BLSCOLLO@OCC.BITNET (Bonnie Scollon) (01/11/91)
I have been waiting for someone more knowledgable than I to answer this but since no one has stepped forward, here goes......... Vi-Spy (from RG Software) has a resident program which can be used to automatically scan diskettes. It works on most newer machines (since around 1986) which support Drive Change Line (or something like that.) If the machine has this technology, the disk is automatically scanned and if a virus is found, the user has the option to clean the diskette. If the user chooses not to clean, they are not able to use the diskette. This, however, does not work if the diskette is called from within a program (such as a data disk with a word processor.) More info on this can be found in the documentation with the software. Although this program is expensive by the single copy, the educational site license is very affordable. Bonnie Scollon Oakland Community College (Michigan)
turtle@darkside.com (Fred Waller) (01/16/91)
> Only one problem with that idea: How can the machine tell when a disk > is inserted? There isn't any type of sensor in IBM floppy drives like > in the Mac. But yes they do have it: it's called the changeline. I have a little continuous formatting program which senses when a diskette has been inserted and automatically starts the format operation without any need for keypresses.