NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, March 2004
Get Out a Clean Sheet of Paper
Use this quick trick to test your AV software
by Walter Ivey,
Special PIBMUG Correspondent

rabbit@netdoor.com
(click to email author)


When I reached the 7th Grade at Kate Griffin Junior High School in Meridian, I had a Civics teacher that had a favorite “thing.” She announced as soon as the students filed into her room—"Get out a clean sheet of paper!"

That’s what I’m going to ask you to do to check your anti-virus software.

Create a test File
So you have installed Norton Anti-Virus or McAfee’s VirusScan on your computer and you have made certain that your virus definitions database contains the very latest releases. You also have a firewall and you have your browser set to protect you from unwanted threats when you surf the Internet. Good–that is the preferred method to protect yourself from viral infections and mass-mailing worms. A great defense against whatever comes your way. But how do you check to see if it works?

That is the subject of this white paper, and here are the steps you need to take to create a standard text file that your anti-virus software mistakes for a virus because this string of characters resembles a virus definition file. Below is the text.

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

Instead of copying it by hand, download it as a text file, one with the character string already in it. The file’s at: http://snurl.com/av_test. Save the file to your Windows Desktop.

Close all open frames and return to your Windows Desktop. Drag and drop the file to the My Documents Folder. Open the My Documents Folder and click on the file (attempt to drag it back to your Windows Desktop). Your Anti-Virus Software should spring into action. Since I have McAfee VirusScan on my computer, lots of warnings are displayed on my screen. After you have read the report that your Anti-Virus software displayed on your screen, you can safely copy the test file to a floppy disk or delete it from your computer.

Copyright © 2003 by Walter Ivey .Reproduced with permission. Walter Ivey is a 72 year old retired military officer who is a long time PC user. Walter writes technical white papers which he distributes to ex-military, close friends, and the user group community. Reach Walter at rabbit@netdoor.com. Article reproduction coordinated by Steve Bass, author of PC Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Your Personal Computer, O’Reilly Press. http://snurl.com/annoyances

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