I have about fifty files that my two Virus programs (AVAST, AVG) and two anti spyware programs (Spybot Search and Destroy and Lavasoft) have quarantined, but not destroyed (and said they could not fix). Does this really protect your computer from the malicious code specifically Trojan Horses which I have? Also despite running all of these programs I have two Pop ups that keep coming back one from something called tribalfusion.com and the other from something called surfenhance.com. Why can’t I seem to free myself from these two particular adware programs?
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I believe Quarantine places them in a folder that the antivirus prog won’t let you access. But I don’t know why you’d want to quarantine them and not just delete them outright unless you want to submit them for analysis or something.
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As for the popups, make sure that you have the latest definition files. Also try Microsoft Antispyware. If all else fails, try searching for the popup’s names or URLs on Google and look for specific info.
The only program that I have which offered the “delete” option was the Spybot Search and Destroy. All the the quarantined files were “left over/missed” after I ran that program. My other concern about outright deletion is that some of the Trojan horses may have integrated themselves into vital system files which if deleted could cause major problems. About seven years ago I got something called a “Junkie Boot” virus and when I erased the infected files my system crashed. One of these days I will learn to do system backups.
I get the impression that viruses can sometimes infect a useful file. In this case quarantine is could be helpful if the file can be repaired.
From what I understand, it’s a bad idea to have two anti-virus programs running at once. It’s best to pick one and get rid of the other. This is because they can interfere with each other ie one may quarantine files preventing the other from getting to them etc.
You can always run free online AV scans to catch things that your one AV program may miss.
The purpose of quarantine is to protect you against false positives. On occasion, antivirus will flag a harmless or useful program as a virus because a bit of its code is similar to that of the virus. By quarantining the file, it allows you to recover the file in case the mistake is made.
If your computer is working fine, you can delete the quarantined items.
My concern was that by “deleting” the code that I would “release” the viral code into an area where it could do harm (despite having been deleted).