On demand scan: SUA or Administrator Account

Hi,

First of all i would like to say thanks for this fantastic forum. I have learn a lot about protecting my computer since i have found it. I never knew windows had so many security mechanisms.

But i have still one question, for which i did not find an answer.

If i want to do a on demand scan on the computer, should i do it in the SUA or AC?
Does it matter? For example if i install in one account a Firefox add-on which key/clipboard/screen/sound, can i still make the scan in the other account and the anti-virus will still detect it?

I am asking this because i like to do an on demand scan once in a while, just for reassurance.

Thanks

Hi Peter5, and welcome to the forums!

As far as I understand it, a scan in a SUA (that is, with Standard/Limited rights) will only scan the contents accessible to the respective account. There may be some exceptions to this though. I also think some scanners automatically run as Admin anyway, and are therefore able to effectively scan all user accounts.

So with regards to your example of a rogue/malicious Firefox Add-on being installed in an account, it really depends on the abilities of the scanner. If the scanner is able to run with Admin rights (or equivalent), then even if the scanner ran from a different account, it should still be able to detect the virus. However, if the scanner only ran with the rights of the specific Limited Account (SUA), then it may not be allowed to access other accounts, and therefore would not pick up the virus.

Thanks ssj100, for such a detailed answer.

I'm not sure but here is my "twopennorth", I thought that anti virus ran at a kernel level and on an equal with the operating system itself and would therefor override "personalities" and see everything on the drive and as ssj says admin level permission is probably necessary to run it.

Thanks for your answer Patrick.

Basically if i understood both of you correctly, all i have to do is use the right click and manually run with administrative rights, to always scan all accounts. Except when the anti-virus runs with administrative rights automatically.

BTW, Macrium Reflect asks me for administrative rights. Does that mean that it will do a backup image of all accounts, and will restore all accounts?

Thanks

Peter5 wrote:BTW, Macrium Reflect asks me for administrative rights. Does that mean that it will do a backup image of all accounts, and will restore all accounts?

Yes, that should be the case.

Thanks for all the answers.
A LUA/SUA has a learning curve and i am starting to get more comfortable with it.

Regards