Testing Your Antivirus Program

This is a test file that will cause no damage to your system and still allow you to test if anti-virus tool is awake.

Here are some steps:

1. Open a text editor (e.g. Notepad)

2. Enter the following text in it:

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

3. Save the file as EICAR.COM on your desktop or anywhere on your pc.

4. Open DOS and try to execute this .COM file or simply double-click the file.

If your anti-virus software is working properly, it will warn you that a virus has been detected when you attempt to run the .COM file.
If it has on access protection it will automatically warn and delete it before you can even save it.

To be double-sure, zip this file, and then try double-clicking on the ZIP file to see if your AV tool recognized viruses inside ZIP files. You can also send this file to yourself as an attachment, just to verify if your AV tool has command of email cleanliness.