Kaspersky has a free utility designed to provide on-demand scan and remove all types of virus infections from your computer. The official name for the tool is Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool but some people call it AVPTool. Do take note that Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool is NOT meant to replace your real-time protection of your computer. Whenever a currently installed antivirus software such as Norton, NOD32, Bitdefender, AVG, Avira and etc fails to detect and remove virus on a computer, I’d first use Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool to perform a full scan on system memory, startup objects, disk boot sectors, and the hard drives.
No matter how good and useful AVPTool is, there’s one big inconvenience with this utility that is it doesn’t have an update feature. If you’re using AVPTool that is downloaded yesterday, you’ll get a warning from the utility telling you that “The threat signatures are obsolete. You are advised to update the program.” And when you’re using a much older version of AVPTool, the utility will tell you “Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool is out of date. You are advised to update the program” Clicking the Last version of program link from the warning popup balloon will open your default browser to start downloading the latest version which is 27MB in size and growing each time because of the updated signatures to detect latest viruses.
Since I use AVPTool very frequently, I had to find a way to manually update the virus definition database without re-downloading the 27MB setup. I am glad that I manage to find a way to update AVPTool and also sharing it with you.
As far as I know, Kaspersky virus definitions are stored in “bases” folder. The updated Kaspersky virus definition database can be easily downloaded from their server and most of the files there are with .avc extension. When I checked the AVPTool bases folder, most of the files are with .avz extension and it has a huge megabase.avc file that is 21.8MB in size. I found out that the megabase.avc file stored in the AVPTool bases folder is actually multiple .avc files merged into one giant file.
Although the file extensions between AVPTool bases and Kaspersky server are different, the secret is AVPTool can also use definition files in .avc extension. So all you need to do is to download all the files from Kaspersky server to the AVPTool bases folder.
There are 700+ files in Kaspersky server and manually maintaining the AVPTool definition updates is not going to be easy. So here is a tool called NOD32 Update Viewer (NOD32View) which is actually meant for checking NOD32 definition files updates but has been improved to support AVPTool, DR. Web, AVZ, Trojan Remover and A-Squared. I am going to show you how easily it is to maintain an updated AVPTool using NOD32View.
1. Download the latest version of NOD32 Update Viewer and install.
2. Download the latest version of Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool and install. By default it will try to install Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool to your desktop and create a new folder Kaspersky Lab Tool.
3. Once AVPTool finished installing, it will automatically run. Click the Settings area, uncheck “Enable Self-Defense” and click OK.
Close AVPTool and click NO when you see a prompt that says “The program will be unloaded and uninstalled. Do you want to uninstall?”
4. Launch NOD32View and click the Kaspersky icon.
5. Click the small folder icon to select the path for the Kaspersky Virus Removal tool bases folder. If you installed AVPTool to desktop, the path should be something the following:
In Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Desktop\Kaspersky Lab Tool\is-XXXX\bases\
In Windows Vista: C:\Users\USERNAME\Desktop\Kaspersky Lab Tool\is-XXXX\bases\
The XXXX is a randomly generated character during installation.
6. Click Check button, wait for a few seconds and click the Update button when it is no longer grayed out. Go make yourself a cup of coffee because the first time would a while to finish downloading 40MB of files. However, the next time would be much faster as NOD32View will only download the updated changed files. Everytime NOD32View finished updating the AVPTool definition, the .avc files will be automatically copied to the base path where you specified in step 5.
Now you know how to manually update your Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool signatures without re-downloading the latest installer.
Note: To run Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool, the filename
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I am having problems downloading the support services because i am having problems to download the antivirus
I have just purchased Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 and it does not install. It says I have to down load support.kaspersky.com/viruses/avptool2010 which is frustrating because I can’t download this. Please help
This is a tool recommended to clean the system before installation of new antvirus. this is the best way to protect my computer i think.
