Free Antivirus Help Blog

    I have reviewed several free antivirus rescue CD’s.  Most of the time the antivirus company simply provides the download but very little documentation.  AVG’s Rescue CD is different.  The company provides in depth guide with screenshots highlighting on how to use antivirus engine and many of the extra included tools.  One could also say that the AVG Rescue CD is also a full system recovery disk given the attention on getting ones unbootable system working.

• Download the AVG Rescue CD
  
• Download the AVG Rescue CD for USB drives

USB functionality –

    The AVG Rescue CD is one of the only antivirus rescue disks that provides separate executables to be installed on a USB flash drive.  This is perfect for a netbook or laptop without a CD ROM drive.  One disadvantage is that one needs to completely delete all of their data from the flash disk before installing the AVG Rescue CD.  Of course, the AVG Rescue CD can be burned onto a disk at any time.

Effective Antivirus and Antispyware –

    The AVG Rescue CD includes both an antivirus and an antispyware engine which is identical to the retail and free versions.  This means that the AVG Rescue CD will probably end up rescuing the infected computer.  In addition, to great virus protection, the AVG Rescue CD includes a built in update functionality which will be necessary because the install files haven’t been updated since April 29, 2010.  One problem with the update feature is that it runs in the boot menu (linux) rather than Windows.  This means that it may have difficulty locating a driver to use for networking (one also needs to setup an ip address or have dhcp enabled). I recommend having wireless turned off an using the Ethernet for networking. The AVG Rescue disk also has a functionality where one can initially download the virus update and install it via the Repair menu.  However, there isn’t documentation about where to find the update file.

Additional Tools –

    AVG Rescue CD really shines in that if offers a lot more than just antivirus protection.  I just compiled a quick list of some of the functionality.

• Vault mode – if AVG free deleted an important file an quarantined it, the file can be restored through the AVG Rescue Disk.
• Memory Testing Capability
• File recovery and hard drive viewing application
• Text Web browser
• Registry Editor
• ScanDisk or ChkDsk functionality
• And more…
  

    As one can see the AVG Rescue CD is more than just a recovery antivirus and rather a whole system recovery tool.  The CD performed excellent on the test system.  I will definitely add it to my personal toolkit.

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    Sophos Shortcut Exploit Protection Tool is to my knowledge one of the first free security tools provided by Sophos.  The company has previously only offered trial versions on very rare circumstances.  While simple, the Sophos Shortcut Exploit Protection Tool should not be ignored because it offers very important protection capability. 

    Update 8/2: Microsoft has release a KB update KB2286198 for Windows 7 to solve the shortcut problem. Download it here

• Download Sophos Shortcut Exploit Protection Tool from Free Antivirus Help
  

    The vulnerability, Microsoft Security Advisory 2286198, affects all Windows Operating Systems including Windows XP SP3, Vista, Windows 2003 server, Windows 2008 and Windows 7 including 32 bit and 64 bit editions.  The vulnerability affects all shortcuts on a Windows system.  And guess what, the shortcut doesn’t even have to be clicked.  All that needs to happen is the user simply needs to view the shortcut image (for example just “looking at ones desktop”).  As one can deduce this is a huge vulnerability because one doesn’t even need to click on anything.  Even worse practically every Windows system is vulnerable and there has already been active malware using this vulnerability.   In fact,  the Stuxnet worm specifically targeted US SCADA systems (the command and control systems for nuclear power plants and utilities; comforting huh?)

    As of today, there has been no official patch by Microsoft to fix this vulnerability.  There have been some attempts to fix the shortcut vulnerability by blanking out all of the .LNK shortcut files meaning all icons look the same (not really a practical fix for users).    However, Sophos has released the Shortcut Exploit Protection Tool which does not require all the icons to be blanked out.  Why Sophos released a fix before Microsoft is beyond me.

