Expert: Keith Davis - 4/12/2009

Question
Hello

I have read on several sites that it is a good idea to run your AV from safemode to be able to check additional areas that can't be scanned from "normal" mode.  Ok, so I can get into my safemode by pressing f8 and choosing safemode.  But I can never find a way to run my antivirus from safemode. I am currently running AVG free. And even  in the past when i ran computer associates or other AV, I could never find a way to run ANY antivirus program.  Theire is no icon for it to be sen anywhere (I don't have one on my desktop, I do have one on my qucikstart tray). And even going to my list of prgrams, it doesn't even show up there!  So how does one go about running their AV from safemode?  In particular, AVG free.  

Thanks!

PS I can run my various malware programs like spybot etc, but not my AV.

Answer
The part about being able to scan additional areas when in safe mode is false. Safe mode in itself is designed to only start certain system resources that are absolutely needed to run the system. This is so, in the event you do have a virus or some other bug, you don't allow it to replicate when files it has infected are loaded on startup. In safe mode everything does not load.

On the other hand, I have always been able to run AVG in safe mode. You may want to do "safe mode with networking", uninstall AVG, and do a clean install of it to see if you can scan in safe mode.

Keith