Does some one knows a good virus scanner that is just a scanner?

I am looking for a good virus scanner that is just that: A scanner.

I don't need a big suite that with an integrated firewall and
background scanning and real time protection and what not. I don't
need all these things since I patch regulary and don't allow every
activeX applet to run and don't download dodgy software.

With that practice I never caught a virus in in the last five years.
(I run every four months a few online virus scanners just to be sure,
and never got an alaram)

I just need a scanner because sometimes I want to try some shareware
and want to scan the installation file first. For that, I have
currently AVG (free edition) installed but that thing comes with all
that annoying real time protection baggage, I turned everything off,
but it stills installs a special background service which needs to be
active, without it, it won't even scan one single file.

So, my current practice is to deactivate this service, until I need to
scan a file, then I reactivate the AVG service, open up AVG, it moans
and groans about all the deactivated background scan- and real time
protection options yawwwnn... and only then I can scan finaly the
file.

So, all I want is just a scanner. with no services that need to run,
no real time protection, no e-mail scanning no nothing. Just a scanner
that I can fire up on will to scan a file sometimes.

Does such a scanner still exists? Or did they die together with DOS?

 

I'd just continue using the online scanners if you are happy with that. I
use them every couple of months or so, just in case. I find the ESET and
Ewido (now AVG) online scanners to be the best ones. Do you know of any
that you think are better?

When you have any dodgy 'shareware' that you want to check, try this online
scanner. It's good, as it uses all the popular scanning engines:
VirusTotal

http://www.virustotal.com/

ss.

 

Do you know what virus are probaly not. You can get a virus from just
visiting a web site. I did a couple of weeks ago from Microsoft Download
Center website but my virus software caught it and took care of it. So in
this case you must not surf the web that much. And for your question i do
not know of any scanners for just scanning feature.

 

Try the free version of MalwareBytes AntiMalware from
http://www.malwarebytes.org/. I use it offline and like it a lot.

 

Clamwin does exactly what you want.

http://www.clamwin.com/

 

Clam.

Alias

 

When you install clam:

How do you know it is working properly?

How do you update on a automatic and regular basis the virus definitions.

 

www.avast.com home edition (FREE)

when installing do a custom install and deselect the services you don't
want..

you can also right click on the tray icon, and stop on-access services and
set it so that it will not prompt you again to start them


or as others said clamwin.. but I don't like clamwin..

I would go with avast... and configure it as I say


but have in mind.. you only need to get a bad virus once...

 

Avira can be installed as a On-Demand Scanner Only.

 

Ah, thank you for the suggestions guys.

 

"but have in mind.. you only need to get a bad virus once..."

Yes, but all these real time virus scanners can tax the system
ridiculously high. Especially Norton.

Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. I think it's more sane
to properly use the computer and not doing risky and stupid stuff with
it, than to trust that much on bloated virus scanners that slow your
system down like viri themselves.

Using bloated real time virus scanners is like taking anti-biotics
every day because you might get sick (imho).

 

I cant agree with you more...

I never use NORTON or PANDA or any such monstrous "suites"

In the end the CPU and disk is working all the time for antispyware,
antivirus, firewall! We should dump everything and install linux if that's
the case! lol

where you don't need a firewall antivirus or antispyware.

I too have searched everywhere for a fast and lite scanner for older
systems...

the thing is that there is no such beast!.. at least anymore!

because all these antivirus products need to be updated and remain "secure"
they are constantly being "upgraded" the result is a slow sluggish system.

I tried doing this with a bunch of legacy PII systems that we would
donated... we needed an antivirus.. but all of them were just to heavy and
bloated for the resident shield to run on.

Try avast and turn everything off.. you might then try to leave on the
single scanner "standard sheild" and see how it performs....

Many claim NOD32 is fast.. but what I saw is that it slows down older
computers more than Avast!

I mentioned clamwin portable version...you just extract it in a folder and
presto! this can run from a disk too.. and it updates but I never really
liked it much!

see here
http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/clamwin_portable

ALSO you might consider using a WEB BASED scanner..

like http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/

OR THIS

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

but there are many other such online scanners...

 

To name a few. On line and updated each time you run it. Does not install and all
are quite effective

http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/
http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan/
http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/virusscanner

 

Yeah I mentioned the online scanners..

here are 2 more

lhttp://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/activescan/

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

 

Malwarebytes is not a virus scanner!

