What is the difference between delete, quarantine, or repair of a virus? Which should I choose?

Question

I'm a bit confused on the differences between deleting, quarantining, or repairing a virus/trojan/etc. and which one I should choose.

Answer 1

delete

Answer 2

Here' what:

-Quarantine: Puts the virus in a folder out of your hard drives (but stays on the computer).

-Repair: Fix the virus (if you really need the file and/or if possible).

-Delete: Still and Forever the Best Answer, get rid of the virus definitely!

Answer 3

Deleting will delete the infected file from your computer.

quarantine will move the file to a folder that will not be scanned by the virus scanner anymore. It could be used to later inspect the file without it having an effect on the system.

Repair will try to clean the virus from the file, but this can not be done in every case.

If you still need the infected file, then try to repair first. If that does not work, then you will need to delete it.

Answer 4

I'd quarantine to start and if you see no difference with your computer you can then delete from the quarantine area.

You would only really need to repair if by deleting you would cause part of your running processes to fail.

Most av's will advise you what to do.

Answer 5

You have many options when fixing an infected files.

Deleting will delete the file. If the system needs that files information, it is lost. The result is a program that does not function properly. This is a good option if the file IS the virus. If the file is a critical systems file, do not delete. If the file is xxxHotsexymomaxxx.exe, it's probably good to get rid of that!

Quarantining is when you isolate the file. The file still exists, but it's not very accessable.

Repair is when the computer attempts to remove the virus from the file. This might not always work, but it is the best choice.

Answer 6

deleting does just that-preferable the best options, quarantine is the next best by disabling access to your pc and repairing fixes anything that may have been a problem. follow recommendations if there's any from youranti-viruss.

Answer 7

You should try to repair.

Delete - deletes the virus in question but it may have left scattered pieces of itself across your computer in various places, so you'll always have traces of the malicious code

Quarantine - isolates the virus from your other files but doesn't delete it. It's like taking a plastic cup and putting it over a spider on the dinner table. The spider will still be there but it won't get on your food. Sometimes a quarantine is the only thing you can do if your software doesn't know what to do with it.

Repair - Will try to remove the virus and fix the damage it has done.