Click on “Open folder to view files” and let’s have a look: But it might be happening in the background anyway. Most other anti-virus programs should be quite similar…įirst off, when I plug in a USB thumb drive, here’s what I see on screen:Ĭlick on it and you’ll see there are three main options:ĭisappointingly, there’s no “scan for malware” option here, where I’d like to see it appear. I run Windows Defender on my reference Win8 system, so let’s have a look at how that needs to be configured. You are right to be concerned: having people plug in USB flash drives with unknown files is a prime vector for malware making it onto your computer or one of the computers in the lab, so I’d be anxious too! When an infection spreads through something like this, it can be impossible for the person to realize they’ve just done something wrong, so if it does happen, don’t expect a child to say “Hey Miss Smith, look at this!”įortunately just about every decent antivirus program can be configured to automatically scan any removable drive or device before letting the system see it and execute anything on the unit, whether it’s an external hard drive, a CDROM or a lowly USB flash drive.
