Checking that Sophos Anti-Virus is active on a workstation

This article describes how to check that on-access scanning is active on Windows 2000/XP/2003, Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT and Mac OS X computers running Sophos Anti-Virus.

What to do

At the computer you want to check, look for the shield icon in the system tray.

The appearance of the icon changes according to the status of Sophos Anti-Virus:

• When on-access scanning is active, a blue shield is displayed in the system tray.
• When on-access scanning is inactive, the shield is grey.

The shield icon gives you access to other features:

• Double-clicking the shield icon will cause Sophos Anti-Virus to update immediately.
• Hovering the cursor over the shield icon will give the time Sophos Anti-Virus last checked the Central Installation directory (CID), or other location, to see if new updates were available.
• Right-clicking the shield icon will enable you to launch the Sophos Anti-Virus program.

If you do not want to run on-access scanning on, for example, Microsoft Exchange servers, you must configure your servers and check that they are adequately protected.