Most of the time one Anti-Virus software can’t completely protect your computer from virus. However, having 2 or more anti-virus program in your computer will make your computer unstable. My customer uses HP computers and by default it comes with 60 days trial Norton Antivirus. When it expires, nearly every of my customers would immediately download and install the FREE version of AVG WITHOUT uninstalling the expired Norton Antivirus first. Few unlucky ones wasn’t able to boot in Windows after installing AVG. There is one case that can boot in to Windows but AVG can’t function properly.

When you’re infected by persistent virus like Brontok, you’d be frustrated if the installed Anti-Virus program on your computer is unable to clean it. So how to scan computer using more than 1 type of antivirus? Is the only solution to uninstall the current antivirus program and then install another one? Fortunately not, here’s how you can scan your computer with 4 types of Anti Virus program without installing them.

Multi AV Scanning Tool by David H. Lipman is a malware removal utility incorporating multiple command line scanners including McAfee, Sophos, Kaspersky and Trend engines.

FREE Multiple anti virus program

To perform a scan using these vendor’s scanners choose the number on the menu corresponding to the Anti Virus scanner you wish to run. The scripts will automatically obtain the Anti Virus vendor’s files for you. You don’t need to have them already resident on your computer. After the files have been downloaded to your computer and have been made ready to use, you will get a prompt if you want to run the scanner or not. If you do want to perform a scan then click on “Yes“, if you do not want to perform a scan (maybe you want to perform the scan in SAFE MODE) choose “No“. If you choose No or ignore the prompt it will return you back to the main menu. An example prompt for the Sophos scanner is shown below.

FREE Sophos antivirus

If you choose to perform a scan then you will be prompted to see if you want to perform the scan of a particular folder or location. An example prompt for the Sophos scanner is shown below.

Sophos directory to scan

If you choose “No” then the AV scanner will proceed to perform a scan of all hard disks on the computer. If you choose “Yes” then you will be prompted to type in the path of the folder or the drive to be scanned. The scanner will then proceed to perform the scan of that location and all folders below it. If the drive or folder does not exist (for example a syntax error is made in typing the folder location) you will again be prompted to type in the path of the folder or the drive to be scanned.

Sophos, McAfee and Kaspersky uses the same method above to ask you which location you’d like to scan but for Trend, it will automatically obtain the Trend Micro Sysclean utility and the latest Trend Pattern File. After the files have been downloaded to your computer and they have been made ready to use, you will see the following GUI utility.

FREE Trend Anti virus

By clicking on the “Advanced” button you can choose to scan a specified folder or drive. If it is not chosen then Sysclean will scan all hard disks.

Here is how to run Multi AV Scanning tool in your computer.
1. Download Multi_AV.exe from the link at the end of this article.

2. Run Multi_AV.exe (You must use the default folder C:\AV-CLS)

3. Run StartMenu.BAT or double-click on ‘Start Menu‘ shortcut from C:\AV-CLS folder.

There are two modes of operation: Remove/Delete and Detect Only. The software defaults to the Remove/Delete mode which means that any files that are deemed to be infected will be automatically removed from the system and can which can not be cleaned. If you desire to use the Multi AV Scanning Tool just to detect and not delete malware, you can hit the letter “D” and place the software in a Detect Only mode of operation. Those files found to be infected by malware will be logged but not cleaned nor deleted from the system. These two modes of operation are only for the McAfee, Sophos and Kaspersky modules since the Trend Micro Sysclean utility has a GUI selection for detection with or without file deletion.

Included in the C:\AV-CLS folder is a file called killproc.txt and is used to shutdown or kill running processes prior to scanning the platform. There are two processes already in the text file. iexplore.exe (Internet Explorer) and firefox.exe (FireFox).
insert file name to kill task
You can add more file names in the text file making sure the last line is a blank line. You can also bring up the killproc.txt text file by hitting the “E” key in Multi-AV menu.

Multi AV Scanning Tool website no longer accessible but it’s still a very good free multiple antivirus program that can be used to scan and remove viruses.

Note: The directory C:\AV-CLS is hard coded and should not be changed. Multi AV should be used to remove an infection from your computer. They are not a replacement for realtime antivirus protection but they are an effective tool to remove malware (viruses etc.) from an infected machine where antivirus software is disabled, out-of-date or even if it is not installed at all.

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[tags]multiav, sophos, trend, mcafee, kaspersky[/tags]