It’s unfortunately only available in German but since it does not require lots of user input it can be valuable for non-German speakers as well. The only required input is a click on the button “Suchlauf Starten” to start the scan of the system. A check of the box below that button will perform a long scan of the system that requires a reboot.

Once started the application moves the mouse around and tests several behaviors. After a while it asks the user to input text. This happens three times to see if any of the running processes are reacting on the data input.

In the end all potentially dangerous applications are listed. The software seems to have troubles with Mozilla software because it did list several Firefox and Thunderbird files as potentially dangerous. The most dangerous files are listed at the top with their system path.

The approach has a few advantages but also a disadvantage. The advantage is obviously that you can use it to remove known viruses, trojans, worms and other malicious software even if the computer cannot be booted into the operating system anymore. And since it is a standalone client it is not dependent on an installed anti-virus client but can be used on any computer that can be booted from CD. This also means that the program is independent from the installed operating system.

The disadvantage of the approach is that the virus definitions cannot be updated that easily and that it normally means that the full boot disk would have to be downloaded and burned to CD again meaning that this would have to be done regularly to stay up to date.

The good news is that you can download the Kaspersky Rescue Disk freely from an Kaspersky FTP and burn it to CD or DVD using a CD burning software like Nero.

The computer has to boot from the media and the boot sequence can be set in the computer BIOS. Make sure that the computer checks the DVD drive for a bootable device before it pulls the data from the hard drives.

The interface of the Rescue Disk is straightforward. It basically allows you to scan the computer for malicious software and offers ways to remove any that are found. This does not give a guarantee that the computer can be booted again after the cleanup though. A damaged file normally does not get repaired by anti-virus software.

I personally do not install software like this especially if it has Norton / Symantec or McAfee written on it. Still this might be useful for some and it is free after all. Here are the steps that you need to do: (Thanks to Raymond for finding another great offer)

Visit the Natwest website and click on the huge banner at the bottom saying Free PC Security, Protect your PC for 12 months with McAfee VirusScan Plus. This will lead you to a McAfee website that has a Register Now button. Click on that button and fill out the registration form.

McAfree VirusScan Plus 2008 Features

• Safe Search, Safe Surf. McAfee® SiteAdvisor™ adds ratings to websites to help you avoid online dangers.
• Home License Subscription Service. Automatically delivers the latest software features and threat updates and lets you easily manage security subscriptions for all your PCs.
• Stops Viruses. Blocks and removes viruses and even stops them before they even get to your PC.
• Stops Hackers. Protects and conceals your computer from hackers.
• Blocks Spyware. Blocks spyware before it installs on your computer and removes existing spyware.
• Improves PC Health. Cleans clutter off your computer so it stays healthy and secure.

It requires your name, email and a password. You might want to uncheck the options below the form so that you do not subscribe to those newsletters. Click on the I Agree button to proceed and in the next window on the Go To My Account button.

This should load the account window and you should see the McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008 subscription in a table on that page. A download / install button is available in the same row, click that button to download the file DMSetup.exe and execute it when the download is finished.

You should be automatically logged into your account, if not the option is given in the tool. Just click on the Download button to download the real product which takes a while. Once the download is completed you click on Install to install the product.

The Register Now link is not working all the time. My first test through up an error message. Just try it again and it should work afte all.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus sells for $39.95 regularly and is considered by many magazines to be one of the best antivirus solutions available. The key works with the English version of Kaspersky as well so don’t worry about that. The key will be send to your inbox after finishing the registration at the Chinese forum.

Raymond posted a nice registration walkthrough and I recommend that you check out his website and use it as a guide to make your way through the registration process. Once you got the serial number you can download Kaspersky Antivirus 7.0 and use the serial number that was send to you to activate the software.

I was not able to find a engine that I knew of that was not listed, all the major players like Symantec, AVG, Kapersky and Avira are listed which means that the file will get a very special treatment. Even though the file gets scanned by those 32 engines it is no guarantee that it does not contain a virus. No script or software can give you that guarantee but this looks like the best way to scan a file for malicious code and the possibility of success is greater with it.

There does not seem to be a file size limit, at least nothing is mentioned on their pages regarding a file size limit. I suspect that big files will result in an error message after a certain time.

Files can be uploaded using SSL for increased security and it can be checked that the file will not be distributed to the antivirus companies if a virus is found. This is an important option that should be checked most of the time because of privacy issues.

Virus Total offers another way to check files for malicious code. You can send them an email to scan@virustotal.com with SCAN (or SCAN- if you do not want to distribute the sample) and no body text. Attach the file to the email and make sure that it does not exceed 10 Megabytes.

A report will be send after the scan to the email that send the file. Users can also download a shell extension to send files directly from the context menu to Virus Total. Found the link at Make Use Of.

It is no security software for beginners but excellent for advanced users and users who know someone who is able to draw the right conclusions from the security logs that have been generated. Another way to receive fast results would be to use the online script Hijack This logfile analysis. You can paste the logfile into the form field or upload the log from your computer and the script analyzes the logfile of Hijack This automatically.

It uses user input to determine whether something is a potential threat or not. This works most of the time but leads sometimes to unjustified ratings. I installed AV Antivir in a custom directory and the analyzer used this to indicate a possible problem. I think the best way to cope with this situation would be to briefly analyze the elements that could be malicious and decided if that is really the case. To use the above example: I knew that I did install it in that directory and therefor decided that the warning was not justified in this case.

If you are insecure about a certain setting ask in the well frequented support forum or search the internet for clues on the subject. Hijack This has a similar analyze this button build in which takes you to the website of the developer of Hijack This. They display information about everything that was found on your computer and how frequent it was found in other computers.

This could be an indicator for safeness but I would suggest that you perform additional searches to be on the safe side. You can download the newest version of Hijack This from TrendSecure by following the link in the first paragraph.

Most of the worms, in particular the most famous, use known vulnerabilities in Windows services which are enabled by default and that often can’t be disabled via the OS’s configuration.
Even with these services patched with Microsoft security fixes, they are still exposed to the Internet at large ready to be exploited by the next exploit.