Free Antivirus Help Blog

    Multi Virus Cleaner is a standalone free antivirus that can remove an assortment of viruses quickly and painlessly.  Rather than providing real time protection, Multi Virus Cleaner 2009 removes specific virus infections.  This can be helpful if one already knows what kind of virus is on their computer rather than having to purchase a full antivirus package to remove a single virus.   The program is highly rated and eventhough, released in 2009, still detects and removes over 6,000 popular virus traces.

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    The program download size is small at only 2.5 megabytes and comes in a zip file.  The installation went very quickly.  Unfortunately, I ran into some problems with the test system running Windows 7 Home Premium.  Simply trying to launch the program fails.  One will need to navigate to the program folder and then enable compatibility mode for Windows XP and enable administrative privileges to get the program to work properly.  Once this is completed,  Multi Virus Cleaner 2009 can launch. 

    The Multi Virus Cleaner 2009 Interface is very similar to the Microsoft’s Security Essentials interface.  There are several scanning options available including a quick, full, and deep scan.  In addition, a user can also perform a memory scan and a spyware scan.  There is also an update button.  However, the software doesn’t have a built-in update capability, it simply sends the user to the publishers website to download the latest executable.

    The virus and spyware scanning on Multi Virus Cleaner are extremely fast.  The software scans at least 300 files per second.  However, looking at the Windows 7 resource monitor I didn’t see the disk activity that would indicate that speed of scanning (this could be because of the compatibility settings).  A quick scan completed in about 15 minutes.  The program used 12 percent CPU power and about 75 megabytes of memory.  The program found zero infected files on the test computer. 

    Multi Virus Cleaner 2009 can detect an array of viruses.  Some of the  viruses and trojans include Storm, Peed, Sdbot, Warezov, Mocbot, Winshell, VanBot, Sality, Virtumonde, Kelvir, Slammer, Spybot, Fizzer, Lovgate, Bug Bear, Ghosts, Gaobot, Bobax, Persis, WinTrim, Magicon, and many more.

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    PC Tools Antivirus Free 2011 was just released today.  The software is the main antivirus program that is provided by Google Pack.  The software is also recognized as being lightweight and very efficient.  Some of the new features include integrated ThreatFire community zero day protection (I believe a first for a free antivirus ) a global action list to block certain activities, an updated interface, and more.

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Installation:

    PC Tools Antivirus Free 2011 comes in a nice 500 kilobyte package that is easy to download.  Once the installer is launched, the program downloads the main program which is about an 80 megabytes in size.  However, the installer actually downloaded two programs PC Tools Internet Security and PC Tools Antivirus Free 2011.  The installer gives the user the option to install either program.  However, the Internet Security Version is only a trial.  I of course chose the free version and resumed the install.  Unfortunately, there was another downside, the installer then had to download the virus definitions.  The virus definitions were over 100 megabytes in size.  Therefore, the seemingly small installer download is actually about 200 megabytes in size. User with a slow connection may just appreciate to initially download the program all at once with a download accelerator rather than wait through a bunch of menus. Once the install is completed, PC Tool Antivirus Free 2011 ran an initial virus scan.  PC Tools Antivirus Free 2011 also registered successfully with Windows 7 Security / Action center indicating and up to date virus.  Finally, the program installed 3 services the PC tools auxiliary service, the PC tools Security Service, and the Browser Defender Update Service (even though this protection is technically listed as only available in the full version)

    Upon starting the antivirus, a user will notice that the whole interface  has been upgraded significantly.  While PC Tools has decided to keep the original background of the previous versions.  The status of the antivirus is prominently displayed.   Large icons depict that both the scan now and intelliguard are active and protecting the system.   However, one annoying thing is that the advertisements to upgrade to the full version are also more prominently displayed. There are also is a box that flies across the screen telling a user about an upgrade. However, PC Tools needs to make their money somehow and at least the software doesn’t prompt the user on every reboot about the fact that they are only running a free version (a.k.a. Bitdefender Free).  Also, the software automatically schedules scans to run every other day.

Functionality:

    As stated above, PC Tools has significantly beefed up the functionality of PC Tools Free Antivirus.  The first huge antivirus technology update is the inclusion of ThreatFires Zero Day community based antivirus.  This feature is identical to Norton Insight and other variants in that it utilizes all active PC Tools users antivirus programs.  Every PC acts like a detector and alerts all other user about its detection history and heuristics. This means that the collective information will allow PC Tools Antivirus Free 2011 to proactively block threats.

