Virus can seriously harm your computer. Well, here is a quick and easy way to test your antivirus. To check the performance of your antivirus here is the process called EICAR test which will work on any antivirus and was developed by European Institute of Computer Antivirus Research.

This test will ensure the thing that your PC is secure enough to compete the viruses or not. This process can be used by people, companies and antivirus programmers to test the proper functioning of the antivirus/anti-malware software without having to deal with the real computer virus/malware which can cause damage to the computer.

Note: Don't be stupid! This test will cause NO DAMAGE to your computer even though the antivirus will flag it as a malicious script.

Here is a step-by-step procedure to test your antivirus.
- Open Notepad (shortcut key -> Windows+R, write Notepad and hit Enter)
- Copy the following script exactly into the notepad


X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*


- Now on saving rename the file from New Text Document.txt to “myfile.com” (do include the quotations marks) In some cases the text file reported as virus too! (kaspersky detected the txt file)
- Save the file. (recommended on desktop)
- If your antivirus is running then it’ll immediately detect that file and will delete it.


In some other case if your antivirus is disable then run it. If it detects the file it means your antivirus software is doing well. Otherwise you may have to change your antivirus.