Tech Junky

If you feel that the anti-virus you just installed is perfectly fine to protect your PC, then think again. Nasty new viruses, worms, malware and spyware are born about every minute. If so is the case, then they can invade your computer, beating your anti-virus away.

Now it’s time to protect yourself through online virus scanners. Yep, you heard it right - ‘online virus scanners’. These scanners use varied scanning mechanisms and possess the latest virus signature databases. The virus definitions are updated quite frequently and thus protect you from the latest threats.

Many of the big anti-virus companies nowadays provide users access to an online scanner. Here’s a look at the best free online virus scanner:

1. Microsoft Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner: The OneCare Safety Scanner is an online service from Microsoft. This easy-to-use scanner will search your PC to detect all that malware and sytem vulnerabilities. It even assists you in removing them. It might not be that effective against the latest threats but still helps. It can also help you improve upon your system performance by curing certain system issues.

2. Avast! Online Scanner: The Avast! Online scanner is a free and fast scanner. While it limits you to just scan one file at a particular time, it’s good if you want to check a few of your suspicious files. It also doesn’t scan files which are more than 512kb in size. So make sure you got the file size right.

3. F-Secure Online Virus Scanner: To proceed with F-Secure, you’ll firstly need to download it’s 22MB update database. After you get hold of the updates, you can begin with the scan and removal process. It works only with IE 6 or higher and makes use of ActiveX and JavaScript. Basically, the primary version is for Windows XP and 2000 users. Vista users can scan their systems using the recently released F-Secure Online Scanner 3.3 Beta.

4. BitDefender Online Scanner: The BitDefender Online scanner will scan your hard drive and boot sectors. Scanning with the defaults will even enable it to remove the infections automatically. If you want, you can even limit the scan to certain folders. You also have the option to save the scan reports for a later analysis. This program too works with only Internet Explorer.

5. Kaspersky, Mcaffee Free Scan & Panda ActiveScan: Wondering why I’ve categorizing these three scanners under one roof? It’s so because these programs scan your computer perfectly but when the time comes for removal of threats, they’ll not be so helpful. You may try these for getting reports on the infections your PC persists. They might even give you certain tips on how to deal with these. Maybe they’ll be useful? - LoL!

Although you can scan your computer for threats using these programs but remember that these are not an alternative for your regular anti-virus software. These can be a sort of second line for defense. You need to install a good anti-virus to stay protected.