Scan from sign-in screen?

[Hellfire010 0]

After having experienced a major virus (and having to reformat my computer, therefore losing everything on it) I got thinking about new ways to protect my computer. I was curious as to whether it would be possible to scan from the Login Screen. This would be particularly useful in that some viruses, similarly to the one I had, start their mischief the second you sign in and load the desktop. Basically, it would run a program and scan the drives, memory, etc. from the Login Screen instead of the Desktop, therefore not loading anything else. I figured it would look something like [THIS].

Would this be possible?

[BoltBait 2,604]

It is always best to scan your system after booting into "safe mode".

When your system is booting, press the F8 key, and follow the onscreen prompts...

[Hellfire010 0]

Yeah, that is what I usually do. I was just wondering if that ^ was possible.

Just a little curiousity

[BoltBait 2,604]

Back in the olden days, you used to be able to scan your system from a bootable CD/Floppy. In the modern days of NTFS, I don't know if that's still possible.

[SearedIce 1]

It's most certainly still possible. My copy of Linux has full read access to my Windows partition (and write too if I got off my lazy rear and set it up correctly). Windows PE (or copy-OSs like BartPE) would be even better...ask an IT person you know to try it out. Norton or one of the other big virus companies might have a bootable scan product.

[Bob 4]

In many (all) antivirus, their is a "scan at next boot time" option.