How can I scan a PST file for viruses?

December 29, 2008 5:27 PM

How can I scan a PST file for viruses?

That's it. I just need to know how to scan a PST file for viruses.

posted by momzilla to computers & internet (4 comments total)

If it's not larger than 10 MB, you could upload it to VirSCAN.org and have it tested against many different antivirus engines.
posted by joshrholloway at 6:19 PM on December 29, 2008

I'm assuming that you're on Windows, first of all.

If you have a antivirus program installed (Norton, AVG, McAfee, or others), you can generally just right click on the file and choose "scan this file" from the context menu. If you don't have an AV product, go to avg.com and install one now.
posted by chrisamiller at 6:28 PM on December 29, 2008

Your AV software needs to be PST aware to scan this. I know NOD32 does this, but it cant if the file is either compressed or encrypted. If it is then you should open the PST in Outlook then export it to another PST without compression or encryption on.

You can test whether your AV can see viruses in PSTs if you insert the eicar test string into an email and put it in your PST.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:51 PM on December 29, 2008

I used to have to do this on occasion for the company I used to work for. I think we used one of the solutions from TrendMicro (don't recall off the top of my head). The program was Outlook-aware and it let you select which folders to scan.
posted by phrayzee at 9:42 PM on December 29, 2008