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So I noticed the new Flash scan option and was hoping someone could explain what this does in a little more detail.

I was also curious as to how it is suggested to run. Should you run a flash scan and follow up with a quick scan - or vice versa?

is there a time when the flash scan needs to be run? Is it a slow scan like the full scan or is it a fairly quick scan?

Any tips, hints, suggestions and information on this new feature would be great!

Thanks in advance!

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I believe a flash scan is kindof a quick way for your system to check if an infection is present. It is indeed faster than a quick scan, but it does not replace the use of quick or full scans. It will only tell you if malware is present, but it is still advisable to scan with quick and/or full every so often. Furthermore, I do not believe flash scans actually remove the malware, it just checks for it.

I think if you flash after a definition update that would be an appropriate use for it.

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Byte King, I appreciate your response, but I'm a little surprised that Malwarebytes would add a new scan type without offering much explanation. The Quick Scan is usually very fast, fast enough so that I tend to run it every day. Given the speed of the Quick Scan, I'm not sure why I would want to run a flash scan. It doesn't cover as many locations as a Quick Scan, and apparently it doesn't remove any malware it finds. Is it really adequate to run flash scans every day instead of Quick Scans, and only run a Quick Scan if the flash scan turns up something bad? Or is the Flash Scan aimed at people who normally don't run any scan?

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The flash scan is supposed to be quicker than a Quick Scan. We principally introduced it for our paid users, who can trigger our Scheduler to run a flash scan after every database update. The idea of the flash scan is to give a quick-and-dirty picture of whether there is likely any malware at all on the system, and if there is, the user is recommended to follow up with a Quick Scan.

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  • 1 year later...

If you perform a Quick Scan, there is no need to run a Flash Scan :). The Quick Scan checks for all of the items checked in a Flash Scan along with many other items.

An additional note, here is how the 3 scan types break down:

  • Quick Scan:
    1. Processes and files running in memory
    2. Files and folders that infections are known install themselves
    3. Registry
    4. Heuristics checks to look for new and unknown infections

    [*]Flash Scan: Note: If anything is found by a Flash Scan, then it is recommended that you also perform a Quick Scan to verify there are no additional infected items on your system

    1. Processes and files running in memory
    2. Heuristics checks to look for new and unknown infections

    [*]Full Scan:

    1. Processes and files running in memory
    2. All files and folders
    3. Registry
    4. Heuristics checks to look for new and unknown infections

Edited by exile360
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