Windows Tools, Help & Guides

Most of you probably have anti-virus software on your computer. If you do, good job; however, are you sure it works? Let’s do a quick test.

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

1. Open Notepad and paste the above line into it.

   

2. Save the file and real time protection should immediately find the file. (If you have real time protection turned off, you will need to scan the file.)

   

3. If this doesn’t work for you, make sure your virus checker is up to date and working.

This file is a dummy virus, which simulates a virus. This string is provided by EICAR for distribution as the “EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File”, The file is a legitimate DOS program, and produces sensible results when run (it prints the message “EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!”).