    The next updates are small yet important.  The first is the ability to scan alternative data streams or essentially rootkit detection technology. This again is offered in very few “free antivirus”. Next, is the global action list.  This list allows the user to define a website or file that a user wants to block or always allow. This is helpful if PC Tools Antivirus Free 2011 identifies a false positive and a user can then unblock that file from being constantly detected.  In addition, if there is a bad website or file a user can block that as well.  Finally, there is a background idle scan technology that does basically what it says.  If the computer is idle, the computer gets a virus scan; sweet.

Virus Scanning:

    The performance of the virus scan has vastly improved.  The inteli-Scan completed in a ridiculously fast 12 seconds (utilizes a memory scan) and utilized only 40 megabytes and about 13 percent CPU power.  There is also a new check box that a user can select and allows PC Tools Antivirus Free 2011 to use an autofix functionality.  A full system scan took about 1 hour and the memory usage swelled to about 70 megabytes and CPU usage still remained at about 13 percent (still a very reasonable amount).  The virus scanner is really fast.  According to Windows Resource Monitor, I was getting sustained disk activity from 7 megabytes a second up to 23 megabytes per second.  One thing that’s also nice is when one pauses the scan, it actually stops.  Most free antivirus require a wait time of at least 15 seconds before the scanner can stop.  In terms of detection, PC tools didn’t detect any viruses or false positives on the test system.  The antivirus is certified by all major test labs and provides benchmark protection.  Also, the updates now show within the last hour whether they were updated indicating a new pulse update feature?

Tweaks:

    Even though the interface has been updated the usability of the GUI is generally the same as before.  I always do a few things when configuring PC Tool free antivirus.  The first thing is I navigate over to the file guard in the intelliguard setting and select File Guard.  The original setting is only for “process and executables”.  However, one should change this setting to “All files and Processes”, which will make PC Tools identical to other mainstream antivirus programs.  In addition, one will want to select  allow “Intelliguard to detect potentially unwanted products” and finally change the smart update to “download and install updates silently”.  If one has a fast computer they can also select “run a scan on startup”.

    In conclusion, PC Tools Antivirus Free 2011 is an excellent antivirus  and now comes with more features than the competitors.  What does this mean for the consumer?  Only better and more attractive free antivirus to come!

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    ZenOK is a brand new free antivirus that was literally released last night.  This fact doesn’t instill a lot of confidence about the performance of the software but we thought we would review it anyway.  If one travels to the ZenOK website they will notice that the company claims the free antivirus offers a lot of protection.  There features are as follows antivirus and antispyware engines, push virus updates that arrive several times per day, secure download and email capabilities, p2p scanning functionality, and fast virus scanning.  The ZenOK is bundled with the companies online backup solution that isn’t free.  The company’s headquarters are located in the United States so the software can’t be that bad. One concerning thing was that one of the latest viruses threats was the eicar test virus which has been released for a while.

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    The ZenOK download size was an impressive 35 megabytes and the installation went extremely quickly.  The software required a reboot after the installation completed but I opted out.  Once the software started for the first time the user is prompted to create an account and login.  The first time I attempted to registered it resulted in a failure.  The second time I was successful and gained my free license.  Once ZenOK free antivirus started, the program immediately started a slow unobtrusive virus scan.  During the scan, the software used about 50 megabytes across two services and about 3 percent CPU power.  These numbers are pretty impressive for a slow scan (the company’s ultra light scan).  I then decided to start a full system virus scan.  The CPU activity jumped to about 12 percent and scanned about 50 files per second.  I thought it was interesting how there was an icon for “bomb” count in the detected malicious items.  I haven’t seen this in other free antivirus programs.

    One thing that ZenOK does very well are the interface design.  The program really does look good.  This includes how the website is presented and the status of one’s computer within the software.  ZenOK could really teach some other antivirus companies about usability.

    Finally, the ZenOK antivirus also includes a hard drive monitoring utility that displays the temperature and few other settings.

    I like the idea of including a free antivirus with a backup service.  However, I would have preferred that the company partnered with AVG or Avast as these companies have proven track records on performance.  Not to ding ZenOK but it hasn’t arrived at the mature product status yet.  It will be interesting to see what the company has to offer in the future. 

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   Vcleaner is a small utility (let me emphasize small) that cleans 704 viruses automatically.  The great thing about Vcleaner is that one doesn’t have to deal with a bunch of fancy menus or configuration; the thing just scans and it does it well.

