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Lets say I download a trial software intended for my wife's Mac, but I do it from my PC (this happens more often than you would think ). If I scan the downloaded file(s) with my PC's security software, would it detect a virus/trojan/etc that would reside in that download?

I'm asking because, well, in the spirit of saving money like most people, since I have security software on my PC, why would I buy one for the Mac if my PC's can do it? IF it can, of course...

IME, no. Mac .dmg files are finnicky beasts, if I unpack them to scan them, they often don't work afterwards. If you don't unpack them, the scanner sees nothing.

Far beyond that, none of the PC antivirus/security packages are likely to recognize Mac malware.

Oh well... I guess we'll just have to continue to be careful then, until security software becomes really recommended on a Mac. Hopefully we'll never get to that point, but we never know... Thanks for the info.

vince wrote:

Oh well... I guess we'll just have to continue to be careful then, until security software becomes really recommended on a Mac. Hopefully we'll never get to that point, but we never know... Thanks for the info.

Or run the built in scanner for this for stuff you download. No need to keep it running in the background, just run when you want to scan something you download.

^yep. Just because it's not officially recommended for all users doesn't mean it doesn't exist.