We have previously covered free command line malware scanner called Ikarus T3 scan. It is powered by the Ikarus antivirus engine and is fully standalone application. You can even download the updated virus definitions file whenever you want from Ikarus’ website.
Even though we can use Ikarus T3 scan anytime we want using a command prompt window, it is always better if this tool can be integrated with the Windows File Explorer. Fortunately, it is so much easy to integrate it with File Explorer using just a few steps so that we can right-click on any folder and scan it using T3 scan.
Here is how we can add Ikarus T3 Scan to folders context-menu on Windows:
- Download all files from http://updates.ikarus.at/updates/update.html. Place t3sigs.vdb in C:\T3scan folder. Launch ikarust3scan.exe and extract it to C:\T3scan too.
- Press Win+R to open the Run dialog, type regedit and press Enter. When Registry Editor is launched, navigate to the following key : HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\
- Create a new subkey named t3scan. Under the new t3scan key change default string value to T3 Scan.
- Create a new subkey under t3scan key named command. Under the command key, change the default string value to C:\t3scan\t3scan.exe “%1” -logfile C:\t3scan\t3scan.log
- Now you are all set. Now you can right-click on any folder and choose “T3 Scan” to start scanning that folder for malware.
- Since the T3 scan is not going to wait after scanning is finished, the log is saved in the file t3scan.log. You can open this log file to see the results of the last scan.
Ikarus T3 Scan is a freeware command line scanner. It is ideal for scanning your download folders from time to time. If you download anything new and suspicious, place the newly downloaded files in a folder and then you can scan that folder using the T3 Scan. It may find some harmful files that your regular scanner could have missed.