Where did all these files come from?

Question

I remember running a virus scan a few months ago that said 100,000 or so files scanned. Now it is saying that it has scanned 300,000 or so files. Why is this?

Answer 1

Either you installed several programs (which installed a lot of files), or you (or someone else) has enabled the "check inside zipped files" option, which looks into zipped files (.zip, .rar, .cab, etc) and scans those for viruses as well. It's also possible that the first time around, you scanned a certain folder instead of the entire drive? Not sure, because whenever I do a virus scan, it scans over 2 million files.

Answer 2

what type of operating system are you useing if its windows more files show up as you do updates therfore you get more files how ever i would also get a program call ad-aware se and do a spyware scan if you havent already this program is free and i use it on coustomer computers

Answer 3

maybe virus' .
they can multiply throughout until the've infected your computer virus' disguise them selves by having different file names that can blend in to the environment or background and multiply sum just on single that can move from one file to infect another.

but try defraggin it first then scan and see if it picks up anything.

What kind of virus scanner you got??
http://www.eset.com
nod32's a good virus scanner

Answer 4

the new files may have come from several places like temp. internet files, new programs, deleted programs (they would be fragmented files sometimes), saved documents, etc.

to get rid of them you can use you disk defragmenter or disk cleanup to help get rid of them.

Answer 5

www.ccleaner.com
Run the cleaner and see how much
unwanted files you have.

Answer 6

there might come from the more programs you have installed !