It is surprising that how many people show absolutely no interest, when it comes to protecting their computers from malware, trojans and other online threats. These are the same people who often get victimized by phishing, malware infection, and other such menace. It is not that difficult to protect your Windows PC against malware infection and other online threats. All you have to do is install an antivirus software in your computer to thwart such attacks, but if you somehow still get infected then you can always scan you infected PC with the help of many online scanners. The free Cogeco Online Virus Scanner is one of such tools. Although made available to the general public by Cogeco company in Canada, it is powered by F-Secure – the well reputed security software company.
This software can be used by anyone having Windows PC. Even if you do not suspect that you have any malware on your computer, you can still use this free tool to have a second opinion and a little peace of mind. After downloading it from the Cogeco website, you can launch the portable online virus scanner. In the first few steps, you will have to agree with the terms and conditions etc., before you can click on the Start button to begin the scan.
Before starting the actual scan, it downloads virus definitions from the F-Secure servers. Without these files, it cannot detect malware, so you have to be patient during the downloading process. After downloading is done, it will scan your system (processes, memory, files, and other areas) for any signs of malware infection.
If any infections are detected, it automatically attempts to remove them and because of that you may have to restart your computer (some processes and files cannot be removed without rebooting). On my system, it did not find anything malicious and showed a message that “the scan did not find any harmful applications”.
The scan is over and the results are out. But Cogeco Online Virus Scanner does not stop here, it goes one step further and checks whether you have any security software installed on your Windows PC. If it does not find any, then it suggests you to install F-Secure Internet Security. On my system, it detected avast! and was happy to inform me that “your device is protected”.
Conclusion: The Cogeco Online Virus Scanner is an online virus scanner for infected Windows machines. It can scan your system for possible malicious programs and attempts to remove them too. If you suspect that your Windows PC is infected then you can give this software a try and let it help you remove the malware infesting your PC.
You can download Cogeco Online Virus Scanner from http://www.cogeco.ca/web/on/en/residential/internet/virus_scanner.php.