Scanning Devices

 

Device Scans are a key component to the Antivirus protection of your devices. The more often your users download files from the web or install software, the more often you should perform scans. The more often you perform scans, the more likely you will catch malicious threats before they do damage to your devices and networks.

From your Avast Business Management Console, you can create and deploy or stop and delete several types of scans. The scans can be one-time or run on a schedule, and they can be run on all devices in your network at once or on selected devices only.

Types of Scans

• Quick Scan: Scans for common threats
• Full System Scan: Runs a detailed scan of every file on the device
• Removable Media Scan: Scans USBs and portable media connected to the device
• Custom Scan: Runs a scan for which you choose the file types, sensitivity of the scan, performance, actions, and whether compressed files are included.
• Boot-Time Scan (Windows only) : Runs a scan when the device boots up.

Creating Scan Tasks

Tasks that are applied to specific devices only are created from the Devices page, while those you want to apply to all your devices are created from the Tasks page. All tasks are available on both of these locations, and all can be configured to run on a schedule if needed (except the Boot-Time Scan task, which, as the name suggests, runs upon device startup).

Specific Devices

1. Navigate to the Devices page, then do one of the following:
   • For a single device, click the three dots next to the device you would like to create a task for, then click Create a task
   • For multiple devices, tick the checkboxes of all devices you would like to create a task for, then click Actions > Create a task
2. Select task action and related options:
   • Scan device > Quick Scan, Full System Scan, Removable Media Scan, Custom Scan, or Boot-Time Scan
3. If you want the task to be scheduled instead of immediately executed, tick the Schedule checkbox and specify the task's frequency (One-Time, Daily, Weekly, Monthly) and start date and time; otherwise, leave the checkbox unticked
   • Scheduling is not available for Boot-Time Scan, as this task runs upon device startup
4. Change the scan's name in the Custom name field (optional)
5. If you selected Custom Scan or Boot-Time Scan, configure additional settings (see Configuring Files and Programs Scanned by Antivirus for more information)
6. Run the task

All Devices

1. Navigate to the Tasks page
2. Click Create a task
3. Select task action and related options:
   • Scan device > Quick Scan, Full System Scan, Removable Media Scan, Custom Scan, or Boot-Time Scan
4. If you want the task to be scheduled instead of immediately executed, tick the Schedule checkbox and specify the task's frequency (One-Time, Daily, Weekly, Monthly) and start date and time; otherwise, leave the checkbox unticked
   • Scheduling is not available for Boot-Time Scan, as this task runs upon device startup
5. Change the scan's name in the Custom name field (optional)
6. If you selected Custom Scan or Boot-Time Scan, configure additional settings (see Configuring Files and Programs Scanned by Antivirus for more information)
7. Run the task

Tasks will only run on the assigned devices when those devices are turned on and connected to the network.

Any threats detected during the scan are usually quarantined. To learn how to handle these detections, see Resolving Threat Detections.

Additional Options and Settings

Customizing Scans

Via the Scan device option, you can also customize the files and programs to be scanned by Antivirus. Note, however, that these configuration settings are available only when a Custom or a Boot-Time scan is selected. For more information, see Configuring Files and Programs Scanned by Antivirus.

Viewing Scan Details and Stopping/Deleting Scans

To access your scans' details and stop or delete previously created scan tasks, follow the related instructions in the Managing Tasks article.