# Virus scan in safe mode?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-scan-in-safe-mode/449338>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 14, 2008, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-scan-in-safe-mode/449338 "2008-05-14T21:18:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-scan-in-safe-mode/449338/1 "2008-05-14T21:18:59Z")

</div>

Is it best to run a virus scan on a PC in safe mode?  
How about Ad Aware and Spybot?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virus-scan-in-safe-mode/449338/2 "2008-05-14T21:23:14Z")

</div>

I’m pretty sure Spybot and Ad-Aware won’t work in safe mode as it requires an installed windows service to be running to initialize. Or maybe that’s just the install process? Either way, if you have a really infected system, and you can get both to run, then yes, do it. I’d also consider running safe mode with networking to make sure you have the definitions updates for each program.