Malware Sweeper Free is anti trojan and antivirus program that exhibits excellent scanning and detection capability. According to many download sites, and primarily CNet, Malware Sweeper is highly recommended. The program also features up to date virus definitions and the most recent were released on September 16, 2010.
The installation of Malware Sweeper went without a hitch. The program is also compact at only 6.8 megabytes and the installer comes in a variety of languages including English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese.
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After the quick installation, the program automatically launched. To my surprise, the included virus definitions hadn’t been updated since 2006. However, the Malware Sweeper Free immediately prompted for an update. The program required two updates that totaled about 10 megabytes. After they were applied, the program needed to be restarted. There was a sharing violation for a few components, but the software managed to start.
I opted for the quick scan. The quick scan was actually quick and completed in about 30 seconds using about 14 percent CPU power and 48 megabytes of RAM. The quick scan detected six malware variants on my computer. They are as follows, Block-Checker, system-process, coolwebsearch, Kedebe, screenview, brilliant digital, and nethell. All of the detected malware were false positives except brilliant digital. However, some of the false positives were system files like MFPLAY.DLL. Therefore, Malware Sweeper isn’t exactly compatible with Windows 7 (the program is designed to run on XP). I ran into some other problems with the scanning. The results page cannot be resized and this is annoying because its difficult to see where the detected malware is located. However, I did like that Malware Sweeper Free has classified each malware under the threat details area. It displays a short description about what the malware does. Few free antivirus publisher’s actually include such meticulous details in their software.
I also want to comment on the interface . I find the interface very well designed and interesting. Malware Sweeper Free, also includes a lot of auxiliary capability. The program has Live Updates and includes various system tweaks.
In conclusion, Malware Sweeper Free is an excellent software but simply needs to be updated for use on Windows 7 to function correctly.
Wormblaster is an all in one free antivirus / remove any malicious software tool. The software really comes with a variety of different functions. An integrated System Optimizer and protection against the latest viruses make this program ideal.
First, Wormblaster includes a full antivirus engine with auto update and even real time protection capabilities. WormBlaster includes a scanner called the “virus scanner massacre” that allows a user to select any area of their PC for scanning. I scanned my entire C drive (156,000 files) in less than 5 minutes. This time is almost as fast as Prevx (the fastest antivirus engine tested). Wormblaster also only used 13 megabytes of ram and about 16 percent CPU power . One disadvantage to the scanning process is that the one cannot navigate to the other menus within the antivirus. Also, the Wormblaster window always stays on top.
The next feature of Wormblaster is its extensive administration capabilities. In the settings menu, one can tweak the antivirus engine, add a file extension list and also view the status of the signature and program versions. I ran into a problem on Windows 7. After I ran the update utility, Wormblaster wasn’t able to recognize that it had any virus definitions at all. This presented a problem because it would make any virus detection impossible.
The next feature of Wormblaster is the system optimizer. In this menu a user can change a variety of settings about how Windows operates. They include features such as enabling a clean shut down, clearing the virtual memory on shutdown, optimizing the hard drive, and quick reboot of the operating system etc. There are also a lot of useful shortcuts to important Windows features like defrag etc.
Wormblaster comes with real time protection against viruses and a handy tray icon. The tray icon gives the user the option to combine the program with Avast AV. Basically, the publisher of Wormblaster has tested their software to be used in conjunction with other free antivirus software. I had some problems with the tray icon in that it would constantly disappear. I also ran into a problem when I clicked malware fixer. The malware fixer would constantly open up hundreds of dos windows and could easily lead to a system crash.
Regardless of its faults, one advantage to Wormblaster is that it is frequently updated with the latest virus definition. The program included a lot of additional virus removers. They include a conficker remover, sality remover, and a virut remover. Wormblaster also includes protection against mywebsearchbar, Stuxnet, Yuyun, Koobface, fake-alert, and many more current viruses and worms.
Innobate Antivirus is a free antivirus that has just been recently released. The basic edition, the one which we are reviewing, appears to offer only virus scanning capability and not virus removal. However, Innobate Basic still includes multiple real-time shields, auto updating, and my favorite, a talking capability.
The installation of Innobate Basic was simple. The initial installation went without a hitch. However, after the program was installed, Innobate Basic executed a lot of concurrent processes. These includes running a full system scan and updating the virus databases. These concurrent process made the program balloon in its resource usage and caused some problems (we will talk about them later). Some nice things about the installer are that it includes 64 bit support and is in the .msi format for easy installation across a network.
By far my favorite feature, and bound to annoy many users, is the TalktoMe setting. This is essentially the Avast 4.8 voice on an energy drink (kosher). A women’s voice will highlight every action of Innobate antivirus down to a supreme precision. For example, “the active scan started on September 19 at 2:30 pm” and then again when it stops and then again and again.. Personally, I kind of like the feature because often free antivirus stay idle in the task bar and I have no clue what is going on. Of course one can disable the feature, but it is a feature that is truly unique to Innobate Basic and hence trademarked.
Innobate Basic does have its problems and one of them is resource usage. Maybe this problem is confined to Windows 7 but memory and cpu usage are really subpar. With all the real-time antivirus engines turned on, the software uses a constant 10% CPU power and it doesn’t go below 5% at any time. And these CPU readings are with light computing activity. Also, the program uses 75 megabytes of RAM and an extra 156 megabytes from a process called Vscan. These system resource burdens are far and above almost all other free antivirus competitors.
