Virex 7.7: Scheduling Virus Scans in OS X

Virex 7.7 is site licensed by Purdue and available free of charge to all Purdue faculty, staff and students. Virex 7.7 includes the ability to schedule scans. You can use this to automate the scanning process for times you are away from the computer, such as overnight.

To install Virex 7.7, simply download the installer; the install process is straightforward. You do not need to install the ePO Component.

NOTE: If your Virex installation is managed by the ePO Orchestrator, you do not have to create a schedule. The ePO policy includes a regular schedule. If you are not sure if your Virex installation is connected to the ePO Orchestrator, contact your site specialist.

First, open Virex 7.7 and select Scheduled Tasks... from the View menu. See Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

Next, click New Scan Task and fill out the appropriate fields. After you enter a name for your task, click in the box under Scan Items: to bring up the dialog box. Here you will want to select which directory Virex scans. In most cases, you will want it to scan the entire volume. To do that, just select the volume and click ok. The resulting directory will appear in the list. You can add multiple directories/volumes. (In the case of a volume, the directory will simply be "/".) Next, click Set... to pick the first day the task will run.If you wanted it to run Saturdays, for example, you should pick the first Saturday after today. Also, set your time (it uses 24-hour military time in the afternoon). See Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

Now set the recurrence of the scan. Choose your frequency and end date. Once you've made your choices, scan over the window to make sure everything's as you want it. See Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

Click OK. Your task will be added to the list. That's it! If you ever wish to change the settings, select the scheduled task and click the Get Info button to change the settings. See Fig. 4.

Fig. 4

NOTE: Your computer must be on for Virex to scan the hard drive. If your computer is off during the scheduled time, it will not scan again until the next scheduled time. If you'd like to scan your drive before that time, you can always initiate a manual scan from the Virex application.