Not sure if I have a virus or if malware has been downloaded.

Question

Not sure if I have a virus or if malware has been downloaded.

DaffyDuckKangaroo 120

Hello,

To start, I am not sure which Windows Defender I own. It came with my Windows 11 Pro laptop, and I don't subscribe to Office 365 so I assume it's for the Cloud.

I would like to know if what's happening to my computer is evidence of either a virus or malware: For the past two weeks, on two occasions, I've had to download documents from a work company. Both times there were two important documents but also irrelevant icons that are part of the download with the name of the work company, its insignia, a camera, etc.

Almost immediately after the download my laptop became very slow: it seemed to take forever to open my sticky notes, for example, or open a new YouTube video or open a site that required a username/password. The laptop screen also turned black when visiting certain sites.

I have tried to run a full Windows Defender scan, but each time it stops prematurely. See photo below. I'm not sure what's going on or if there's another way to find out if I have a virus.

Scan Windows Defender stopped after scanning those 609,026 files, and this premature end has happened several times.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Daffy D

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Answer accepted by question author

DaveM121 921.4K Independent Advisor

1

Please provide a screenshot of the extra files that were downloaded with those documents.

2

In the meantime, if the Defender scan is not completing, the best option is to perform a full scan with the Microsoft Safety Scanner, to see if that indicates any malware is found at the end of the scan.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-endpoint/safety-scanner-download

DaffyDuckKangaroo 120 Reputation points

2025-08-01T22:53:01.2933333+00:00

Hello DaveM121,

I am running the Safety Scanner, and I see there are 18 infected files listed, and the scan is not finished yet. Below are screenshots of the downloaded extra files -- I'm leaving one out because it has the name of the work company. Two of them, the camera and "F," were much bigger when I first opened them and then they shrunk immediately. I did enlarge each one of these files, at least a little, because they were all so small, including the "camera" and "F" once those two had shrunk.

The scan has just finished, and even though it listed 18 infected files, the final result -- in screenshot below -- says everything is clean, at least I think that's what it means? I don't understand how there can be 18 infected files, yet the scan results don't mention them. Should I do something else now? Thank you, Daffy D.

1 additional answer

Your answer

DaffyDuckKangaroo 120 Reputation points

2025-08-01T22:53:01.2933333+00:00

Hello DaveM121,

I am running the Safety Scanner, and I see there are 18 infected files listed, and the scan is not finished yet. Below are screenshots of the downloaded extra files -- I'm leaving one out because it has the name of the work company. Two of them, the camera and "F," were much bigger when I first opened them and then they shrunk immediately. I did enlarge each one of these files, at least a little, because they were all so small, including the "camera" and "F" once those two had shrunk.

The scan has just finished, and even though it listed 18 infected files, the final result -- in screenshot below -- says everything is clean, at least I think that's what it means? I don't understand how there can be 18 infected files, yet the scan results don't mention them. Should I do something else now? Thank you, Daffy D.

Answer 1

DaveM121 921.4K Independent Advisor

Thank you for that information.

Those extra files that were downloaded are jsut social media icons, they are not dangerous and cannot infect your system, and the result of that scan indicates there is no malware on your PC, the Safety scanner marks files during the scan that may contain malware and at the end of the scan they are tested against the malware database, and in your case they were found not to contain malware.

DaffyDuckKangaroo 120 Reputation points

2025-08-02T15:35:21.87+00:00

Thank you for letting me know about the Microsoft Safety Scanner.