Installation:

    The Sophos Shortcut Exploit Protection Tool arrives in an .MSI install package and is 2.4 megabytes in size.  The .MSI installer means that the Protection Tool can be easily distributed quickly across an organization domain.  The installation was a breeze simply click next twice and the install finishes.  Two complaints are that there isn’t any pop-up or acknowledgement that the protection is active and there isn’t any protection for .PIF shortcuts.  Sophos has also assured users that the Shortcut Exploit Protection Tool is compatible with free antivirus programs and won’t cause any conflicts

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    The Emsisoft Emergency Toolkit is kind of a designed as a swiss army knife for virus repair.  It includes the Emergency Kit Scanner, a command line scanner, HijackFREE (an improvement on hijackthis), and Blitzbank (a lock file removal tool).

• Download the Emsisoft Emergency Toolkit Anti Malware for Free
  

Installation:  

    The download was kind of large at 105 megabytes.  The installation is as easy as unzipping the programs into a folder.  Once the files are unzipped, a fancy menu opens up highlighting all of the antivirus tools included with the Emergency Toolkit.

    Emergency Kit Scanner Free Antivirus -  Upon launching the antivirus, the user is immediately prompted to update the antivirus definitions.  The antivirus resembles the Emisoft A-squared free but is more streamlined.  There is a deepscan, custom scan, and standard scan.  The scanner immediately found 4 viruses that Norton Security Scan had missed.  After the scan was done,  which took about 2 hours, the files were moved to the quarantine.  Most freeware emergency scanners like Escan’s malware toolkit do not include quarantine capability meaning false positives cannot be restored.  I have run into a situation where an automatically deleted false positive ruined my registry (happened yesterday).  Therefore, Emsisoft’s Emergency Toolkit is superior in this way.  A user can also customize a scan to shutdown afterwards, report viruses only, or quarantine objects .

    Emergency Kit Commandline Scanner – is another useful utility that mirrors the emergency kit scanner review above, however it runs in the command line.  Why is this useful?  Well if Windows can’t be booted then this scanner can be run and can delete all viruses that may be preventing Windows from being booted properly.  The commandline scanner can be run from safe mode and even a Windows PE installation.  In addition, all of the functions can be controlled via 26 parameters or DOS switches and there is even a built-in update utility.

    HIjackFREE -   Emisoft HijackFREE is a HijackThis clone but offers more extensive reporting.  HijackFREE displays all active process and ports that are currently in use and also as new entries are added.   However, the best feature is the autorun section which probably includes every possible place that an application could autorun.  I particularly like the trick startup area (hard to find startups) which includes the Winlogin, Active Setup, Static VxD, Shell Open Command, 16-bit Versions, AppInit DLL, and other hidden registry areas.  There is also a Schedule option (goes way above and beyond the standard Windows Task Scheduler) in which I found a lot of deleted programs that left their schedules in tack.  There is also an “Others” section.  The “Others” includes explorer add-ons, lsp protocols, hosts, and active programs.  I couldn’t believe that there were thousands of active entries.  Finally, there is a quarantine section where any entry that deleted is  quarantined and can be restored if a conflict occurs.

    BlitzBank – BlitzBank is a locked file, folder, registry key, registry value, driver, etc. delete on system reboot.  In addition, one can also have a file executed on reboot.   A user can upload or create a script that has a series of executing or deleting options upon reboot.  Users can also post their scripts to the web and BlitzBank can download the scripts.

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    Norman Antivirus is based out of Norway and was founded in 1984.  The company offers a wide range of virus scanners that are ICSA labs certified.  In addition, the company’s technologies are used by Symantec, eEye digital security, and many other famous security firms.

• Download Norman Malware Cleaner for Free
  

    The companies freeware offering is Norman Malware Cleaner.  The software is pretty hefty for a scanner coming in at a 71 megabyte download.  The interface is also pretty basic but don’t let this fool a user into thinking that the software is limited.  The Norman Malware Cleaner uses the same scanning technology as the companies retail products and it goes above and beyond other companies free alternatives.  The first strength is the ability to scan and remove rootkits.  Keep in mind that Rootkit removal technology is only offered by a handful of paid antivirus.   The next feature is the ability to scan the Windows Firewall configuration for Trojan and Worm entries and effectively delete them.  The ability to scan the Windows firewall is to my knowledge, unique to Norman Malware Cleaner. 

