Norman Antivirus is based out of Norway and was founded in 1984. The company offers a wide range of virus scanners that are ICSA labs certified. In addition, the company’s technologies are used by Symantec, eEye digital security, and many other famous security firms.
The companies freeware offering is Norman Malware Cleaner. The software is pretty hefty for a scanner coming in at a 71 megabyte download. The interface is also pretty basic but don’t let this fool a user into thinking that the software is limited. The Norman Malware Cleaner uses the same scanning technology as the companies retail products and it goes above and beyond other companies free alternatives. The first strength is the ability to scan and remove rootkits. Keep in mind that Rootkit removal technology is only offered by a handful of paid antivirus. The next feature is the ability to scan the Windows Firewall configuration for Trojan and Worm entries and effectively delete them. The ability to scan the Windows firewall is to my knowledge, unique to Norman Malware Cleaner.
Norman Malware Cleaner also supports Windows server operating systems. These include Windows 2000, 2003, and even 2008. This is a stand out feature because 99% of free antivirus are specifically limited to consumer (xp, vista, 7) and won’t even install on server O/S’s. In addition, Norman Malware Cleaner works comfortably on all other consumer versions of Windows.
Norman Malware Cleaner also scans for an deletes specific browser infections including BHO’s, Active X, and even malicious Windows Host File entries. If Norman Malware Cleaner locates a locked virus process, the scanner can restart the system and delete the file before Windows is loaded.
My favorite feature of Norman Malware Cleaner and a sure winner for system administrators, is the ability to run via the command line. Some options include a stealth mode in which the Program is never shown to the user, the ability to automatically scan on reboot, and automatically delete detected viruses etc. This makes Norman Malware Cleaner perfect for cleaning up systems that are already infected.
I also liked how Norman Malware Cleaner gives the user the option to easily view the virus database. The database is so large that it took almost a minute to completely display. A larger virus database means a greater chance of detecting something malicious.
Cons:
There are some downsides to Norman Malware Cleaner. The first is the interface is pretty dated and really lags behind the competitor’s free offerings. The next, is that there is no update functionality. If a user wants to update the Malware Cleaner they will have to re download the next build the next day. To Norman’s credit, they really do update the build daily. Norman Malware Cleaner also suffers from slow scanning. The speed is compounded by the problem in that there isn’t a scanning status indicator.
