MSAV

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Supported DOS versions:	MS-DOS 6 - 6.22
How easy to use?	Easy
How safe to use?	Potentially very dangerous
How common?	Less well known
Internal or external command?	External

Description

Scans your computer for viruses and gets rid of them or displays information on them

Command Syntax

MSAV [drive] [/s] [/c] [/r] [/a] [/l] [/n] [/p] [/f] [/video]

drive is the drive you wish to scan
/s scans the drive but doesn't remove any viruses
/c scans the drive and removes viruses found
/r creates a report called drive:\MSAV.RPT with details of files checked and viruses found
/a scans all disks except A: and B:
/l scans all drives except network drives
/n displays the contents of a file called MSAV.TXT and then scans the specified drive. If a virus is found, MSAV returns ERRORLEVEL 86 instead of displaying a mesage.
/p uses a command line interface
/f turns off the display of files that have been scanned. This works with the /n or /p switches
/video sets the way MSAV is displayed on screen:

/video parameter	Function
25	Sets the screen to display 25 lines
28	Sets the screen to display 28 lines (VGA)
43	Sets the screen to display 43 lines (EGA or VGA)
50	Sets the screen to display 50 lines (VGA)
60	Sets the screen to display 60 lines (VGA)
in	Uses a colour scheme even when no colour display adaptor is detected
bw	Uses a black and white colour scheme
mono	Uses a monochrome even when a colour display adaptor is detected
lcd	Uses a grey scale colour scheme for an LCD screen
ff	Specifies the fastest screen updating when using a CGA adaptor
bf	Uses the BIOS to display video
nf	Disables the use of alternate fonts
bt	Enables the use of a mouse in Windows
ngm	Runs MSAV using a non-graphical mouse pointer
le	Switches the left and right mouse buttons
ps2	Resets the mouse pointer

Comments

MSAV is based on the old Central Point Anti-virus software. There is also a Windows version available which comes with the DOS disks.

The nature of viruses and other malware has changed substantially since MSAV and VSAFE were released. These tools are now seriously out of date and should be replaced with a newer antivirus program, a spyware detector and a firewall.

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