    Norman Malware Cleaner also supports Windows server operating systems.  These include Windows 2000, 2003, and even 2008.  This is a stand out feature because 99% of free antivirus are specifically limited to consumer (xp, vista, 7) and won’t even install on server O/S’s.  In addition, Norman Malware Cleaner works comfortably on all other consumer versions of Windows. 

    Norman Malware Cleaner also scans for an deletes specific browser infections including BHO’s, Active X, and even malicious Windows Host File entries.  If Norman Malware Cleaner locates a locked virus process, the scanner can restart the system and delete the file before Windows is loaded. 

    My favorite feature of Norman Malware Cleaner and a sure winner for system administrators, is the ability to run via the command line.  Some options include a stealth mode in which the Program is never shown to the user, the ability to automatically scan on reboot, and automatically delete detected viruses etc.  This makes Norman Malware Cleaner perfect for cleaning up systems that are already infected.  
I also liked how Norman Malware Cleaner gives the user the option to easily view the virus database.  The database is so large that it took almost a minute to completely display.  A larger virus database means a greater chance of detecting something malicious.

Cons:

    There are some downsides to Norman Malware Cleaner.  The first is the interface is pretty dated and really lags behind the competitor’s free offerings.  The next, is that there is no update functionality.  If a user wants to update the Malware Cleaner they will have to re download the next build the next day.  To Norman’s credit, they really do update the build daily.  Norman Malware Cleaner also suffers from slow scanning.  The speed is compounded by the problem in that there isn’t a scanning status indicator.

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    Panda Security is one of the best know antivirus software suites around.  In fact, Panda Security’s software is recommended on our main homepage because they produce the effective cloud antivirus.  Few users know that Panda provides many other free useful utilities.  I think one of the best is Panda USB Vaccine.  

• Download Panda USB Vaccine for Free
  

    Panda USB Vaccine is a small 800k antivirus companion that disables the autorun feature for all usb interfaces.  The concept is that when someone plugs in a usb flash drive to a computer there is an auto launching capability that is initiated by the autorun.inf.  A normal use for the autorun.inf file will be to launch a usb flash helper like the sandisk u3 tray icon.  However, there are many other nefarious uses such as automatically loading viruses and trojans.  In fact, this form of virus transmission is one of the most prevalent way to inadvertently and stealthy spread viruses.

    USB viruses also affect me personally. Ironically, even though I write antivirus reviews on this site I do not run a real time free antivirus.  I don’t because I want to run the leanest system possible (not recommended). Therefore, USB viruses are basically the only way I can get a virus.   Just imagine this situation, one is in class and a group member comes over with a powerpoint loaded on their usb flash drive.  I hate to say it, but it looks weird to deny a firend/group member from putting the flash drive into one’s laptop because it might contain a viruses. And before one can even react, a virus is automatically and stealthy loaded onto computer while the antivirus program misses it. 

    Another situation may arise at a business.  Forget about the traditional way of hacking (i.e. going through the firewall and NAT) a hacker just walks right in the door and sticks a usb flash drive on the back of a desktop.   The hacker doesn’t even need to touch the keyboard as the virus will be automatically launched on the next reboot.  Some businesses have even glued their usb ports to prevent this (also not recommended).  

    Panda USB Vaccine has an autorun capability in that it installs itself as a service and constantly monitors any new presence of a usb drive and blocks the autorun.info from loading.  In addition, Panda USB Vaccine can vaccinate any removable drive and also supports NTFS drives (very few usb security programs do).  Panda USB Vaccine uses only 700 kilobytes in memory and has autoupdate capability.  Finally, Panda USB Vaccine also protects against CD/DVD ROMs and hard drives.

