VirusTotal: An Online Scanner
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There may be the occasional file that pops up that your antivirus software notices. Could be that it’s a virus, or it could be an innocent file that your antivirus software is not quite sure about, but must leave it to you to decide on what to do. VirusTotal is a free online service that can help you make that determination.
When you have a file that’s questionable, you just upload it to VirusTotal and let it analyze it using its many online antivirus search engines. These engines are familiar too: Kapersky, McAfee, Microsoft, ewido networks, Avast!, Panda Security and many others.
This is NOT meant to be a substitute for a real antivirus software package that you install on your computer. And they do point out that no one package — including their’s — offers a 100 percent guarantee. However, when you take the necessary steps to protect your computer from viruses by using different solutions, you increases your chances of avoiding an infection.
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Comments
Hi, Ken!
I’m wondering whether a file that’s been quarantined by our own anti-virus software can be uploaded and scanned by the VirusTotal tool. Would you happen to know anything about that?
Thanks!
Jeanne
@Jeanne
I apologize for not responding earlier. My blog didn’t notify me of when you left your comment. I’m going to have to check into that!
To answer your question, if I’m not mistaken, I believe you can. Quarantining a file just moves it to a specific directory on your hard drive. As long as you can browse to that file to upload it, you should be okay.
Thanks for commenting!
No problem, Ken!
It can be difficult to keep track of comments! Thanks for the info. It really proved helpful in relation to another question I had, as well!
Jeanne
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