You probably know that an important part of virus protection in Microsoft Windows is to schedule a scan of your entire hard drive for computer viruses. The reason for this is very simple: computer viruses can lurk anywhere on your hard drive — even in files that you do not access directly as a user. The question is: how often should you schedule such a scan? My general recommendation to you is that you schedule a scan for your entire hard drive at least once a week. You can schedule your hard drive scan to occur during a time when you are not normally using your computer — for example, when you are at another job during the daytime or evening. If your computer is on all the time, you can even schedule such a scan to occur when you are sleeping.