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    So why use Vcleaner rather than a full free antivirus?  Well, the first reason is that it doesn’t need to be installed.  Simply download the file (a ridiculous 170 kilobytes in size, the smallest I have ever seen) and run.  No need to change a systems configuration.  Also, Vcleaner runs on all versions of Windows even 64bit and Windows 7.  Most virus cleaners are only designed for one type of 32bit operating system.

    The next reason is the scanner is fast. According to Windows 7 performance monitor,  the scanner scans at about 5 megabytes per second.  In addition the scanner, uses limited resources, a tiny 4 megabytes during scanning and only 3 percent CPU power.  This makes Vcleaner easily one the most efficient free antivirus that I have yet seen.  This must be because the antivirus runs in the command line and therefore has no need to render complex graphics or other indicators.

    Another great reason to use Vcleaner is compatibility with older systems.  A lot of legacy computers can barely run mainstream antivirus.  Vcleaner, as shown above, uses little to no resources.  Also, since Vcleaner is a command line antivirus it can easily be run on every system startup for a quick unobtrusive virus scan.

    There are a few downsides to Vcleaner one is that the program is quite old released in 2007 (same year this website was started).  Vcleaner was actually released by Girsoft which is now known as AVG.   Next, the program has limited detection capability.  Vcleaner only detects a set list of viruses and it cannot be updated.  The viruses and worms are as follows I-Worm/Stration, Worm/Generic.FX, I-Worm/Atak.A-I, Downloader.Agent.AS, Win32/Hidrag, Bagle.DA-IU and several more.

    A full system scan with Vcleaner completed in less than 45 minutes on a 7200 rpm hard drive.  This is also an extremely competitive speed and highly respectable.
If you have one of the above listed viruses, you can’t lose to run a scan with Vcleaner.  The software is designed by the premier antivirus company, AVG and will delete viruses instantly.

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    F-Secure is a famous Finish antivirus company that is well known for their high detection rates.  Unfortunately, the company doesn’t offer much of anything for free.  Just try going to the website and looking for a free download.   One will be hard pressed to find anything other than a free online scan.

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    However, we have uncovered from the depths of the internet, F-Secures shot at a free antivirus program.  The software called F-Secure Easy Clean Free Antivirus is an extremely to use antivirus and continues F-Secure’s innovation in the area of user usability. The program comes in a small executable at only 5 megabytes in size but packs a big punch.   F-Secure Easy Cleaner scans for Viruses, worms, rootkits, spyware, Trojans, and many other malware traces.  The software utilizes the F-Secure command line scanner and uses about 40 megabytes of RAM during a virus scan.  Also, the scanner used minimal CPU power almost negligible which is the least I have seen of any other free antivirus.  Also, the scanner appears to use a memory scan in that subsequent scans got faster and faster.

    And not to forget the best selling point of the software, the ease of use.  F-Secure Easy Clean really provided the most hassle free virus scanning I have seen yet.  All one needs to do is accept the terms of conditions and then click the large start button.  Then a light the size of an apple turns orange the scanner starts.  It’s literally so easy my grandma could do it.  And that’s the point! So many users are novice and just don’t know  how to run a virus scan.  This is why F-Secure Easy Clean free antivirus was invented; to satisfy this underserved niche.  So, if someone you know has a slow computer send them the F-Secure Easy Clean Free antivirus.  The user and the helper will be satisfied that they did.

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     We have reviewed a lot of standalone free antivirus over the years.  They include Kaspersky, Escan etc. and use their own virus definition sets.  The disadvantage to these standalone antivirus is that one has to redownload the complete executable every time they want the latest definitions.  As a result a user  could be using a standalone antivirus scanner that is weeks out dated.  Why would an antivirus company want to release an up to date free version when one could get the paid versions with the up to date definitions?

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    The solution is Trend Micro System Cleaner.  The actual system cleaner program is a small 4.7 megabyte file that only includes the scanning engine.  Now, the standalone scanning engine is not effective without up to date virus definitions.  The solution is to download the latest Trend Micro pattern files (virus database) and simply put them in the same folder as the free system cleaner.  The Trend Micro pattern files are designed to be used in corporate and paid antivirus.  However, they also work wonderfully in the completely free trend micro system cleaner.  The virus updates or pattern files are located by the file names below.  They are available from the trend micro website and hundreds of download sites across the internet.  

