How to Check Your Antivirus is Working?

Here is a common method to determine if your antivirus program is working properly or not. Some of you may know it already, but for the beginner (noobs) this can be informative.



► Open Notepad and copy/paste the Code given below.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

► The text should be in one horizontal line.

► Then save file as "checkantivirus.com" including quotation-marks.

► After some seconds saving this file, your Anti-Virus should notify you with the message that this file is infected with a virus asking permission for its deletion/clean.

► This file is secure and it’s not going to infect your computer in any way. It is a standard text developed by the European Institute for Computer Anti-virus Research (EICAR). Every Anti-Virus is programmed to load this file as a virus.

► If your Anti-Virus did not detect this file as a virus, a program will appear as DOS window with this text EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE.

► If this happens then you should probably find a better Anti-Virus. It means that your PC might already be infected with viruses and your current Anti-Virus does not recognize them.