When you review as much software as I do, you are grateful for every additional tool that you can utilize to make sure a software can be recommended on your site. Nothing’s worse for your site’s reputation than recommending a program that turns out to be malicious in nature. This fortunately has never happened on Ghacks yet.

Threat Expert is one of those services that helps you analyze files. You can use an online form to submit files directly on the website, or download an applet for your Windows operating system to send files directly from your desktop to the service’s server.

You need to add an email address if you use the local application to send a file to Threat Expert, as it may take some time to scan the file. The email contains the link to the report on the website. Scans during tests did not take longer than five minutes to complete. The online submission did not work at all during tests, only the submission applet worked as advertised.

The report displays many useful information, including technical details about files that were created on a system (if the file is an installer), directories that were created, Registry modifications and attempts to connect toremote hosts. Take a look at this sample report for pointers.

A click on a particular file name listed in a report displays additional information about the file. You see the number of cases where the file was analyzed in reports, and the number of incidents when this file was found to be a threat.

You can browse and search all previously generated reports on the site, which may be helpful if you want to quickly look up a file name.

Probably the biggest limitation of the service is the file size limitation. You cannot upload files larger than 5 Megabytes which means that some files cannot be scanned at all.

The ability to display local and remote activities is on the other hand the most valuable feature of the service.

Threat Expert is a handy service that works well in combination with other online scanning services such as Virus Total or No Virus Thanks.

Norton’s Security Scan (via JK Web Talks) is such a software. While it has been primarily designed to sell a Norton antivirus product like Norton 360 it can be used to scan the system without interfering with the current antivirus solution. What makes it interesting is that it uses the latest virus definition files that are also used in Norton retail antivirus software products. It does however perform only a partial scan of the computer system by default but this option can be changed in the settings on the main page.

The antivirus software program will check the virus definition file and initiate a download of the latest if it is outdated. The antivirus software will then either perform a quick or full scan of the computer system. A quick scan will only check the most common locations where viruses and other malicious programs are found while the full system scan will check all files located on connected hard drives.

The interface will display banner advertisement during the scan; Most users will probably minimize the program interface or move other applications into the foreground to prevent those distracting advertisements from appearing on the computer screen. Norton Security Scan will list all discovered threads in a table on the main page providing information about the type of threat (e.g. tracking cookie) including a description, the threat name and target name.

The antivirus program is only a scanner which means it is not possible to clean the files directly. Possibilities include research on the Internet to find a free antivirus software that can clean it or to contact the developer of the installed antivirus solution about the problem. It should be obvious by now that the program is great for users who want to perform additional security scans of their computer system but not for those who are looking for a complete security solution.