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    Bitdefender Quickscan is to my knowledge one of the first browser based antivirus.  Quickscan is available from the Firefox Add-ons website and has become one of the most download security extensions from the Mozilla add-on website.   The premise of Bitdefender Quickscan is to give a user peace of mind as a second opinion antivirus.  This means that a user should already have a free antivirus with a real time scanning capabilities installed and updated.  However,  when a user wants to be extra assured that their browsing experience is safe, run a Bitdefender Quickscan.

• Download QuickScan Antivirus for Free
  

    The Quickscan antivirus engine is cloud based.  This means that the scanner will perform an initial scan on the PC or MAC computer.  Once a suspicious file is located the file is uploaded to the cloud (bitdefenders servers) where it is extensively analyzed for malware properties.  The advantage to this is that Bitdefenders servers (extremely powerful mainframes) are able to run multiple scans on one file and even sandbox the suspicious file.  This also means that a user doesn’t need to constantly download antivirus definitions because Bitdefenders servers are updated instantly with the latest virus definitions.  The disadvantage to cloud based scanning is that each suspicious file needs to be uploaded to the cloud.  This means that if one has a slow internet connection, performance could be severely hampered.  

    The Quickscan application is perhaps one of the smallest antivirus applications.  The size, 768 kilobytes is even smaller than Prevex antivirus which is advertised as the lightest (smallest) antivirus. On the test system, Quickscan finished its scan in 43 seconds and scanned 670 files.  This fast performance means that Quickscan meets or exceeds its performance expectations.

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    Lunarsoft is the maker of many free utilities and antivirus (virus removal) software.  The company also posts helpful (probably some the most helpful) security tutorials on their website wiki.  Lunarsoft’s latest incarnation is a tool that is very similar to the recently reviewed SSDownloader.  The program called Anti-malware toolkit can download most of the antivirus and security software available online.  The process is the similar SSDownloader but I believe Anti-Malware Toolkit ultimately has better functionality.  One could say that the Anti-Malware Toolkit is aimed at more advanced users.

• Download Anti-Malware Toolkit for free
  

Pros:   

    Large Amount of available security programs –  The software library that Anti-Malware Toolkit provides is impressive.  Some of the programs include SuperAntispyware, Malwarebytes, Microsoft Security Essentials, specific antivirus removal software, defragmenters, extremely useful utilities, and most free antivirus like Avast and Antivir.  In contrast to SSDownloader, which hides different versions of software for 64bit and other operating systems, Anti-Malware toolkit displays them all.  This is helpful a user needs to download the software for another computer.

    Status and Settings Indicators -  When an antivirus program is being downloaded, a user will be able to monitor the precise speed of the download and the amount remaining and easily change the download location.  Anti-Malware Toolkit also has a automatic update checker, proxy server functionality, and a setup package to actually install on the PC. These features were absent in SSDownloader.

    Command line functionality – This is by far my favorite feature of Anti-Malware Toolkit.  The software can be completely controlled via the command line.  This means that a user can create a batch file and run automated installs across a network.  The command line arguments can be used to set the operating system type, proxy options, and custom install options.   SSDownloader did not have any command line functionality.

Cons:

   Anti-Malware Toolkit incorrectly indicated my operating system as Windows 7 Utimate 64 bit.  The operating system is in fact Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.  Not that this misidentification will cause any conflicts but it may be cause for concern on older operating systems.  Finally, Anti-Malware Toolkit doesn’t actually install the security software it only downloads it.  A future version should include some type of functionality to automatically install .msi install packages.

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    SSDownloader or (SS Downloader) is a simple yet very effective free antivirus solution.  Say that one reinstalls Windows or purchases a new computer; the biggest hassle is getting the right security software and getting rid of the initial trial software.  SSDownloader gives a user the opportunity to download almost all known free antivirus, free firewalls, and important tools with just the click of a button.  The best part about all of this is that the publishers of SSDownloader have made the effort to combine all of the top antivirus into one program.  This means that a user can get all of the latest downloads and the best antivirus software in one place.

• Download SSDownloader Free Antivirus here
  

    SSDownloader also includes important utilities that help a user delete unwanted startups, find rouge malware proceses, and even find and detect rootkits.

