If you don't want to install a av protection, but want to check files from time to time, check out this handy list of free online file virus scanners.
This first scanner is amazing because it checks all the other engines at the same time. Save yourself the time of testing in all the engines below, this one does it for you.
http://virusscan.jotti.org/en ***
http://scanner.novirusthanks.org/
Kaspersky is one of the major players in the industry, so there is a high level of trust within the Kaspersky online file scanner that you can no have with some of these others.
http://www.kaspersky.com/scanforvirus
Virustotal has a nice store front. Maybe because I like clean websites with lots of blue. I do know that the results were quick, and the outout was neeto. It even had a little permalink to some cool info.
http://www.virustotal.com/
Boring! But works like it should and it is from a trusted company.
http://onlinescan.avast.com/
Nice interface, quick scan, great results output. Highly recommended.
http://online.us.drweb.com/
Boring but effective. Quick scan, simple results. Ugly interface, and they try to trick you into giving them your email and contact info before you scan, but it is not necessary to get the free scan so don't be fooled! The results say "The file TestFile.rar appears to be clean.", just in case you were wondering what kind of output this has.
http://www.fortiguard.com/antivirus/virus_scanner.html
http://www.filterbit.com/
Nice tool, a bit slow but works well. Gives multiple opinions from different AV engines. Like jotti.org above. These both are great, this one is just a bit slower however and at least one engine failed. Here are the results so you can see yourself.
| Engine Name | ScanTime | Definition Date | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AVG scan engine | 4609ms | 2010-07-11 18:36:00 | - |
| CA scan engine | 719ms | 2010-07-09 00:00:00 | - |
| ClamWin scan engine | 3516ms | 2010-07-11 00:00:00 | - |
| Eset scanning engine | 438ms | 2010-07-11 00:00:00 | - |
| Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows Servers | 6343ms | 2010-07-12 00:00:00 | - |
| McAfee VirusScan Enterprise | 0ms | 1979-11-30 00:00:00 | Failed to scan |
| Norman Scan Engine | 6250ms | 2010-07-11 10:18:00 | - |
| QuickHeal scan engine | 5406ms | 2010-07-10 19:53:17 | - |
| Sunbelt scan engine | 7906ms | 2010-07-09 17:58:01 | - |
| Symantec Scan Engine | 121ms | 2010-07-11 00:00:00 | - |
| VirusBuster EDK | 6484ms | 2010-07-11 13:49:32 | - |
| Final Result | NO VIRUSES DETECTED | ||
This one just uses the Dr. Web engine above. Just go directly to the source, but if you must try this one, here is the link for file scanning.
http://old.antivir.ru/english/www_av/
I got "You uploaded more than 500 kbytes.This looks wrong. Exiting." Are we kidding here, what files are less than 500kbytes now in days? Skip!
http://www.gietl.com/test-clamav/
Another multi engine scanner. Very cool. However, boring interface, and another possibly missleading lead capture form. But the results at detailed. So overall it is above average for its function.
http://www.garyshood.com/virus/
My file is still scanning. Don't think I am going back. The interface was bland, but the code looked new. Let me see ... "Please wait..." Nope I don't think so, I have ADD like the rest of my generation. Good bye, have fun near the end of my list.
http://zhengupload.paretologic.com/
Let me share with you, many techies love hijackthis. It is a guru of system maintenance applications. Unfortunately, their tool didn't work for me today. So I decided not to give it a good rating. Sorry Hijackthis, still love your others tools.
http://www.hijackthis.de/
Simple interface, small progress bar that reminds me of the 90's, and all I got was "The submitted file is not detected" with a question mark next to it that is unclickable. So no, almost one of the worst in my opinion.
http://www.threatexpert.com/filescan.aspx
This is the message I get when I try to scan a file. "There is no free capacity at the moment. Please try again later. " Ok so I bumped you to the end of the list because "There is no free capacity anywhere but the end of our rating list. Please try again later." :)
http://www.viruschief.com
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