What do you do when you have a computer that is infected by virus, trojan or malware? Which AntiVirus software will you install to scan the computer? No matter what antivirus software you choose to install, the important rule is not to install more than 1 antivirus on the computer. IF really need to use different antivirus, make sure you’ve totally disabled the current installed antivirus from startup or uninstall it before installing a new one. Otherwise instead of spending your time in cleaning virus, you’ll end up trying to fix Windows boot problem.

Before you fork over $40 or so for a commercial product, why not check out one of the excellent free anti-virus utilities that is listed below? All you need is a web browser and internet connection. The free online virus scanners listed below will either clean and/or scan your computer for viruses. The big difference between a desktop version of antivirus with online version of antivirus is desktop antivirus provides real time virus scanning and online antivirus provides on demand scans. Unless the antivirus has a very smart heuristic scanning method, new viruses can still infect a computer.

Here I’ve compiled a comprehensive list of free online virus scanners for your convenience.

1. Trend Micro HouseCall

- Works on both Internet Explorer and Firefox web browser (Java)
- Takes a long time to download lpt$vpn.### definition file
- Able to Scan and Remove found viruses

2. BitDefender Online Scanner

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Able to scan and remove found viruses

3. F-Secure Online Virus Scanner

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Able to scan and remove found viruses
- Require to download 35MB the first time

4. ESET Online Scanner

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Unable to scan custom location
- Able to scan and remove found viruses. Must specify remove found threats before start scan.

5. Panda ActiveScan

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Able to scan custom location
- Able to scan and remove found viruses.
- There’s another online virus scanner “PC PitStop Virus Scan” uses Panda scanning engine. It’s the same.

6. CA Online Virus Scanner

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Able to scan custom location
- Able to scan and remove found viruses.

7. NanoScan

- Works on both Internet Explorer (ActiveX) and Firefox web browser (Extension)
- Only scan memory, not files
- VERY fast scan but not accurate as it scans only memory

8. iolo Online Virus Scanner

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Bad detection rate. Unable to detect a trojan which I place on my drive.

9. Authentium Command On Demand

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Able to scan custom location
- Bad detection rate. Unable to detect a trojan which I place on my drive.
- There’s another online virus scanner “Freedom” uses Authentium Command On Demand scanning engine. It’s the same.

10. a-squared Web Malware Scanner

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Require to download 20MB the first time
- Able to scan custom location
- Able to Scan and Remove found viruses
- There’s another online virus scanner “Windows Security” uses a-squared Web Malware Scanner scanning engine. It’s the same.

11. ewido anti-spyware online scanner

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Unable to scan custom location
- Able to Scan and Remove infections

12. OneCare Safety Scanner

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Takes very long to download
- Unable to scan custom location
- Able to Scan and Remove infections

13. Kaspersky Online Scanner

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Definition takes long time to download the first time, 16MB. However, the next time will be fast as it only updates the necessary files.
- Only scan but no removal of virus

14. McAfee FreeScan

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Fast to complete downloading definition and activex
- Bad detection rate. Unable to detect a trojan which I place on my drive.
- Only Scan but no removal of virus

15. Symantec Security Check

- Works only on Internet Explorer (ActiveX)
- Unable to scan custom location
- Only scan but no removal of virus

16. AhnLab MyV3 Online Anti-Virus Scanner

- Works on both Internet Explorer (ActiveX) and Firefox web browser (Extension)
- Takes very long to download
- Only scan but no removal of virus

There you have it. All 16 types of free online antivirus scanners. Some online scanners such as Symantec and Kaspersky is only able to scan but unable to remove virus. Out of all, my favorite is Trend Micro HouseCall and BitDefender Online Scanner because Trend is one of the first to develop online virus scanner. As for BitDefender, they have one of the best heuristic scanning technology.

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