 

Yes, there are several scanners available for you to choose and no, they
didn't die together with DOS.
But beware:
There aren't any 'good' on-line scanners out there!
On-line scanners are the most unsafe and next to useless. Because by the
time you've started your infected Windows and connected to the Internet via
this infected code base, and start to look for scanning sites through
infected DNS, you are almost certain to have the malware perfectly
positioned to overrule your attempts to clean it. What happens if active
malware is found? Don't expect that the on-line scanner will do anything
about it. Most of them are just just marketing tools for selling you their
products. Quite often, malware removal on the NT based OS (Win 2K and XP)
is far from easy. Sometimes a (good) resident AV can deal with it in Safe
Mode.

Other reasons to stay away from on-line scanners are:
1. You have to use IE on very low security setting - ActiveX is required.
2. Many users will lower security in the Internet Zone to use the service
and then forget to set the Internet Zone back to highest possible security
- which is the only way that IE should be set.
3.Scanning should be performed while off-line.
4.Vulnerabilities in several virus scanners
http://www.heise-online.co.uk/secur...n-several-virus-scanners-Update--/news/112301

Also, according to Trend Micro, a surfer using a search engine such as
Google, with a search string such as, ´free online virus scan by Trend
Micro¡, can end up on a spoofed version of HouseCall by clicking the link
returned by Google. Not surprisingly, the spoofed site informs users their
computers are infected with malware, and then teases them to purchase a
fake anti-virus application in order to remove the fake threat.

Therefore:
'Stand-Alone' Anti-Virus scanning tools are *impressively better and
safer*, because you don't have to be on-line to use them (they have no
dependencies on using a web browser to perform their function), and they
also can be used in Safe Mode.

David H. Lipman's MULTI_AV.EXE directly:
http://www.pctip.ch/ds/28400/28470/Multi_AV.exe
or
http://212.98.39.7/ds/28400/28470/Multi_AV.exe
--or--
http://www.pctip.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp
--or--
http://212.98.39.7/downloads/dl/35905.asp
--or--
English:
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/01/09/scan-your-computer-with-multiple-anti-virus-for-free/
--and/or--
Malwarebytes© Corporation - Anti-Malware
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam/program/mbam-setup.exe
Note: "Malwarebytes actually performs better in Normal Mode" says Dustin
Cook, co-author of MBAM.
--and/or--
SuperAntispyware - Free
http://www.superantispyware.com/downloadfile.html?productid=SUPERANTISPYWAREFREE
--and/or--
Kaspersky® Virus Removal Tool
http://devbuilds.kaspersky-labs.com/devbuilds/AVPTool/
http://www.kaspersky.com/support/viruses/avptool?level=2
--and/or--
Dr.Web CureIt!® Utility - FREE
http://www.freedrweb.com/cureit/
--and/or--
a-squared Free or a-squared Command Line Scanner
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/download/
--and/or--
BitDefender10 Free Edition (*NOT FOR VISTA*)
http://www.bitdefender.com/site/Downloads/browseEvaluationVersion/1/42/

NOTE:
Kaspersky® Virus Removal Tool, Dr.Web CureIt!®' the free version of
Malwarebytes© and SuperAntispyware are not capable for real-time protection
of your computer.
Kaspersky® Virus Removal Tool, Dr.Web CureIt!® have no update feature (so
they don't turn into full blown scanners). As soon as your computer is
cleaned you are supposed to remove these tools from your operating system
and revert back to your (updated) resident (real-time) AV application.
Re: Kaspersky® Virus Removal Tool; To uninstall/move this program 'enable
self-defense' must be unchecked!
The free version of Malwarebytes© and SuperAntispyware have an update
feature, keep them installed in addtion to your resident AV/A-S
applications and scan frequently.

To scan your computer with the most up-to-date Kaspersky® AVPTool and
Dr.Web CureIT!® virus databases next time you should download new
Kaspersky® AVPTool and Dr.Web CureIt!® packages.

Good luck

 

"Malware is the term used to describe any and all malicious software,
including viruses, Trojan horse programs, and worms."

 

Sorry for overacheiving.

 

There are no viruses on the Microsoft Download website. If your software
caught it, it was a false alarm.

 

There's spyware. It's called the Windows Genuine Advantage Tool, pure
and unadulterated spyware.

Alias