•  lpt$vpn.*** in a file  called lpt***.zip
•  ssapiptn.da5 in a file called ssapiptn***.zip
•  (the *’s indicate different releases on different dates)

    Anyways, considering this whole thing is kind of ghetto, I downloaded the latest pattern files for August 15th and put them into a zip file.  The zip file contains both the virus pattern file and the antispyware pattern file.   Trend Micro System Cleaner  supports  Trend Micro antispyware definitions (the same virus definitions included in the full antispyware product!)  I provided this full set of definitions via uploading.com

Virus Scanning:

    The Trend Micro System Cleaner is a very efficient scanner and significantly more than competing free antivirus.  The reason is that the virus scanner runs in the command line and doesn’t need to display all of the nicest graphics etc.  During scanning operation, the scanner used under 10% CPU power and about 100 megabytes of memory.  However, according to Windows Resource Monitor,  Trend Micro System Cleaner scanned about 4 megabytes per second.  The software also includes auto delete functionality and moves the files to a backup folder that the program creates upon launch.

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    The premise of Returnil Virtual System 2010 is first to market security tool that combines free antivirus and virtualization in one software package.  The virtualization means that when, Returnil is activated, the computer runs in a complete virtual system that is separated from the actual operating system.  This means that any changes that one does while the system is in a virtual state are deleted upon reboot.  One could potentially get the worst virus and Trojan infection possible and download whatever one wants.  When the system is restarted, the original Windows folder and all affected files will remain intact and virus free.  Therefore, on the surface Returnil Virtual System 2010 is perfect for a high security browsing environment. So, Ruturnil Virtual System 2010 is in effect a very locked down Group Policy variant when activated.

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    One thing that I think Returnil Virtual System 2010 separates itself from other virtualization competitors is its ease of use.  Once installed (need to wait a while for a proper system snapshot for first use), one gets a side bar widget that displays the status of the virtual protection. One simply needs to click the widget and the protection is instantly active.  There is no loading time or need to get into some special VMware screen.

    The next, thing that makes Returnil Virtual System 2010 stand out is its malware protection capabilities.  In addition to the virtual system, there is a complete free antivirus engine installed.  There are the quick scan (completed in about 23 seconds) and the full system scan (took about 1 hour and a half).  The antivirus system is VB100 certified meaning that it really has reached mainstream status.  Also, regardless of whether one is in the virtual state or not, there is always malware protection enabled.

     Returnil Virtual System 2010 includes numerous additional functionality and security settings.  The file manager gives the user the option to exempt certain files or folders from being deleted after a system is restarted.  This is great for a folder like my documents etc.  that shouldn’t be deleted on restart.  There is also a virtual disk which works like the file manager and remains intact regardless of whether in the virtual system or not.  The virtual disk can be assigned a drive letter in My computer for easy access.

   Returnil Virtual System 2010 is surprisingly light on resources.  When idle, the program uses only 18 megabytes for the program to function and only adds one new process at 9 megabytes when a virus scan is in progress.  In addition, the virus scan only used a maximum of 15 percent CPU power.  Surprisingly, even though Returnil takes a full system snapshot, the whole hard drive usage is only a 100 megabytes.

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    Dr. Web Cureit! is a standalone free antivirus that is completely contained in a 46 megabyte download.  Upon launching the scanner, the whole systems screen fades out slightly and states that the Dr. Web Cureit! has entered Enhanced Protection Mode or EPM.  EPM  essentially prevents malware from stopping or interfering with the antivirus scanning process.   Therefore, the whole system has entered in a safe mode like state and can dedicate full resources to scanning for viruses.  This great for malware that are designed to stop or interfere with antivirus

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    The user is then given two options to either update the software or start the scan.  The update button, is kind of lacking in functionality in that all it does is redirect the user to the Dr. Web CureIT! website to download the latest version.  The next option is to actually start the scan which is where the fun begins.

    Once the start button is pushed an antivirus scanner immediately loads the virus scanner. Even though there appears to be other options to customize the scan, they are blanked out.  A user can only change the language, pause the scan, or view statistics about what is detected.  However, DR Web CureIt scans an impressive amount of system areas for viruses.  They include

• Running Processes and Ram
• Boot Sectors
• Startup objects
• Boot disk root directory
• Windows directory
• Users folders and more.

    The virus scan completely very quickly.  The scanner  finished in about 20 minutes and scanned about 21,278 files for viruses and utilized a robust 1,589,104 virus definitions during scanning.

