Scan tasks

September 6, 2023

ID 58390

File Anti-Virus and Safe Browsing provide real-time computer protection, but we also recommend that you regularly scan your computer for viruses and other computer security threats. Computer scanning is necessary to prevent the spread of malware that has not been detected by the protection components.

The Kaspersky application contains the following built-in scan tasks:

  • Full Scan

    A virus scan of the computer's memory, startup objects, and all internal disks.

  • Quick Scan

    A virus scan of only critical areas of the computer: memory, startup objects, and system folders.

  • Custom Scan

    A virus scan of a specified object (file, folder, internal disk, or removable disk).

  • External Disk Scan

    A virus scan of external disks that is performed when an external disk is connected to the computer.

When the application performs a scan task, malicious objects are recognized through signature analysis. In addition to signature analysis, the Kaspersky application uses heuristic analysis and other scanning technologies.

Start Full Scan and Quick Scan tasks

You can also run a Full Scan or Quick Scan task on My Kaspersky. For more information about running a computer scan on My Kaspersky, see the My Kaspersky help.

Start a Custom Scan task

Stop a scan task

You can schedule a Full Scan or Quick Scan task.

Schedule a scan task from the Scan window

Schedule a scan task from the Settings window

When an external disk is connected to the computer, the Kaspersky application can automatically start scanning the disk, prompt to scan, or do nothing. You can select one of the options in the settings of the External Disk Scan task.

Select the action the Kaspersky application performs when an external disk is connected to the computer

The Full Scan and Quick Scan tasks already contain scan scopes. While performing the Full Scan task, the Kaspersky application scans the computer's memory, startup objects, and all internal disks. While performing the Quick Scan task, the application scans computer memory, startup objects, and system folders. You can change the scan scope of the Quick Scan task.

Note: You can skip scanning of the read-only system volume to significantly reduce scanning time. By default, the application does not scan the read-only system volume when performing a Quick Scan task and does scan it when performing a Full Scan task.

Enable/disable scanning of the read-only system volume

Add/remove a file or folder to/from the Quick Scan task scan scope

Add an object on the default Quick Scan list to the Quick Scan task scan scope

Disable protection of an object in the Quick Scan task scan scope

If a threat is detected in a file, the application displays a notification and performs the specified action on the object. You can modify the action to perform when an object is detected.

Select the action that the Kaspersky application performs after detecting infected files

Before attempting to disinfect or delete an infected file, the Kaspersky application saves a backup copy for subsequent restoration or disinfection. A file copy appears in Quarantine. You can try to disinfect this file later by using updated anti-virus databases.

Information about the results of scan tasks and all detected objects is logged in a report.

Note: If any errors occur while running a virus scan task, start the task again. If the new attempt to run the scan also results in an error, contact Kaspersky Customer Service.

View a scan task report

Information about the progress of each running scan task (percent complete and time remaining) is displayed in the Scan window.

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