Message processing steps

Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server scans incoming messages for spam before scanning for malware and applying filters. This reduces load because spam messages are discarded before they have a chance to pass through any additional scanning processes. When a message is processed, Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server scans the message header before scanning the message and any attachments. When a message is scanned by an FPE scan process, it is processed by antimalware engines and custom filters in one pass. The engines navigate each part of the encoded message or compressed files in a recursive manner, which maximizes performance.

See Also

Concepts

Understanding spam processing
Understanding antimalware scanning
Understanding custom filtering