User`s guide
VIRUS BULLETIN ©1991 Virus Bulletin Ltd, 21 The Quadrant, Abingdon Science Park, Oxon, OX14 3YS, England. Tel (+44) 235 555139.
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Page 23
VIRUS BULLETINAugust 1991
Figure 1. ProScan checks .COM and .EXE files by default but can be
configured to scan other file extensions using the Options Menu. Note the
automatic virus removal option; tests showed this to be an unreliable feature
of this program.
PRODUCT REVIEW 1
Mark Hamilton
ProScan - A Commercial Scanner for the Non-Technical End-User
The .TXT file contains details of the
viruses ProScan claims to detect, with
each virus’ infective characteristics,
damage characteristics and infective
lengths. It is very similar to
VIRLIST.TXT which McAfee distrib-
utes with its shareware offerings. This
file is read in when the program loads
to provide details of the various
viruses.
Running ProScan
Installing this product is simplicity
itself - you don’t need to; it runs
straight ‘out of the box’. Upon entering
the command ‘PRO-SCAN’, you are
greeted by a lurid sign-on screen which
is replaced by the initial scanning
display as soon as you press a key. You
are prompted to enter a search direc-
tory, which defaults to the root
directory of the drive from which you
called the program.
At the bottom of the screen is the
prompt ‘Press F10 for Options Menu’.
You have to remember that key code,
because the prompt for it appears only
once per invocation of the program.
The area of screen upon which it
appears is used to display other
messages of assistance.
Pressing F10 brings up the options
menu upon which there are five
principal choices: Options, Report,
Save Options, Virus Info and Exit. The
Options sub-menu (see Figure 1.)
provides the ability to change the
operational characteristics of the
program. For example you can enable
the Network option, so that files can be
checked across LANs; you can also
toggle the automatic virus removal
option and specify what file types
constitute ‘overlays’. The product
always checks files which have the
extensions .COM and .EXE and
defaults to checking other files with
Presentation and Contents
The version of ProScan submitted for
review consisted of a single, write-
protected 360 Kbyte 5.25-inch diskette.
Fancy packaging and printed documen-
tation were noticeable only by their
absence - shades of shareware. On the
diskette were three files: PRO-
SCAN.EXE, PRO-SCAN.DOC and
PRO-INFO.TXT. The .DOC file (just 4
Kbytes in size) turned out to contain
amendments to printed documentation
- I rechecked the mailer, but no,
definitely no printed documentation
there. As things turned out, printed
documentation proved unnecessary as
ProScan is easy to learn and use.
McAfee Associates of Santa Clara,
California, is well known for its SCAN,
NETSCAN, CLEAN and VSHIELD anti-
virus products which are marketed as
shareware. However, McAfee also
produce a shrink-wrapped anti-virus
product called ProScan which is a
melange of the first three of these
programs.
It must be emphasised that ProScan is
designed for use by non-technically
minded end-users rather than ‘techies’.
It thus comes as no surprise that
ProScan comes complete with fancy
screen displays and bounce-bar menus
- the typical interface of products
designed for the mass market.