Conventional Scan

The Virus Pattern contains information that helps OfficeScan identify the latest virus/malware and mixed threat attacks. Trend Micro creates and releases new versions of the Virus Pattern several times a week, and any time after the discovery of a particularly damaging virus/malware.

Trend Micro recommends scheduling automatic updates at least hourly, which is the default setting for all shipped products.

Smart Scan

When in smart scan mode, OfficeScan clients use two lightweight patterns that work together to provide the same protection provided by conventional anti-malware and anti-spyware patterns.

A smart protection source hosts the Smart Scan Pattern. This pattern is updated hourly and contains majority of the pattern definitions. Smart scan clients do not download this pattern. Clients verify potential threats against the pattern by sending scan queries to the smart protection source.

The client update source (the OfficeScan server or a custom update source) hosts the Smart Scan Agent Pattern. This pattern is updated daily and contains all the other pattern definitions not found on the Smart Scan Pattern. Clients download this pattern from the update source using the same methods for downloading other OfficeScan components.

For more information about Smart Scan Pattern and Smart Scan Agent Pattern, see Smart Protection Pattern Files.