When you run your Ad-ware/Spy-ware...?

Question

Should you leave your corrupted items in quarentine or delete them? and Does deleting them make your computer open to catching them again?

Answer 1

When your antivirus(AV) or antispyware(AS) quarantines something, you should let your computer run as normal for a day or two just to make sure all is fine. As soon as you see everything is good, you can delete them from quarantine. The reason the AS and AV have quarantine is to let you test the stability of the computer before removing those infected files. Sometimes it is possible for the AV or AS to mistake a good system file for a virus or spyware. If it was deleted right away the system would crash. If it was quarantined and it was a mistake, you could just restore it and there would be no problems. It is still possible to catch the infection again if it has already been quarantined but not deleted, so deleting it won't change anything but save hard drive space.

Answer 2

NEVER DELETE FIRST, QUARANTINE FIRST.

Malware removal is somewhat of an inexact science. Mistakes can and do happen. False-positive detections happen more often then the anti-malware industry cares to admit. It's their dirty little secret.

Needed system files can be mistakenly flagged as malware. Quarantining allows a way to undo any incorrect file deletions, easily, if it ever becomes necessary. When the anti-virus vendor finds their mistake and corrects the signature definitions, for you, the user, it is too late. The file has already been permanently deleted. And then it's, "tough luck Charlie!"


A file in quarantine is totally safe. It can do no harm.

You should quarantine everything for a month or so, then if all is OK with your computer and all of your programs, then delete.

Answer 3

I never quarantine things, I just have them deleted. Never missed anything yet.

You can always catch things again, whether you delete them or quarantine them. To prevent catching them, you need an active interceptor, the paid version of Ad-Aware does that, as well as Norton Internet Security, or SpySweeper.

Answer 4

I delete them. I don't see how it would make your pc more vulnerable. As long as you're out on the web, you're going to pick up junk, so just get the updates and run the cleaner regularly.

Answer 5

Delete them is best choice but some time it is system files and you can't delete them so you have to quarantine them. Reinstall you software to overwrite that files.