You need to change NOD32view.ini servers from
“downloads1.kaspersky-labs.com/bases/av/avc/i386/” to “downloads1.kaspersky-labs.com/bases/av/kdb/i386/” in the newer versions for the correct signatures.
mon pc infecte par les virus
ciao ragazzi voglio scaricare AVPool gratis come si fa??????????
nn riesco GRAZIE
Dude, this files is clear, and works fine for me.
Thanks, Raymond.
If you are having issues running virus scanners whilst your computer is turned on, try to start into ‘Safe Mode’.
If you’re using a version of Windows, you’ll be able to do this. (Windows XP, Windows Vista & Windows 7)
Safe Mode:
Turn computer off
Turn computer on whilst tapping F8. When prompted select ‘safe mode with networking’
When prompted, click Yes & start into Windows as normal.
nice,but ?….
hey bro ,,,i have a very strange virus that gets detected but i cant delete/disinfect/quarantine it,,,its name is networm.win32. kido.ix ,,its driving me crazy ,plz help,,and i hav tried all antivirus kaspersky and eset also
any way to puit the portable KAVP tool in a dir and add the downloaded bases to it, to recognize?
Great help. Thanks a lot Ray.
no anda cuando actualiza que le das scan dice que no es la misma version
corrige el problema gracias
That scan was from virus total.
4 scanners out of 32 flagged it .. not enough to worry me (12%) .. and i intend to use nod32 viewer.
I was just trying to put some minds at ease that thought it had a virus in it since it was not from ESET.
Nice tutorial.
Why don’t you analyze it with ThreatExpert? It’s definitely false positives and it’s very common nowadays.
File NOD32view.exe received on 02.24.2008 01:40:52 (CET)
Current status: finished
Result: 4/32 (12.50%)
AntiVir – TR/Agent.DHW
Avast – Win32:Trojan-gen. {Other}
F-Secure – Trojan-PSW.Win32.Delf.tb
Kaspersky – Trojan-PSW.Win32.Delf.tb
NOD32v2 – probably a variant of Win32/PSW.Delf
Can i use it as u3 in sandisk?
NVM….i downloaded it from author’s own site…
BTW, thanks Raymond, I forgot to thanked you in the first place
Can somebody please put nod32 update viewer somewhere else…. i can’t download them. Perhaps email me?
Thanks Raymond,but can somebody use another uploadhost for Nod.When i try to download it get the message,
We are sorry, but all downloading slots for your country are busy.
Thank you very much :)
Yes you can use AVPTool as a portable tool but make sure you’ve disabled Self-Defense first.
Can i use this as a portable antivirus and copy it in the usb drive and scan on the go?
cool……my be some one can help us to make this file portable
bardy how you can update KAV rescue CD?
Can you tell us?
thanks for the tip ray very helpful as always
Not sure if this app is from ESET though. See here:
wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=154022
And here:
wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=142927
Great tip indeed !
Hi Raymond, Vikas here i am a big fan of ur articles. My work is to remove virus without new installation of window of effectin the files of other pc. i was very successful for 2 years. but now i find a new problem. there is a new process which disable registry and disable taskmanager in few seconds. i have tried all my tools to find that hidden process. i am sure this is run silently with the help of some other process. i have tried eset tool, autorun, msconfig, gpedit.msc, dial a fix (enable taskmanager and registry for some sec.), disable all the startup items, delete temp files. use updated kaspersky live cd to find or remove process but nothing work for me. i also have the sample of that virus. can u help me??? if yes reply me asap…
waiting for your kind reply.
Many many thanks Mr.Raymond.
thanks a lot RAY!
can i also install this on my flash drive as portable AVPTools and update there?
Thank you Rymond for this tool
This info great. Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool is a must have tool that i use. I regularly download the newest version. I\’ll try NOD32 Update Viewer.
Ray, I find a way to update KAV rescue CD.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH..
You can manually updated KIS/KAV 2009 manually for offline users with NOD32View too.
Thanks Raymond..Is there any way to update kis 09 or kav 09 versions manually for offline users
i mean any zip folder updates similar to kis version 7