Full or smart scan?

A lot of anti-virus/malware programmes offer you the choice of scanning all files or a smart scan that I presume scans the type of files that should definitely be scanned.

I assume I am being offered a smart scan because the author believes it is not necessary to scan all.

What do you guys do and why?

Ian

 

See it like this: a burglar is coming through the backdoor most of the time and once in a while through the frontdoor. Either you check both doors if they're locked (full) or you check only the backdoor (smart). When you get robbed through the frontdoor, which you didn't check, how smart would you feel?

 

I use Smart Scan normally.
SUPERantispyware recommends a full scan once a month.
To me, that makes sense.
If I notice strange activity then I use Full Scans.

 

Upon initial install I do a full scan. Weekly I do smart scans and once a month I do another full scan (unless things are acting up, in which case I do a full scan with multiple programs).

A lot depends on what security you have present and your computing habits.

 

I would recommend smart scan if you thought you had spyware, then confirm that you did and follow up with a full scan, but if you were unsure then use the full scan. My brothers computer had ad-aware se on it but never used it. I ran a smart scan first, detected lots of spyware then ran a full scan and found about triple of what the smart scan found.