Can you post a screenshot of the error message that is prompting for a password? I have never heard of this. What software is running the scan?

re :I would like to run a virus scan on my Thunderbird Profile. I am being asked for a password.

I agree with David, an image would help, but it sounds like you are using a Windows OS and that could be a prompt by Windows UAC asking permission to run a program you installed.

Advice: I would be careful about running any scan on anything to do with your Thunderbird profile. No Anti-Virus understands that a single mbox text file may contain more than one email. Whatever you choose to do - I strongly advise do not allow any AV to auto fix anything. Any 'fix' is likely to lose everything in that file = a folder in your mail account and if you use IMAP, then it will auto connect to server on restart and if that file is empty, then you may find all those emails get deleted off the server as well.

If you still want to scan the profile then always do this first. 1. Empty Spam 2. Empty Trash 3. Compact all folders to remove all 'marked as deleted' and 'hidden' emails from files.

Why do the above ? Because if you had a bad email and deleted it, you may still have the email in the file just 'marked as deleted'. IF AV locates that old trace of email, it could flag there's a problem. Compacting will remove those old deleted traces of emails and prevent a false positive result.

If you do ever get a scan that says eg: something bad in 'Inbox' DO NOT allow an auto fix - instead do this:

• Create folder on desktop and call it 'TB Scan'
• In Thunderbird, select Inbox, select one email in list and highlight/select all the emails (Ctrl+A).
• Right click on highlighted emails and selelect 'Save as'
• A window opens and you need to select 'Desktop' so it shows you all folders on desktop.
• Then select 'TB Scan', so it also displays in the bottom 'Folder: TB Scan
• Click on 'Select Folder'

This should then create a load of separate *.eml files, one for each email. Run a scan on that 'TB Scan' folder. It will then tell you which email is bad.

Now in Thunderbird, it means you can search for email in Inbox, delete, Empty Trash and compact the folder. In 'TB Scan' you can then allow the AV to fix that .eml file knowing it will not effect any other email.

Please note: Just downloading a bad email is not going to cause you are problem because you can simply delete and compact the file to fix the issue.

Emails only become dangerous if you do something you should not have done: Such as the three options below. A) click on any links in emails without checking what the link really is first. Hover over link and you will see the real link displayed in bottom Status bar.

B) open attachments just because you are curious what they contain. Never open any attachment if you are not 100% certain it's from a legit source. Do not be conned by people saying you owe monies or attached is your receipt when you haven't bourght anything. Those nefarious senders are just trying to catch you out hoping you are curious to see what it is.

C) Do not allow Remote content. Thunderbird does not allow remote content by default.

If you discover a virus has been installed anywhere on your computer, then remember to restart the computer in 'Safe Mode' first and then run a full scan.