Bootable antivirus

Bossk128 · 23 Jan 2008 at 16:51

At the weekend I'm off to clean one of the relatives PCs (as I'm sure many of us do). However, this one I think is most likely to have a virus infection (inquisitive aunt

).

Is there a free bootable AV that will scan the windows XP Home installation and alert me to an infection? And then fix it? I'd rather try this before I boot up because I know established viruses can affect further AV scans.

Cheers.

marc_howarth · 23 Jan 2008 at 16:52

would it just be easier to boot into safe mode and run a virus scan there??

Bossk128 · 23 Jan 2008 at 17:03

Would that work, in the worst case scenario that there was a virus infection- the virus wouldn't be loaded in safe mode? If so, that would make life easier.

Part of the difficulty in this one is she only has dial-up, so I'm trying to identify all that I need and get it on my connection before I go. Including AV updates.

Sinque · 23 Jan 2008 at 17:16

Bossk128 said:
Would that work, in the worst case scenario that there was a virus infection- the virus wouldn't be loaded in safe mode? If so, that would make life easier.

Part of the difficulty in this one is she only has dial-up, so I'm trying to identify all that I need and get it on my connection before I go. Including AV updates.

Safe mode would not run the virus, no. It runs the bare minimum.

Also upgrade her bloody internet

marc_howarth · 23 Jan 2008 at 19:41

i found this, online. Not sure how good or how well update it is but looks perfect for what you need

http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/clamwin_portable

HaX · 23 Jan 2008 at 20:10

Simple solution for you ;

Download the HP Bootable USB Key utility (Makes USB Pen drives bootable)
Format the pendrive as bootable

Download an MSDOS copy of F-Prot and pop it onto the pen drive

Boot into DOS MODE using pendrive, and run fprot.

swinnie · 23 Jan 2008 at 20:35

I believe that you can integrate an AV Package into Bart PE a bootable preinstalled environment.

From page 7

McAfee's Stinger virus scanner (freeware) keeps track of the most dangerous Trojans and worms and gets rid of malware. Copy the file named "s-t-i-n-g-e-r.exe" into the folder named "C:\Program Files\pebuilder313\plugin\stinger".

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/09/09/windows_in_your_pocket/

You can also integrate AdAware and other programs, so good luck!

ns400r · 23 Jan 2008 at 21:45

Hiren's