What to do if Symantec Detects a Virus on Your Computer

Audience: Faculty, Staff and Students

This KB Article References: Symantec Endpoint Protection Antivirus
This Information is Intended for: Faculty, Staff, Students
Last Updated: December 12, 2023
Average Rating: Not Rated
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If Symantec detects a virus on your computer, you might be alerted with a pop-up message, but not always. Sometimes the threat will automatically be sent to your quarantine. Users with the managed version of Symantec will automatically have their quarantines emptied if a virus shows up there.

Un-managed users should periodically check both their logs and their quarantine for threats.

  • Open Symantec EndPoint Protection from your Programs or Applications (or double-click on the gold shield in the system tray by your clock) and select View Logs or View Quarantine from the sidebar.
  • When you click View Logs on the sidebar, click the View Logs button next to Antivirus and Antispyware Protection.
  • You can delete any exploits that have been sent to your quarantine by highlighting those found in the quarantine and right-clicking delete.
  • If there is something in the quarantine, and its status says Left alone, then run a full scan and see if the full scan picks it up and removes it. If the full scan does not remove it, then you can go into Safe Mode with Networking by rebooting your machine and hitting F8 as soon as the machine starts back up. Choose Safe Mode with Networking when the menu comes up. From there, open the Symantec client and try running the full scan again.

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