Test to See if Your Antivirus Software Works (Safe)

By Rich on February 28, 2008 (71 Comments)

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*

Open Notepad and paste the above line into it.
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.)
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!”).

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

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Comments

Tim R

Nice, mine’s working!
Tim R

Nice, mine’s working!
Tim R

Nice, mine’s working!
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Niiiiiiiice!!! I could scare some people wit this
__o00o___C00D___o00o

Niiiiiiiice!!! I could scare some people wit this
__o00o___C00D___o00o

Niiiiiiiice!!! I could scare some people wit this
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Dan

Nice post man. I love this site. Good job!
Dan

Nice post man. I love this site. Good job!
Dan

Nice post man. I love this site. Good job!
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J.C.

Maybe I missed it but you forgot to mention to save as .exe
or at least mine didn’t detect it until I did and that isn’t something I expect most folks to know.

Love the site – great work!
http://aldoushuxleyscat.stumbleupon.com/ J.C.

Maybe I missed it but you forgot to mention to save as .exe
or at least mine didn’t detect it until I did and that isn’t something I expect most folks to know.

Love the site – great work!
http://aldoushuxleyscat.stumbleupon.com/ J.C.

Maybe I missed it but you forgot to mention to save as .exe
or at least mine didn’t detect it until I did and that isn’t something I expect most folks to know.

Love the site – great work!
Rich

Thanks for the tip J.C. Try saving it as a txt/doc/rtf … or anything for that matter, and it will still catch it — which is good news for us!
Rich

Thanks for the tip J.C. Try saving it as a txt/doc/rtf … or anything for that matter, and it will still catch it — which is good news for us!
Rich

Thanks for the tip J.C. Try saving it as a txt/doc/rtf … or anything for that matter, and it will still catch it — which is good news for us!
Angad

Yup, It Works with my Norton Antivirus 2008 too!
Angad

Yup, It Works with my Norton Antivirus 2008 too!
Angad

Yup, It Works with my Norton Antivirus 2008 too!
[AnubiS]

Works perfectly with Avast 4.8. thanks for the tip.
[AnubiS]

Works perfectly with Avast 4.8. thanks for the tip.
[AnubiS]

Works perfectly with Avast 4.8. thanks for the tip.
Michael D

Tested on AVG and it works!
Michael D

Tested on AVG and it works!
Michael D

Tested on AVG and it works!
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Bernadette Larson

It works with AVG8.0
Bernadette Larson

It works with AVG8.0
Bernadette Larson

It works with AVG8.0
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Good Layout and Design. I like your blog. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. . :) :) :)
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Good Layout and Design. I like your blog. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. . :) :) :)
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Good Layout and Design. I like your blog. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. . :) :) :)
Ronak Agrawal

tested and works well….
Ronak Agrawal

tested and works well….
Ronak Agrawal

tested and works well….
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ken

avast won’t catch it but nod32 security suite did
ken

avast won’t catch it but nod32 security suite did

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