New Viruses Are Found Daily

Each day McAfee Associates encounters new viruses. Our development staff continuously modifies our software so that it will detect and remove these new virus strains. As a result, every month, McAfee Associates releases a new antivirus build to ensure the protection our customers need and expect.

McAfee offers free online virus signature file updates (.DATs) for the life of your product. However, we cannot guarantee backwards compatibility of the virus signature files with a previous version’s executable (.EXE) files.

What Is A Data (DAT) File?

The files CLEAN.DAT, NAMES.DAT, and SCAN.DAT all provide virus information to the VirusScan software. These are the data files.

Why Would A New Data (DAT) File Be Needed?

New viruses are discovered at a rate of more than 100 per month. Often, these newer viruses are not detected using the older data files. Virus researchers are laboring constantly to update the files with more and newer virus definitions.

Instructions on "How to Update Data Files for VirusScan (PC)":

1. Download the file dat.zip from the previous page. The file is in a compressed format.

2. Decompress the file using PKUNZIP.

3. Find the directories where the software is currently loaded. (Typically C:\MCAFEE\VIRUSCAN ) This will vary depending on the version of the software you currently have.

4. Copy the new files into the directory or directories overwriting the current data files.

5. NOTE: There may data files in more than one directory. If so, place the updated data files into each directory.

6. Reboot the computer so the changes take place immediately.