Portable AV Scanners

[,.-]

I have recently received portable versions a various AV scanners like Kaspersky 6, NOD32 2, Avast 4 and so on. They work great ... you do not need to install them ... you can easily use them for testing purposes ... you do not create any conflicts by using several scanners ... you can put them on a USB stick and scan a friend's computer and so on.

I am not so sure, however, whether the use of portable AV scanner is legal (even if you own a legit license for the scanner). I could easily imagine that portable scanners violate the Digital Millenium Act, various EULAs and so on.

So my questions are:

a) Have you ever used a portable scanner and, if yes, do you agree that portable scanners are great?

b) Do you think that portable scanners are illegal?

c) Assuming that portable scanner are illegal: should we encourage the developers to make them legal (i.e., amend the EULA etc.)?

[DaveD]

{QUOTE-> a) Have you ever used a portable scanner and, if yes, do you agree that portable scanners are great?

b) Do you think that portable scanners are illegal?

c) Assuming that portable scanner are illegal: should we encourage the developers to make them legal (i.e., amend the EULA etc.)? <-QUOTE}

a) I use portable scanners regularly for cleaning other people's systems. Portable scanners are amazing because I can use them without the need to install software on somebody else's system. I prefer to run directly from CDRW without the need to put anything on the hard drive. I prefer to run them in Safe Mode for optimal cleaning.

b) Portable scanners would certainly be illegal if you didn't have a legitimate licence for them. Making an anti-virus program into a portable scanner would most likely violate the EULA for the program because it would be modifying the program and all. However, my personal opinion is that if you have bought a licence for it then that is a whole lot better then just stealing it and making it portable.

c) I suppose it would be up to those individual developers and software companies to create these bootable or portable scanners themselves. They probably avoid making these because it is too easy for people to pirate them. I think that every anti-virus software should come with some type of recovery or bootable CD, but that is just my opinion.

Cheers,
Dave

[farmerlee]

I use portable scanners all the time. Many companies offer free versions so i see no need to make or use illegal ones.

[,.-]

@farmerlee

Can you mention a few free portable scanners that require no installation and do not modify the registry etc.?

[farmerlee]

I use mcafee standalone scanner, dr web cureit and ewido micro. I don't know if they modify the registry, i've never checked, but they don't require installation.

[DaveD]

{QUOTE-> I use mcafee standalone scanner, dr web cureit and ewido micro. I don't know if they modify the registry, i've never checked, but they don't require installation. <-QUOTE}

Are you referring to McAfee's command line scanner?
Or are you referring to Stinger?

Ewido Micro is cool. It does make a folder somewhere in the typical Temp folder areas of the users profile in order to download updates, but that can easily be deleted after.

[lodore]

dr web cure it just makes a log file in a folder called dr web but can be deleted in two secs after
lodore

[DaveD]

{QUOTE-> @farmerlee

Can you mention a few free portable scanners that require no installation and do not modify the registry etc.? <-QUOTE}

I know this question wasn't directed at me, but Trend Micro Sysclean is another good portable scanner that is free. Their detection rates have been getting better over time. It does use the full signature database as well. You can run it as is or there is also a way to run it from the command line with more options.

http://www.trendmicro.com/download/dcs.asp

[lodore]

there seems to be no end to these scanners lol
how fast is that tool at scanning?
the problemn with drweb cureit is that its slow to clean someone system so i dont have time to run other tools after
lodore

[DaveD]

{QUOTE-> there seems to be no end to these scanners lol
how fast is that tool at scanning?
the problemn with drweb cureit is that its slow to clean someone system so i dont have time to run other tools after
lodore <-QUOTE}

I have run Dr. Web CureIt a few times and I can tell you that Sysclean is definitely much faster. I find it to be comparable in time to scanning my system with AntiVir PE. You can run it from a USB key as well. Running from a CD is possible, but you would have to use the trick to extract the command line scanner from it.

[C.S.J]

fast scanners?
slow scanners?

does it really matter.......

if it does, keep away from dr.web till version 5.

[vhick]

legal to be use as portable is clamav.

it is open source and there is a tutorial in their site on how the av became portable.

[likuidkewl]

Trends detections may be a little behind the Doc but it does scan inside archives, removes malware registry entries etc. and is much faster.
05:28 seconds vice > 20 minutes. :)

[farmerlee]

{QUOTE-> Are you referring to McAfee's command line scanner?
Or are you referring to Stinger?

Ewido Micro is cool. It does make a folder somewhere in the typical Temp folder areas of the users profile in order to download updates, but that can easily be deleted after. <-QUOTE}
I'm referring to the mcafee standalone virus scanner.

[lodore]

where do you get them from?
and does it use all the defs?
and do you have to redownload to get updates like drweb cureit?
lodore

[DaveD]

farmerlee,

I would really like to know where you get that thing from. I have searched Google and searched McAfee's site and from what I can tell this product doesn't even exist. Yet the screen shot shows a current date...

Hook us up, where'd you get it from?

[DaveD]

Okay, I just spent another hour or so this morning looking for this "McAfee StandAlone Virus Scanner" searching those terms in Google and other similar terms. I also looked more on McAfee's site. I installed and tried McAfee Internet Security 2007 and McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.0i hoping the either of those might include this standalone scanner but they don't.

Your screen shot shows this product and appears to be dated 2007-02-06 so is obviously up-to-date but I cannot find any reference to this thing anywhere on the Internet... it sounds as though it is something that can be used for free by the description there and used as a second option to a current scanner. I am very curious of where to find this thing.

[ravin]

you can get it here ~Link removed. Not recommended by Wilders. - Ron~

[DaveD]

Ron,

What is the reason for removing the link?

I am not against your reason for removing the link, but I am just curious because I don't know anything about this product when it comes to EULA and so on.

[ronjor]

{QUOTE-> I don't know anything about this product <-QUOTE} That says it all.

The only stand alone antivirus program that is free to use from McAfee is Stinger.

Links to cracks, hacks, or reverse engineered programs are not what these forums are about.

The best course of action would be to contact McAfee and ask about this scanner.

There are also some services McAfee offers here. http://us.mcafee.com/root/catalog.asp?catid=free

[ravin]

Sorry about the link Ron I'll try to be more careful in the future.

[DaveD]

{QUOTE-> Links to cracks, hacks, or reverse engineered programs are not what these forums are about. <-QUOTE}

That is perfectly understandable. I only use legitimate programs myself.

The screen shot from farmerlee looks very legitimate to me, though. But who knows...

[lodore]

i thought the screenshot looked legit as well.
lodore

[Rickster100]

{QUOTE->
The screen shot from farmerlee looks very legitimate to me, though. But who knows... <-QUOTE}

Maybe farmerlee will enlighten us. Im very curious too! ;)

Richie

[C.S.J]

i really doubt this is a product mcafee offers, im pretty sure they would have it for download from their own website if it were.

my advice would be to stay clear

[DaveD]

It is not a legitimate McAfee program.

It does, however, use the latest 5100 engine and latest definition files. The file does appear to be clean as well. The downside is that it does not allow you to change the command line settings used.

I would recommend using the McAfee GUI from BartPE package instead. It allows you to change command line settings within the GUI. Or better yet, learning the actually command line options is even better.