How can I search my Exchange stores for virus infected messages?

A. After the problems with the recentMelissa virus, Microsoft have produced autility which can search your Exchange store for messages which have beeninfected with a virus and clean them. This will not in any way preventthe virus from being introduced into the email system, you should ensure youare running anti-virus software to prevent the virus infecting your messagestores.

The utility can be downloaded for Exchange 5.5 and 5.0 for both Intel andAlpha

Once downloaded the self extracting file produces two files, ISSCAN.EXE andthe symbol file ISSCAN.DBG. Once you copy the files to the server runningExchange it is used as follows (you don't need to copy the .dbg file)

For Exchange 5.5

ISSCAN will create a report called either isscan.pri or isscan.pub,depending on whether you are scanning a private store or public store. Thisreport will include the attachment's filename that is deleted, and the senderof a message that is deleted. You can then use this information to determinethe users computers who may need extra attention.

This utility is very powerful and can be very constructive or destructivedepending on how it is used. Please use with caution and consider every actiontwice before implementing. There is no undo so restoring a backup is thealternative if a problem occurs. It is recommended that you do not use thisutility until a known good backup is secured.