On-Access

If antimalware protection is installed on all computers in the network, you may disable the network file scan to allow faster network access.

You can set the security agent to scan all accessed files (regardless of their file extension), application files only or specific file extensions you consider to be dangerous.

Scanning all accessed files provides the best protection while scanning applications only can increase the system's performance.

If you want only specific extensions to be scanned, choose User defined extensions from the menu and then enter the extensions in the edit field, pressing Enter after each extension.

For system performance reasons, you can also exclude large files from scanning.

Select Maximum size (MB) checkbox and specify the size limit of the files which will be scanned. Use this option wisely because malware can affect larger files too.

Only new or changed files

By scanning only new and changed files, you may greatly improve overall system responsiveness with a minimum trade-off in security.

Boot sectors

Scans the system’s boot sector.

This sector of the hard disk contains the necessary code to start the boot process.

When a virus infects the boot sector, the drive may become inaccessible and you may not be able to start your system and access your data.

Process memory

 Scans the memory of a process to detect in-memory malicious behavior.

For keyloggers

Keyloggers record what you type on your keyboard and send reports over the Internet to a malicious person (hacker).

The hacker can find out sensitive information from the stolen data, such as bank account numbers and passwords, and use it to gain personal benefits.

For Potentially Unwanted Applications (PUA)

A Potentially Unwanted Application (PUA) is a program that may be unwanted on the PC and sometimes comes bundled with freeware software. Such programs can be installed without the user's consent (also called adware) or will be included by default in the express installation kit (ad-supported). Potential effects of these programs include the display of pop-ups, installing unwanted toolbars in the default browser or running several processes in the background and slowing down the PC performance.

Archives

Select this option if you want to enable on-access scanning of archived files. Scanning inside archives is a slow and resource-intensive process, which is therefore not recommended for real-time protection. Archives containing infected files are not an immediate threat to system security. The malware can affect the system only if the infected file is extracted from the archive and executed without having on-access scanning enabled.

If you decide on using this option, you can configure the following optimization options:

Deferred scanning

Deferred scanning improves system performance when performing file access operations. For example, system resources are not affected when large files are copied. This option is enabled by default.

Default action for infected files

Bitdefender detects files as infected through various advanced mechanisms, which include malware signatures, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) based technologies.

Bitdefender security agent can normally remove the malware code from an infected file and reconstruct the original file. This operation is known as disinfection.

By default, if an infected file is detected, Bitdefender security agent will automatically attempt to disinfect it.

If disinfection fails, the file is moved to quarantine to contain the infection.

You can change this recommended flow according to your needs.

Default action for suspect files

Files are detected as suspicious by the heuristic analysis and other Bitdefender technologies.

These provide a high detection rate, but the users must be aware of certain false positives (clean files detected as suspicious) in some cases.

Suspect files cannot be disinfected, because no disinfection routine is available.

When a suspect file is detected, users will be denied access to that file to prevent a potential infection.

Deny access

Deny access to detected files.

Disinfect

Remove the malware code from infected files. It is recommended to always keep this as the first action to be taken on infected files.

Delete

Delete detected files from the disk, without any warning. It is advisable to avoid using this action.

Move to quarantine

Move detected files from their current location to the quarantine folder. Quarantined files cannot be executed or opened; therefore, the risk of getting infected disappears. You can manage quarantine files from the Quarantine page of the console.

Take no action

Only report the infected files detected by Bitdefender.