Once it's installed, you can specify how intrusive the antiviral software should be, but generally we've found that the defaults chosen by the NAV installer are the best. When installing NAV or any other antiviral software, be sure to have any previously-installed virus software turned off. Before you install antiviral software, we recommend that you back up your data files. Microcomputer Services has installed NAV 5.0 on dozens of PCs and Macs internally without encountering serious problems, but we have seen instances where an additional restart of Windows machines was necessary. We feel that, on balance, not running antiviral software is much riskier than installing the software.
Some viruses only affect files.
The NAV installer will scan your machine's memory while it installs. If it detects a virus, it may ask you to remove it before continuing. On the other hand, if you're infected with a boot sector virus, you'll need to remove it before installing antiviral software. Boot sector viruses infect the initial few sectors of your hard drive and load into your machine's memory each time you start your machine. Removing these viruses often requires first running a special utility that targets the particular virus.