Virus Total – Online Tool for Total Virus Scan

You have one of the best antivirus software installed on your system. It is the best and has a very high virus detection rate. You think you got a impressive and 100% reliable virus scanner. Wrong! you do not have the best.

Hundreds of new Viruses, Adwares, Spywares, Worms, Trojans etc are being created every day. A Tom-Dick-Harry is building a software everyday. There are new softwares claiming impressive services and features. But can you simply just download these softwares and use them.”HELL NO”. Yes some of you are very cautious and do not download softwares from unreliable sources but many of you does. You rely on you anti virus to warn you if there is any potential threat in the software package you downloaded. But your anti virus may not be able to detect all threats. You just cannot rely on one antivirus scanner.

What is the solution?

Virus Total. Virus Total is a service that analyzes suspicious files and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, Trojans, and all kinds of malware detected by antivirus engines. Virus Total is a online tool/webware by Hispasec Sistemas which uses nearly 41 antivirus engines to scan a file for potential threats. Virus Total uses best antivirus engines like Avast, Antivir, AVG, Bit Defender, CalmAV, Comodo, F-Secure, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microsoft, NOD32, Symantec, TrendMicro etc. With 41 antivirus scanning your file, virtually no threat can hide.

How do you use Virus Total and what are it feature?

As I told you before virus total is a online free virus scanner tool, so you need Internet to use it. You can think of it as another antivirus software program just for virus checking or scanning. You just have to visit their website. Upload the file you want to scan for threats and in few seconds (may take few minutes if file is big) you get a detailed result of the scanned file. If the file you uploaded has been scanned earlier you get result in a instant.

You can see a sample result below. The picture is little big in size, so it may take time to load – please be patience or see the report in Virus Total Website. I uploaded the setup of Alexa Toolbar Version 9.0.0.30. Only one scanner showed it contains Adware. I remember the olden days when most antivirus used to label Alexa as Adware. I think now they have accepted it as no threat.

What more to know?

Virus Total has been awarded by the American edition of PC World Magazine, one of the 100 best products of year 2007 in the Security Web Site category.

If you have doubt about any file. You think it may contains viruses then you jsut upload it to Virus Total and get a scan report. I advise you to check any new software before installing. There is  also availability of SSL on the website so the file you upload are sent through securely.

Virus Total is a very useful tool which can be accessed from anywhere be it your office, home or school. Until you connected to Internet you can use it. How useful do you think this online tool is? How do you plan to use it? Would you recommend it to you friends.