Catalogue of Free On-Demand Virus Scanners

The on-demand virus scanner is an antivirus program that you use only when you desire to run it. It doesn't protect your system from the attack of viruses and other malware. These kinds of antimalware tools are excellent when you are worried about the presence of some viruses or malware in your system, and your antivirus programs have not caught it.

In some cases, when some malware prevents your installed antivirus from functioning correctly, then this on-demand virus scanner plays a vital role. Here is a list of the best free on-demand virus scanners:

1. Malware Bytes

Malware Bytes is one of the popular free on-demand virus scanners. It can catch all sorts of malware. It supports many languages, and its premium versions are free for a certain time period. It begins a scan quickly through the context menu. It is simple enough to understand how to use it. You can do the threat scan to monitor the infections in those locations where malware usually hides like in the memory, file system, and registry. The customized scan can be performed as well that can scan any or all hard drives and folders with the option to add memory objects, registry, rootkits, archives, startup items. It can also keep eyes on PUP (Potentially Unwanted Programs) and PUM (Potentially Unwanted Modifications). It starts scans from the context menu in Windows Explorer, and excludes files/folders from the scans.

2. SUPER Antispyware Free Edition

It is a free on-demand virus scanner that monitors spyware in the registry and file system as well as those running in the memory. Some of its advanced settings are available like scanning cookies and inclusion/exclusion of specific folders from a scan. You can also scan only those files running in memory called as Critical Point Scan, that is lucrative if you have thought of a piece of malware currently running. It also offers you a swift view of PUP installed on your computer and a simple way to delete them. There is also a section of the program to display the applications that start up with Windows, as well as SUPER Delete that permits you to remove the infected files. It has the ability only to scan those files which were modified within the stipulated time period. Other useful tools in this are like startup manager, scanning only the latest modified files, neglecting large files, neglecting System Restore files, and scanning inside ZIP archives.

3. Emsisoft Emergency Kit

It offers on-demand virus scanning through 3 built-in features which run from a single program suite that can be opened and can be updated from a portable location. Emergency Kit Scanner is one of the added tools that can scan for viruses, Trojans, spyware, rootkits, adware, PUPs, worms etc. The specific file type can be excluded from the scan, and it can scan inside the archives. It has the ability to check for malicious items in memory. It has an exceptionally simple user interface that is lucid for anyone to use. It doesn't require to be installed on the computer. Its limitation is that it needs several hundred megabytes of the storage space and it may confuse for beginners to extract the program files.

Joey Williams is a self-professed security expert; he has been making the people aware of the security threats. His passion is to write about Cyber security, cryptography, malware, social engineering, internet and new media. He writes for Norton security products at norton.com/setup.

Source : Virus Scanners