ZenOK is a brand new free antivirus that was literally released last night.  This fact doesn’t instill a lot of confidence about the performance of the software but we thought we would review it anyway.  If one travels to the ZenOK website they will notice that the company claims the free antivirus offers a lot of protection.  There features are as follows antivirus and antispyware engines, push virus updates that arrive several times per day, secure download and email capabilities, p2p scanning functionality, and fast virus scanning.  The ZenOK is bundled with the companies online backup solution that isn’t free.  The company’s headquarters are located in the United States so the software can’t be that bad. One concerning thing was that one of the latest viruses threats was the eicar test virus which has been released for a while.

•  Download ZenOK free antivirus directly

    The ZenOK download size was an impressive 35 megabytes and the installation went extremely quickly.  The software required a reboot after the installation completed but I opted out.  Once the software started for the first time the user is prompted to create an account and login.  The first time I attempted to registered it resulted in a failure.  The second time I was successful and gained my free license.  Once ZenOK free antivirus started, the program immediately started a slow unobtrusive virus scan.  During the scan, the software used about 50 megabytes across two services and about 3 percent CPU power.  These numbers are pretty impressive for a slow scan (the company’s ultra light scan).  I then decided to start a full system virus scan.  The CPU activity jumped to about 12 percent and scanned about 50 files per second.  I thought it was interesting how there was an icon for “bomb” count in the detected malicious items.  I haven’t seen this in other free antivirus programs.

    One thing that ZenOK does very well are the interface design.  The program really does look good.  This includes how the website is presented and the status of one’s computer within the software.  ZenOK could really teach some other antivirus companies about usability.

    Finally, the ZenOK antivirus also includes a hard drive monitoring utility that displays the temperature and few other settings.

    I like the idea of including a free antivirus with a backup service.  However, I would have preferred that the company partnered with AVG or Avast as these companies have proven track records on performance.  Not to ding ZenOK but it hasn’t arrived at the mature product status yet.  It will be interesting to see what the company has to offer in the future. 

   Vcleaner is a small utility (let me emphasize small) that cleans 704 viruses automatically.  The great thing about Vcleaner is that one doesn’t have to deal with a bunch of fancy menus or configuration; the thing just scans and it does it well.

• Download Vcleaner Free Antivirus not available from AVG now!
  

    So why use Vcleaner rather than a full free antivirus?  Well, the first reason is that it doesn’t need to be installed.  Simply download the file (a ridiculous 170 kilobytes in size, the smallest I have ever seen) and run.  No need to change a systems configuration.  Also, Vcleaner runs on all versions of Windows even 64bit and Windows 7.  Most virus cleaners are only designed for one type of 32bit operating system.

    The next reason is the scanner is fast. According to Windows 7 performance monitor,  the scanner scans at about 5 megabytes per second.  In addition the scanner, uses limited resources, a tiny 4 megabytes during scanning and only 3 percent CPU power.  This makes Vcleaner easily one the most efficient free antivirus that I have yet seen.  This must be because the antivirus runs in the command line and therefore has no need to render complex graphics or other indicators.

    Another great reason to use Vcleaner is compatibility with older systems.  A lot of legacy computers can barely run mainstream antivirus.  Vcleaner, as shown above, uses little to no resources.  Also, since Vcleaner is a command line antivirus it can easily be run on every system startup for a quick unobtrusive virus scan.

    There are a few downsides to Vcleaner one is that the program is quite old released in 2007 (same year this website was started).  Vcleaner was actually released by Girsoft which is now known as AVG.   Next, the program has limited detection capability.  Vcleaner only detects a set list of viruses and it cannot be updated.  The viruses and worms are as follows I-Worm/Stration, Worm/Generic.FX, I-Worm/Atak.A-I, Downloader.Agent.AS, Win32/Hidrag, Bagle.DA-IU and several more.

    A full system scan with Vcleaner completed in less than 45 minutes on a 7200 rpm hard drive.  This is also an extremely competitive speed and highly respectable.
If you have one of the above listed viruses, you can’t lose to run a scan with Vcleaner.  The software is designed by the premier antivirus company, AVG and will delete viruses instantly.

    F-Secure is a famous Finish antivirus company that is well known for their high detection rates.  Unfortunately, the company doesn’t offer much of anything for free.  Just try going to the website and looking for a free download.   One will be hard pressed to find anything other than a free online scan.

• Download F-Secure Easy Clean Free Antivirus
  

    However, we have uncovered from the depths of the internet, F-Secure's attempt at a free antivirus program.  The software called F-Secure Easy Clean is an easy to use antivirus and continues F-Secure’s innovation in the area of user usability. The program comes in a small executable at only 5 megabytes in size but, packs a big punch.   F-Secure Easy Cleaner scans for Viruses, worms, rootkits, spyware, Trojans, and many other malware traces.  The software utilizes the F-Secure command line scanner and uses about 40 megabytes of RAM during a virus scan.  Also, the scanner used minimal CPU power (almost negligible) which is the least I have seen in comparable free antivirus.  The scanner appears to use a memory scan in that subsequent scans got faster and faster.