    On the Dr Web CureIt! statistic page, there is a lot of interesting information.  This includes types of viruses, adware, that were detected.  I really like the scan time and the speed at which the virus scan was being completed.  On the test system, the scan was moving at a efficient speed of about 7 megabytes per second.  Dr Web CureIt! used about 86 megabytes during the virus scan and about 10 percent of CPU power.  Normal computing operations didn’t seem affected.

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    We have previously reviewed G-Data antivirus.  The strengths of the companies software include excellent detection rates by using dual scanning engines.  The G-Data Remover tool builds on the companies innovations.  The whole antivirus is  contained in only 334 kilobytes but has detection and removal capability for over 792 viruses and 1000’s of traces.  Some of the viruses and worms that G-Data can remove are as follows.

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   Bagle, My Doom, CodBot, Agent, Afcore, Padofor, PoeBot, Mabutu, Sobig, Bobic, Vesser, dialers, Beastdoor, Netsky, Sober, Plexus, Zafi, Sasser, Blaster, Mytob, Zlob, Banker and many more. 

    Remover scans the registry, temporary files, memory, and all hard drive locations for virus traces.  G-Data Remover can also scan network drives, which is frequently a limitation in other free versions.  Finally, G-Data Remover managed to fit 7 languages into the program including  English, Polish, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Dutch and Italian.

    I ran into some problems with Remover.  First, the software incorrectly labeled my operating system as Windows Vista even though I am running Windows 7.  However, this didn’t lead to any problems with removal or scanning.  G-Data remover also has an auto update feature built-in.  However, when I attempted to update the program I got an error message that the server cannot be contacted.  This error is probably because G-Data no longer officially supports Remover.

    In conclusion, save yourself time by simply using Remover rather than having to download individual virus removers for each virus or worm listed above.  Even the Remover is a little dated, it still is an effective antivirus tool for users who need to remove specific viruses.

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    Panda Global Security 2011 builds on the advancements made in the companies cloud technology.  In fact, the cloud technology has become so good that in PC magazine’s latest testing, cloud antivirus achieved  an unrivaled 100% detection rate on the newest viruses.  Panda Global Security 2011 not only includes the cloud based technology but also firewall, antivirus, identity protection, vulnerability protection, anti spam, parental controls, and optimization features.

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Installation:

    One of the most surprising features of Panda Global Security is that the whole executable with all of the above listed features is only 57 megabytes.  This should convey to the user that the antivirus software is very efficiently designed.  I presume that since definitions etc. are located on the cloud, this really cuts down on the programs overhead.  The installation was easy and gave 3 options the complete, minimal, and custom installation. I choose custom and was given the option to turn on or off individual components such as the firewall etc. Surprisingly there is a remote access option which I presume is for support purposes. The installation also allows the user to opt to use the Panda firewall or the Windows Firewall  with an option to also allow common programs to access the internet.

Usage:

    Upon starting a virus scan, Panda immediately contacts their servers to start the virus scan via the cloud.  Therefore, it appears that an internet connection is required to get the full protection out of the software.  The scanning process was very fast compared to competitors and completed in about 1 hour. The virus scanner used about 12 to 14% CPU power and about 25 megabytes of memory.  This brings the total footprint of the software to consistently under 50 megabytes of memory.  This is fantastic for an internet security software let alone a beta product. The scanner detected one infection and automatically deleted it. This infection (a semi false positive) had been flagged by other antivirus as suspicious.   IN Conclusion, memory usage and scanning speed have really improved in the 2011 version and I haven’t seen a competing antivirus rival this combination of that Panda Global Security 2011 offers.

Interface:

    I think the interface of Panda Global Security 2011 leaves more to desire.  The menus while nice looking aren’t 3d and don’t snap. The menus kind of dissolve onto the screen like a jpeg being downloaded off the internet.  I personally think this is a little unacceptable on a core i7 machine. However, this is a beta release so I can’t draw a complete conclusion.  Another issue is that the child menus are the same color as the foreground menus making them hard to distinguish.  Also the icons are small and don’t really convey the message to the user.

Additional Features:

    One nice thing that I noticed was the inclusion of the Virtual Keyboard.  This presumably was derived from the Kaspersky products.  I concluded that these virtual keyboards are actually safe by installing a keylogger a while back.  In terms of the Firewall and Identity Protection.  Again, an interface redo would be helpful in understanding their features as its hard to discern what they actually do.  I personally think that the default Windows 7 firewall is more helpful and user friendly.  There is also an included gaming mode that is accessible via the task icon.  However, to Panda Global Security 2011’s credit it appears to utilize background protections without telling the user so configuration isn’t really necessary.

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