Patent ID: 7340774

Claim:
A computer program product embodied on a tangible computer readable medium for controlling operation of a computer to detect malware, said computer program product comprising: pending scan database code operable to maintain a pending scan database storing data identifying computer files that have been written to a data storage device and for which a scan for malware has yet to be performed; scanning code operable as a low priority task within a multitasking environment to conduct malware scanning upon computer files identified within said pending scan database as having been written to the data storage device and for which the scan for malware has yet to be performed; and file read code operable in response to a read request for a computer file identified within said pending scan database to trigger said scanning code to scan said computer file as a high priority task with a first priority that is higher than a second priority of said low priority task, before permitting read access to said computer file; wherein an order of said computer files identified within said pending scan database being scanned is based on an algorithm that estimates a likelihood of said read request being performed on each computer file.