The interface of Innobate isn’t the prettiest but its functional. There are only a few features they include the status, detected, quarantine, settings, and the update tabs. One thing that I like is that the Innobate Basic interface windows is resizable. In addition, there are a lot of virus scanning options. They include turbo, boost, nos, and memory scan modes. I wasn’t able to get them completely working so testing was inconclusive.
As of today Innobate Basic free antivirus is quite buggy. However, maybe it will suit some experienced user’s needs.
We have reviewed Comodo Antivirus 2009 before, and we have generally felt that the 2009 version performed very well. The 2011 (internet security) version adds a few key features and they are as follows, cloud based protection against zero day threats, a sandbox mode (the biggest change), game mode, trusted publisher (Norton Insight), firewall, a new interface, and spyware scanning. Since a lot of the functionality remains the same we want to take a look at what has changed and highlight theses features. In addition, one nice thing about Comodo, is there are no toolbars or added software that are included . I am pretty sure that there isn’t a competitor with some sort of bundle. In addition, the antivirus is now west coast labs certified.
The Comodo download was only 50 megabytes in size and the installer installed the software quickly. The first thing that has changed from the previous version is the interface. The interface is now has a more web 2.0 style to it but still maintains the same internal menus. So anyone familiar with the original antivirus well be comfortable with the latest version.
The biggest change to Comodo Antivirus 2011 is how the antivirus operates. The program now includes sandbox technology (brought into the mainstream by Avast). Sandbox technology takes a suspicious file and then runs it in an isolated protected environment that cannot modify system files. If there is a malware behavior detected, then the file is marked as malware and quarantined. The technology works hand in hand with the companies Defense+ heuristic detection to detect suspicious files. One thing to note about Comodo Antivirus 2011 is that a user will receive a lot of alerts and pop-ups. I received at least 4 when starting the program for the first time. The program initially sandboxed ATI control panel filezilla, and textpad.
I think Comodo probably utilizes the sandbox technology the best of its competitors because there are settings options to control it. Comodo Antivirus 2011 offers file system and registry virtualization. It can also detect trusted installers and exe’s that ignore the sandbox process (didn't work that well in practice). Perhaps the best thing about the technology is that the user can actually specify any file to be sandboxed from a convenient menu.
Cloud protection and scanning. Comodo Antivirus 2011 does in fact carry antivirus definitions locally. But, if a suspicious file is detected that isn’t in the definitions, it will update that file to the cloud (comodo’s server for enhanced virus and behavioral scanning). These settings can be found in the Execution and Control settings. As a final note, it was only a natural progression to enable cloud scanning in Comodo Antivirus 2011 because the company has been developing cloud based scanning for the past year.
The Antivirus scanning experience is generally the same as the previous version. One nice thing is that the program forces an update before running the scan (kind of large at 100 megabytes). The virus scanner is extremely fast and scans up to 15 megabytes per second. CPU usage remained at about 15% and memory usage was surprisingly low at around 60 megabytes.
Comodo Antivirus 2011 is so full of features that I simply could go on and on about the protection. The best thing a user can do is promptly install this antivirus software and test out the features for oneself. It is the most comprehensive free antivirus available to date period. However, it’s important that the user has some knowledge of antivirus software and security. There are quite a few alerts.
Zillya is a relatively new antivirus. The software company is based in the Ukraine and claims to have 500,000 active users there. One thing that stands out about Zillya are its very reasonably priced full versions (separate from its free offerings), easy to use interface, email scanning, and vast detection database (over 2 million known traces). The free version of Zillya comes with no strings attached. There is in fact no “full” antivirus version, rather an internet security version with an additional firewall and network protection. The free version of Zillya does not contain advertisements of any kind which is a treat when compared to every other free antivirus currently on the market.
Zillya free antivirus was easy to install and comes conveniently bundled in an .MSI install package. The full file size is only 44 megabytes making it one of the smallest free antivirus available. A few notes about the installation. The first is that the software warns the user of conflicts with another antivirus installed. Few if any free antivirus software actually alert the user to this situation. One problem with the installation is Zillya doesn’t let the user choose where to install the software. It just installs to the main operating system hard disk.
Once the install completed, the user is prompted to restart the computer. If one does not, they will be prompted that the antivirus kernel is not installed correctly (nice that the software even warns the user). After restart, the antivirus engine immediately started and Windows startup performance wasn’t even impacted. Unfortunately, Zillya free antivirus didn’t run an automatic definition update on the software’s first start. However, the update was scheduled within the next three hours (the software checks for antivirus updates every 3 hours).
The virus scanning engine of Zillya is really the core functionality of the software. The quick scan is quite quick completing in only 2 minutes. It also scans a plethora of files about 17,000 to be exact, against 2.5 million traces within the sort time period . The only problem with Zillya seems to be the memory usage. The program uses approximately 200 megabytes at all times. This is kind of a lot and exceeds all other free antivirus that I have reviewed. However, that being said, since the test system has 4 gigabytes of RAM, the performance impact was minimal to nonexistent. The program really is “lightweight” as everyday computing tasks are not noticeably impacted when compared to other antivirus engines.
In addition, to excellent virus scanning, Zillya free antivirus comes with a lot of nice extras. The first is email protection. Few antivirus even provide incoming and outgoing protection (one can also disable the antivirus signature on the bottom of any email). Next, Zillya includes download and Microsoft Office file protection. If any office file (extremely common way to exploit a vulnerability on a system) or file is downloaded or opened from Internet Explorer (no Firefox support) it gets scanned. Zillya also includes scheduling, exclusion list, and quarantine capability. It seems the only thing missing is a zero day protection network (found in PC tools new free antivirus 2011).
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