    Finally, the publishers of SSDownloader constantly keep the download links and the versions up to date. Upon startup, SSdownloader checks for the latest antivirus version links, updates the list, and even adds new programs to the list.  SSDownloader also finds the appropiate version even if a user has a 32 bit or 64 bit machine.

Some of the Programs that SSDownloader includes are:

• PC Tools Firewall 
• Microsoft Security Essentials
  
• WinPatrol
• Sandboxie
  
• GMER anti root kit
  
• Comodo Firewall G-Data
  
• Hitman Pro
• and the list goes on...

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    Digital Defender was built on the concept to make the antivirus experience as easy as possible to the user.  This holds true as the interface is generally easy to use and atheistically pretty .  However, the interface is still a step behind mainstream products such as Norton.  This is probably because the company digital defender is also relatively new.  There are few important features to the digital defender free antivirus software.  They are as follows.

•  Download Digital Defender Free Edition Here
  

Progressive Virus database updates –

    Rather than downloading the whole update file, Digital Defender free will only downloaded the necessary daily virus definitions.  This helps reduce the bandwidth load of the software and is great for users with slower connections.  While this is a main selling point on the website, I am curious how other mainstream free antivirus differs.  To my knowledge all antivirus software operate in this way. 

Fast Scanning and Resident Protection –

    Digital Defender has excellent scanning abilities.  A full system scan will easily take under 20 minutes on a full operating system partition.  This scanning speed is significantly faster than comparable antivirus software such as Free AVG which can take up to 2 hours to scan 50 gigabytes of data.  
    Digital Defender also includes a real time or resident protection.  This is an excellent addition as only about 50% of all free antivirus include always on capability.  Therefore, Digital Defender is suitable to be used as a standalone antivirus providing benchmark protection.

VB100 award and low memory usage –

    Digital Defender Free Edition has been awarded the VB100 award which means that the software provides excellent malware protection.  Only a select free antivirus, let alone full antivirus, are able to achieve the strict requirements that  VB100 certification requires.
    Another feature of Digital Defender is that utilizes a small amount of memory during operation. According to the company website, the software has a patent pending software architecture which allows Digital Defender to suffer limited performance degradation whether a user is using a full powered desktop or a power saving netbook.

Final Thoughts –

    I am really excited with all of the new competition coming to the antivirus market.  It’s clear that there still is a lot of innovation to come within the antivirus industry.  It appears the user is really demanding  constant improvement.

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    Immunet has just released free Immunet Protect 2.0  which is a major improvement over the previous version Immunet Protect version 1 reviewed here.  Some of the upgrades  include better resource management, faster scanning, an improved real time shield, new interface, and toll free support.

• Download Immunet Protect 2.0 here

Lower Resource Usage –

    Immunet Protect 2.0 now has a dedicated resource usage monitor on the main screen constantly displaying the amount of RAM and CPU power utilized.  One of the most interesting facts is that the Immunet 2.0 actually compares its products hard drive space to the competition.  The next closest competitor is Panda Cloud antivirus which uses approximately 100 megabytes which is about 10 times what Immunet Protect uses even with the latest virus definitions downloaded and installed.

Fast and New Virus Scanning Modes –

    The new Immunet Protect 2.0 includes a Flash scan option which scans the most vulnerable areas of the system including active processes and the registry.  The free antivirus also includes a custom scan and a full system scan.  I also liked the inclusion of a boot time registry scan which is perfect for especially nasty viruses and spyware infections that attempt to start up upon each system restart.

Gaming and Silent Mode –

    Immunet Protect 2.0 now includes a gaming and silent mode in which all antivirus alerts and real time protection are suspended to avoid interference with a game or process intensive application. 

Toll Free Support –

    The Immunet Company provides a free toll free number for support with their software.  Most companies just include support for the program functions and this option is usually only available with paid full versions.  Immunet  takes their support one step further offering help to clean up virus infections and even problems with a user’s PC.  The support is even offered 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  What a great option for tricky or stubborn malware infections!

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