How to Delete Viruses from Symantec Endpoint Quarantine (Windows XP/Vista)

Note: If Symantec cannot quarantine a risk, it leaves the risk alone. For more information about the quarantine and managing the quarantine, see the Client Guide for Symantec Endpoint Protection and Symantec Network Access Control.

By default, when Symantec Endpoint detects a security risk it tries to clean the infected virus from the file. When it cannot clean the file, it moves the infected file to quarantine. In quarantine, the risk cannot spread: quarantine holds and segregates virus-infected files until further action is taken on the files.

How to delete files from quarantine

Follow these instructions to permanently delete files from quarantine:

1. Open Symantec Endpoint by right-clicking the yellow Shield icon that's located in the Windows' system tray which is on the far right end of your task bar. Then, click Open Symantec Endpoint Protection.
2. In the left sidebar, click View quarantine.
3. Select the file you want to delete, then click Delete.
4. You can configure Symantec Endpoint to automatically purge quarantined files from your computer:
   1. Click the Purge Options button located at the bottom of the window. (If you don't have the Quarantine window visible, click View quarantine in the left sidebar).
   2. In the Purge Options dialog box, select Quarantined Items tab.
   3. Identify the unit of time and /or file size for deleting quarantined files. The default unit time is 30 days and the default file size is 50 megabytes.
   4. Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.
   5. Click the close box in the upper right window to quit the program.