It is possible to use the Windows Task Scheduler to carry out automatic scans with Trojan Remover. You can schedule the on-boot scanner (FastScan) to activate at regular intervals (useful if you do not shut down your PC daily) - this will carry out a quick scan for active Malware, and alert you if it detects anything. Alternatively, you can schedule a scan for a particular drive or directory. When activated, Trojan Remover will scan the drive/directory chosen.

 

Ensure that you are logged on with an account that has Administrator privileges.

 

On Vista/Windows 7, open the Task Scheduler by going to: START > Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Administrative Tools, then double-click "Task Scheduler" (if User Account Control is enabled, you may see a UAC elevation prompt).

 

For Windows 8, on the Start screen type schedule, then click Settings - this should show the Scheduled Tasks program.

On Windows 10 click Start, type schedule in the empty box and select Schedule Tasks from the results.

 

Scheduling a scan for active Malware (the on-boot FastScan)

In the "Action" box on the right-hand side click on Create Basic Task.... On the screen that comes up, type in a useful name and description for the task, then click Next. On the next two screens select when you want the FastScan to run. On the next screen, in answer to the question "What action do you want the task to perform?" select Start a program, then click the Next button. In the "Start a Program" screen click on the Browse button. A window will open allowing you to browse for a program. Go to the Trojan Remover program directory (C:\Program Files\Trojan Remover by default on 32bit systems, C:\Program Files (x86)\Trojan Remover on 64bit systems) and double-click on Trjscan.exe. Leave the "Add arguments" and "Start in" boxes blank.

 

 

Click Next then click Finish. The task is now scheduled and you can close the Task Scheduler.

 

Scheduling a drive/directory scan

In the "Action" box on the right-hand side click on Create Basic Task.... On the screen that comes up, type in a useful name and description for the task, then click Next. On the next two screens select when you want the FastScan to run. In the "Start a Program" screen click on the Browse button. A window will open allowing you to browse for a program. Go to the Trojan Remover program directory (C:\Program Files\Trojan Remover by default) and double-click on Rmvtrjan.exe. The program path and name will appear in the "Program/script" box. In the "Add arguments" box, you determine which drive/directory Trojan Remover should scan during this scheduled scan. The format of the additional arguments is:

 

/ds "[drive or directory name]"

 

A couple of examples may help:

 

/ds "C:\Windows" - this will scan the Windows directory (and all sub-directories)

 

/ds "C:\Program Files" - this will scan the Program Files directory

 

/ds C:\ - this will scan the whole C: drive.

 

Note: if the path has spaces in it, then be sure to enclose the full path in quotes, as shown above.

 

You should leave the "Start in" box blank.

 

 

Because Trojan Remover requires Administrator privileges to run, we have one further step to complete. Click Next. On this final screen, place a checkmark in the box "Open the Properties dialog for this task when I click Finish", then click Finish. In the Properties screen that appears, on the General tab, check the box labeled 'Run with highest privileges' then click OK. The task is now scheduled and should run at the designated time.

 

You can, if you wish, schedule multiple instances like this, to scan different parts of your PC each time. This may be better than scheduling one full drive scan, as such a scan will take a very long time to complete each time it is run.

 

When the scan runs the program will appear minimized, i.e. you will only see the button on the taskbar. If you wish to see the progress of the scan, you can click on the program's taskbar button to open the drive/directory scan screen. When the scan is completed, if no malware has been found (and the scan screen is still minimised) then the program will shut itself down automatically.