    And not to forget the best selling point of the software, the ease of use.  F-Secure Easy Clean really provided the most hassle free virus scanning I have seen yet.  All one needs to do is accept the terms of conditions and then click the large start button.  Then a light the size of an apple turns orange the scanner starts.  It’s literally so easy my grandma could do it.  And that’s the point! So many users are novice and just don’t know how to run a virus scan.  This is why F-Secure Easy Clean free antivirus was invented; to satisfy this underserved niche.  So, if someone you know has a slow computer send them the F-Secure Easy Clean Free antivirus.  The user and the helper will be satisfied that they did.

     We have reviewed a lot of standalone free antivirus over the years.  They include Kaspersky, Escan etc. and use their own virus definition sets.  The disadvantage to these standalone antivirus is that one has to re download the complete executable every time they want the latest definitions.  As a result a user  could be using a standalone antivirus scanner that is weeks out dated.  Why would an antivirus company want to release an up to date free version when one could get the paid versions with the up to date definitions?

• Download our Custom Package with antivirus definitions and the scanner in one
• Download just the trend micro system cleaner.
  

    The solution is Trend Micro System Cleaner.  The actual system cleaner program is a small 4.7 megabyte file that only includes the scanning engine.  Now, the standalone scanning engine is not effective without up to date virus definitions.  The solution is to download the latest Trend Micro pattern files (virus database) and simply put them in the same folder as the free system cleaner.  The Trend Micro pattern files are designed to be used in corporate and paid antivirus.  However, they also work wonderfully in the completely free trend micro system cleaner.  The virus updates or pattern files are located by the file names below.  They are available from the trend micro website and hundreds of download sites across the internet.  

•  lpt$vpn.*** in a file  called lpt***.zip
•  ssapiptn.da5 in a file called ssapiptn***.zip
•  (the *’s indicate different releases on different dates)

    Anyways, considering this whole thing is kind of ghetto, I downloaded the latest pattern files for August 15th and put them into a zip file.  The zip file contains both the virus pattern file and the antispyware pattern file.   Trend Micro System Cleaner  supports  Trend Micro antispyware definitions (the same virus definitions included in the full antispyware product!)  I provided this full set of definitions via uploading.com

Virus Scanning:

    The Trend Micro System Cleaner is a very efficient scanner and significantly more than competing free antivirus.  The reason is that the virus scanner runs in the command line and doesn’t need to display all of the nicest graphics etc.  During scanning operation, the scanner used under 10% CPU power and about 100 megabytes of memory.  However, according to Windows Resource Monitor,  Trend Micro System Cleaner scanned about 4 megabytes per second.  The software also includes auto delete functionality and moves the files to a backup folder that the program creates upon launch.

    The premise of Returnil Virtual System 2010 is first to market security tool that combines free antivirus and virtualization in one software package.  The virtualization means that when, Returnil is activated, the computer runs in a complete virtual system that is separated from the actual operating system.  This means that any changes that one does while the system is in a virtual state are deleted upon reboot.  One could potentially get the worst virus and Trojan infection possible and download whatever one wants.  When the system is restarted, the original Windows folder and all affected files will remain intact and virus free.  Therefore, on the surface Returnil Virtual System 2010 is perfect for a high security browsing environment. So, Returnil Virtual System 2010 is in effect a very locked down Group Policy variant when activated.

• Download Returnil Virtual System 2010 Free Antivirus Directly
  

    One thing that I think Returnil Virtual System 2010 separates itself from other virtualization competitors is its ease of use.  Once installed (need to wait a while for a proper system snapshot for first use), one gets a side bar widget that displays the status of the virtual protection. One simply needs to click the widget and the protection is instantly active.  There is no loading time or need to get into some special VMware screen.

    The next, thing that makes Returnil Virtual System 2010 stand out is its malware protection capabilities.  In addition to the virtual system, there is a complete free antivirus engine installed.  There are the quick scan (completed in about 23 seconds) and the full system scan (took about 1 hour and a half).  The antivirus system is VB100 certified meaning that it really has reached mainstream status.  Also, regardless of whether one is in the virtual state or not, there is always malware protection enabled.

     Returnil Virtual System 2010 includes numerous additional functionality and security settings.  The file manager gives the user the option to exempt certain files or folders from being deleted after a system is restarted.  This is great for a folder like my documents etc.  that shouldn’t be deleted on restart.  There is also a virtual disk which works like the file manager and remains intact regardless of whether in the virtual system or not.  The virtual disk can be assigned a drive letter in My computer for easy access.

   Returnil Virtual System 2010 is surprisingly light on resources.  When idle, the program uses only 18 megabytes for the program to function and only adds one new process at 9 megabytes when a virus scan is in progress.  In addition, the virus scan only used a maximum of 15 percent CPU power.  Surprisingly, even though Returnil takes a full system snapshot, the whole hard drive usage is only a 100 megabytes.