Notifier application

The notifier application, available both for Windows and macOS, communicates the state of the agent and relay to client machines using either the Windows notification area or macOS Notification Center. The notifier displays pop-up user notifications when the agent begins a scan, or blocks malware or access to malicious web pages.

The notifier does consume resources (or has a footprint) on the client machine, requiring on Windows less than 1MB of disk space and 1MB of memory, and on macOS less than 10MB of disk space and 50MB of memory. When the notifier is running, the notifier icon appears in the taskbar in the lower right of a Windows screen or in the menu bar at the top of a macOS screen. The notifier is automatically installed by default with the agent for Windows and macOS computers. Use the Administration > Updates > Software > Local page to import the latest version for distribution and upgrades.

On computers running a relay-enabled agent (supported on Windows), the notifier displays the components that are being distributed to agents or appliances, as opposed to components that are in effect on the local computer.

About the notifier

When malware is detected or a malicious site is blocked, the agent sends a message to the notifier, which displays a pop-up message in the notification area or Notification Center.

If malware is detected, the notifier displays a pop-up message similar to the following examples:

When a malicious web page is blocked, the notifier displays a pop-up message similar to the following examples:

The notifier also provides a console utility for viewing the current protection status and (for Windows only) component information, including pattern versions. The console utility allows the user to turn the pop-up notifications on or off and access detailed event information.

The notifier console on Windows:

The notifier console on macOS:

You can also turn off pop-up notifications for certain computers or for computers that are assigned a particular policy by going to the Workload Security Computer/Policy editor > Settings > General and settings Suppress all pop-up notifications on host to Yes. The messages still appear as alerts or events in the Workload Security console.

When the notifier is running on a computer hosting a relay (where supported), the notifier's display shows the components being distributed by the relay and not the components that in effect on the computer.

When the notifier is running on a computer with the scanner feature enabled, it shows that Scanner is running. A computer running Scanner cannot be a relay.

Trigger a manual scan

If an agent is enabled to trigger a manual scan in the notifier application, the notifier console includes a panel titled Scan. The notifier uses the scan configuration assigned from the Computer editor or the Policy editor, in the editor's Anti-Malware tab, in the General horizontal tab, in the Manual Scan section. For more details, see Create or edit a malware scan configuration.

A scan cannot be triggered:

• When the agent is being upgraded.
• When there is an ongoing server-side scan already taking place.
• If the scan configuration is empty.

Windows

1. To start a manual scan by the agent, in the Scan panel, click Scan.

2. Select the folders to scan and click Scan.

   • For a Full Scan, select This PC to start a scan of all files.
   • For a Custom Scan, select one or more files or folders to start a scan.

Once the scan is completed, the Scan Result displays the number of detected malware items. To view details of these items, click View Events in the notifier's Advanced panel.

An ongoing scan is halted if it has been triggered on a computer that is not available. For example, the user logs out of the computer after the scan has been started.

macOS

From the notifier console, select the Scan menu item, then from the submenu, do one of the following:

• Click Full Scan to start a scan of all files.
• Click Custom Scan to select one or more files or folders to scan, then start a scan.

To cancel a manual scan is already in progress, select Scan > Cancel Scan.

The server can also cancel a manual scan in progress.

When an ongoing scan was triggered from the notifier console:

• The scan continues if the user has logged out.
• The scan is terminated if the computer has been restarted.

Once a scan has completed, the notifier console displays in its Scan panel the number of malware items found. To view details for each malware item, select the Events menu item. This detailed information is also available from the computer editor or the policy editor in the editor's Anti-Malware tab, in the Anti-Malware Events horizontal tab.