Interface

With SAV Interface, full scan mode must always be enabled.

To ensure full scan is being used with SAV Interface on Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003:

SAV Interface for UNIX, see Sophos Anti-Virus for Unix.

SAV Interface for OpenVMS, see Sophos Anti-Virus for OpenVMS.

8. MailMonitor

With MailMonitor, full scan mode must always be enabled.

To ensure full scan is being used with MailMonitor on Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003:

MailMonitor on UNIX, see Sophos Anti-Virus for UNIX.

If you need more information or guidance, then please contact technical support.