Review Scan History and Active Protection History

Written By Marissa Fegan (Super Administrator)

Updated at June 5th, 2020

All actions that VIPRE takes are recorded for later review. VIPRE has two types of history: Scan History and Active Protection History.

Review the Scan History

Your Scan History is a list of all scans that VIPRE has performed, along with their results.

To view your Scan History

The Scan History can be viewed a few different ways.

  • From the VIPRE main screen, click the Quick Menu (gear button) > Scan History…
  • From the Menu Bar, click Window > Scan History...
  • Use the keyboard shortcut (⌘2)

The details of each scan are collected and organized into a Scan Report. You can consult each Scan Report to see the details of that scan. If threats were found, the report shows which files were infected and the action taken on those files.

Items in the Scan History will be saved for a certain amount of time, which can be adjusted in VIPRE’s preferences.

Review the Active Protection history

The Active Protection history is a list of actions Active Protection has taken over time to protect your Mac. You can adjust how Active Protection behaves to best suit your needs.

To view your Active Protection History

The Scan History can be viewed a few different ways.

  • From the VIPRE main screen, click the Quick Menu (gear button) > Active Protection History…
  • From the Menu Bar, click Window > Active Protection History...
  • Use the keyboard shortcut (⌘1

On the Active Protection history, you'll see 

  • Time - The time and date when the threat was discovered
  • Name - The actual name of the threat
  • File - The file that the threat infected
  • Process Name - The name of the system process on your Mac that was handling the file when the threat was discovered
  • Action - What VIPRE did with the threat

What do the Process Names mean?

A system process (listed in the Active Protection History as a process name) is a program that runs in the background as part of your Mac's operating system (macOS). To learn more about system processes and how to investigate them further, check out this apple.com article:

Advanced process exploration with the Mac Terminal

You can also view running processes on your Mac via the Terminal application and the top command.

IMPORTANT: The top command provides a lot of very technical information. These actions are intended for more advanced users only. Additionally, using the Terminal to investigate items is not supported by VIPRE. This information is provided solely for the purpose of spurring personal exploration into how your Mac operates. If you want to learn more about accessing your Mac via the Terminal, use Google to look up some articles that guide you through the process.

How to view processes in a Mac Terminal window

  • Open the Terminal (Applications Folder > Utilities > Terminal)
  • Enter the following command, and press Return: top -o CPU
  • When done viewing the information, press the Q key to quit top

The top command displays a great deal of system information, including system processes. Items in the COMMAND column here are active processes on your Mac.