# McAfee VirusScan: procedural question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcafee-virusscan-procedural-question/130311>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 30, 2002, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcafee-virusscan-procedural-question/130311 "2002-09-30T22:33:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2002, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mcafee-virusscan-procedural-question/130311/1 "2002-09-30T22:33:00Z")

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I’ve had McAfee VirusScan on my PC for about 16 months with no problems to date. Every few days, the McAfee Security Center tells me I need to download a new virus definition, so I do it.

Once downloaded, am I now protected from new viruses–or must I run a new scan–even if I haven’t had any virus problems in over 16 months and even if I have been conscientiously downloading the new definitions every time I’m told to?

Problem is, running a new, complete scan takes about 45 minutes.

ALSO: Should I do the quick “heuristic” scan that takes about 10 seconds, or should I scan every single file, subfolder, and compressed file–basically everything, each and every time?

Thanks a lot, in advance.