Test Your Anti-virus Program

You have an anti-virus program. How can you test that it works?

This is a good question and it is wise to familiarize yourself with how your anti-virus software behaves when it detects a virus, before it really happens. One quick way to do this is to use the EICAR Anti-Virus Test File. This is a test file that will cause no damage to your system and still allow you to test if anti-virus tool is awake.


Here are some steps:

1. Open a text editor (e.g. Notepad)

2. Enter the following text in it:

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

3. Save the file as EICAR.COM on your desktop.

4. Open DOS and try to execute this .COM file (or simply double-click the file on Desktop)

If your anti-virus software is working properly, it will warn you that a virus has been detected when you attempt to run the .COM file.

To be double-sure, zip this file, and then try double-clicking on the ZIP file to see if your AV tool recognized viruses inside ZIP files. You can also send this file to yourself as an attachment, just to verify if your AV tool has command of email cleanliness.