how often are you supposed to scan your files? I heard every other day . is this correct?

Answer 1

Scanning your whole computer periodically is a waste of time and resources. You should scan your whole computer only if you have reasons to suspect that it is already infected.

Instead of scanning periodically, you should use the on-access scanning component of your anti-virus product. It is called different names in the different products (e.g., "real-time scan") but basically it is something that is always active and scans *only* the file you're accessing (opening, copying, running) at the moment. It is much faster than scannning your whole computer and it will prevent your computer from getting infected with known malware in the first place, because it won't let you access the malware and the malware won't have the chance to execute.

Answer 2

depends on how much your online and what you do really, if you stick to a few sites for example than weekly or every few days will due, if your online alot and arent carefull with email (attachments opened) than frequently.
best advice would be keep your anti-virus up todate and do a full scan when it updates
but your anti-virus should alert you to any problems while surfing

Answer 3

just set your a/v to scan every new/modified file, takes less then a second and you know exactly when something gets d/l that isn't good.

Answer 4

Yes,now a days.

Answer 5

You only need to scan your computer after browsing porn, or downloading stuff from questionable sources.