How to handle detected threats

When a scan has finished, the diagnosis list displays any detected objects sorted according to their potential risk level. Each Malware name gives information about the nature of the infection via its name prefix. Clicking on the hyperlink for a diagnosis name opens your browser to the Emsisoft Malware Library where you can read a detailed description of these prefixes. The extensions “A” and “B” identify the scan engine that detected the file.

Risk levels include:

• PUP: PUPs are potentially unwanted programs. These programs are often installed as part of bundles by unsuspecting users.
• PUM: PUMs are potentially unwanted modifications. These are setting modifications made by applications and malware that restrict or hinder access to your system.
• Malware: Malware is malicious software, an umbrella term for all kinds of digital pests and threats like computer viruses, trojans, or ransomware. In essence, everything detected that is not a PUP or PUM.

Right-click in the diagnosis list to open a context menu providing the following actions:

• Select all – Selects all objects in the list
• Select none – Deselects all objects on the list
• Invert – Deselects all selected objects or selects all unselected objects
• Add to exclusions – Add all selected objects to exclusions so that these objects will then be ignored by the next scan.
• Submit as false alert – Submit the file to our Malware Lab for investigation as a possible false alert.
• Open file location – Opens the folder where the file is located on your computer.

The buttons Quarantine selected and Delete selected allow for management of any detected objects. We recommend always selecting Quarantine selected because this is the only way of being able to recover any files that were removed due to false alerts (so-called false positives).

The New scan button takes you back to the main Scan section where you can again choose a scan type and begin a new scan.

The View report button opens a log file showing detailed information about the scan. Scan reports can also be accessed later from the Logs section of the program.