On-demand scanner (on steroids)

Over the past few months I have extensively researched and trialed several free, on-demand AV scanners including: HitmanPro, McAfee Stinger, DrWeb CureIt, Emsisoft Emergency Kit, Zemana Antimalware, Norton Power Eraser, MalwareBytes, Trend Micro Housecall, and Comodo Cleaning Essentials (CCE).

I have reluctantly concluded that CCE is, by far, THE most configurable, THE most broad-based, and (perhaps) THE most powerful of all the on-demand AV scanners that I have trialed to date. PLEASE notice that I have conditioned my allegation that CCE is "powerful" with the word "perhaps" -- because I do not know the quality of CCE's signatures, CAMAS (huh?), etc.

Before I go any further, let me emphasize that I am by NO means a Comodo fan-boy. To the contrary, for reasons I don't care to discuss, I have harbored an anti-Comodo bias for a very long time. Ergo, when I heard of CCE, I only downloaded & ran it so I could get the ammo to write a negative review here at Wilders.

I was surprised and somewhat disappointed to find that CCE is possibly a peach among on-demand scanners, and not at all a lemon. Some reasons:

1) When I clicked on CCE's Help button, I was presented with a well-organized, extensive, highly detailed, fully understandable online Help file. None of the other on-demand scanners that I have trialed offered anything even close to the quality of CCE's Help.

2) I was amazed at the number and depth of CCE's possible configurations. CCE's "Options" button is slightly more extensive than other on-demand scanners, but those options are NOT all of CCE's possible configurations. For example, I initially viewed CCE's "Kill Switch" button as merely a simple tool something like the Windows Task Manager's ability to kill a process. But clicking CCE's Kill Switch button opened up a whole separate app that scans processes & offers several options to mess around with processes so as to identify possible security issues. Frankly, some of the Kill Switch's stuff is over my head -- so I'm hoping the gurus here at Wilders will discuss Kill Switch's options & actions in more depth.

3) CCE's Help file gives a detailed comparison of what is covered by each of the 3 types of CCE scans (Smart, Full, Custom). It also gives detailed guidance on the configuration & use of CCE.

4) CCE also offers several options that I do not fully understand. Here are just 2 examples: (a) Option to release kernel hooks before scanning (huh?), and (b) option to use or don't use CAMAS (double huh?)

I'm going to stop writing now before I further expose the fact that I am by NO means a security expert. Actually, my primary goal for this post is to hopefully motivate others here to tell me if CCE is as good as it seems to be.

Herewith 6 screenshots as follows:

1. Scan start page
2. Tools List
3. Kill Switch page 1
4. Kill Switch Options
5. AutoRun Analyzer
6. Help file table of contents
7. Main Options

 

Thanks for heads up. I didn't use CCE till now, but I will give it a try.
For me, the most important aspect of on demand scanner is quality (and quantity) of their virus definitions. But I'm not sure that Comodo is the best in this area.

 

It's way late here. But I too want to hear from the Wilders heavyweights about CCE & maybe others.

 

FWIW ~ dated - not maintained? - Certificates expired
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Smart Scan = Um, ?

https://help.comodo.com/topic-119-1-328-3516-Introduction-to-Comodo-Cleaning-Essentials.html

 

This is an installer? no portable version of it?

also, on MajorGeeks it says the release date was in 2017? what gives? it hasn't been updated since then?

 

https://help.comodo.com/topic-119-1-328-3523-Download-Comodo-Cleaning-Essentials.html

Spoiler: CCE

 

dead project

 

Yes, it looks like CCE is "abandoned-ware." One of the main reasons I am always wary of ANYthing put out by Comodo is their tendency toward unreliability. If they decided to abandon CCE, they should have taken it down from their website.

 

It really depends on what you expect an on-demand scanner to do. I suspect that
many/most *on demand* scanners primarily if not exclusively rely on signature
based detection. Local or cloud databases, or a combination.

As such the key to effectiveness is the completeness and up-to-date status of
the signatures. The scanning engine in such products will not need to be
updated as often as that of a real-time protection product.

From what I have seen, the signatures database used with CCE is updated
regularly and often. So a CCE scan will usually be using the latest
signatures that Comodo has available. While the GUI and engine may be
2+ years old, the signatures used are fresh and likely only hours old
at most.

As long as the sigs are being kept current and up to date I don't think one
should consider the product to be "abandoned". IMHO

Note that the "About" screen that someone posted showing a database version
of 1 is misleading. Here is what it currently shows at time of this posting:

 

I'm guessing they haven't updated the copyright dates.

 

Thanks for that info & the screenshot! That is definitely good news. I'm heavily back into my photography hobby so I didn't take the time to check if the sigs are being updated.

I hope you will re-check the database number in a few days to verify whether or not CCE's sigs are being updated from the version 31543 shown in your screenshot.

 

No need to wait that long. Here's one just taken:

 

As further evidence that the signature database is being maintained regularly,
a scan I did 2 weeks ago (Sept 15) used DB version 31478. So from there to
31543 is 65 updates in the past 2 weeks.

 

@waking -- 10Q to the nth! I have reloaded CCE.

 

stinger reminds me of BoClean

 

fax how is ZA these days