Kaspersky online scanner

I have just used the Kaspersky online scanner for the first time and have several questions although it probably would have been smarter to ask many of them before I used it. Would welcome all advice:

1. Is using the Kaspersky online scanner safe? I wanted to try it as I have heard many great things on this forum and elsewhere for Kaspersky so I figured it would be safe and reliable but it used an active x download to internet explorer that I hope does not cause problems.

2. Is the online scanning engine the same used in the Kaspersky software? I am assuming it is. It may not allow a fix to any problems it finds and obviously no real time protection but the scanning part I would have thought would be the same but that may not be the case. Also, I used the the standard scan as that was recommended but there was an option for an extended scan but it said not recommended for non-expert users. Is that because the results may be difficult to interpret?

3. In general are online scanners like this one from Kaspersky or say Bit Defender a good option as a secondary backup virus scanner? Or do you think I would be better off using one of the free anti virus's like Avant, AVG, or Antivir and just use as an on demand scanner without the real time protection enabled?

Thanks in advance.

roark37

 

1. Yes, it is safe, you uninstall afterwards from add/remove programs, if you do not wish to use it anymore.

2. Yes, the engine is the same, but it is perhaps not as much updated as the full installed version, but enough. The extended add's adware/spyware to be scanned for, this includes some programs that has a free version that includes adware to finance the free version, but if you then remove the adware, the program may not function, this is done on purpose by the vendor so it is not too easy to remove the adware.

I would use the extendeed, because there is no auto removal, you have to do it manually anyway.

3. Yes, i think online scanners are a good choice.