Best Second opinion scanners

What is the best Second opinion scanner that you have used?

  • HitmanPro

    Votes: 30 28.3%
  • Norton Power Eraser

    Votes: 35 33.0%
  • Malwarebytes

    Votes: 22 20.8%
  • Emsisoft Emergency Kit

    Votes: 34 32.1%
  • Eset Online Scanner

    Votes: 18 17.0%
  • Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool

    Votes: 36 34.0%

  • Total voters
    106

Shadowra

Level 33
Verified
Top Poster
Content Creator
Malware Tester
Well-known
Sep 2, 2021
2,246
Malwarebytes and I'll tell you why:

- It has a very good database (malware, PUP, PUM etc)
- It cleans efficiently, without leaving any traces behind
- It has a very good and improving AI (it recognized Trojans not detected by Eset on one of my tests!!)
- Its machine learning is in constant evolution

Hitman Pro does not detect infected VBS/JS
Emsisoft is quite long even if it is effective, but does not always manage to remove malware that are persistent (and that I have often seen)
Norton Power Eraser is very efficient, but tends to make false positives.

Another tool I really like is KVRT (Kaspersky Virus Removal Tools) which complements well the scans of Malwarebytes and NPE :)
 

Nightwalker

Level 24
Verified
Honorary Member
Top Poster
Content Creator
Well-known
May 26, 2014
1,339
Malwarebytes and I'll tell you why:

- It has a very good database (malware, PUP, PUM etc)
- It cleans efficiently, without leaving any traces behind
- It has a very good and improving AI (it recognized Trojans not detected by Eset on one of my tests!!)
- Its machine learning is in constant evolution

Hitman Pro does not detect infected VBS/JS
Emsisoft is quite long even if it is effective, but does not always manage to remove malware that are persistent (and that I have often seen)
Norton Power Eraser is very efficient, but tends to make false positives.

Another tool I really like is KVRT (Kaspersky Virus Removal Tools) which complements well the scans of Malwarebytes and NPE :)

My thoughts exactly.
 

Kongo

Level 35
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Feb 25, 2017
2,481
Hard question. I think Norton Power Eraser is great for the detection of scripting malware but is also prone to false positives. ESET Online Scanner is another great scanner which I really like. I personally think that it provides the most balanced detection of various threat-types out of the scanners mentioned above.

So I would go with Norton Power Eraser, ESET Online Scanner and maybe AdwCleaner for the removal of adware.
 

plat

Level 29
Top Poster
Sep 13, 2018
1,793
I still have a HitmanPro subscription but am actively looking for alternatives. HMP has been useful in the past detecting third party tracking cookies that got on the system when Firefox was incorrectly configured. But lately, I've seen its cloud with fluctuating uploading speeds and of course whet many others have expressed concern about: bad script detection or lack thereof.

I know the Sophos devs have seen the Wilders comments about it but I'm not holding my breath as a UI glitch was reported to them weeks ago and nothing's been done about that to date.

Norton Power Eraser and AdwCleaner (that 3 sec. scan!) at the moment. Will consider KVRT also but a little more hesitant there. Umm, do I talk too much? :unsure:

Hope not.
 

franz

Level 8
Verified
Well-known
May 29, 2021
383
Hard question. I think Norton Power Eraser is great for the detection of scripting malware but is also prone to false positives. ESET Online Scanner is another great scanner which I really like. I personally think that it provides the most balanced detection of various threat-types out of the scanners mentioned above.

So I would go with Norton Power Eraser, ESET Online Scanner and maybe AdwCleaner for the removal of adware.
I have to agree with you ;)
 

Anthony Qian

Level 9
Verified
Well-known
Apr 17, 2021
448
Malwarebytes and I'll tell you why:

- It has a very good database (malware, PUP, PUM etc)
- It cleans efficiently, without leaving any traces behind
- It has a very good and improving AI (it recognized Trojans not detected by Eset on one of my tests!!)
- Its machine learning is in constant evolution

Hitman Pro does not detect infected VBS/JS
Emsisoft is quite long even if it is effective, but does not always manage to remove malware that are persistent (and that I have often seen)
Norton Power Eraser is very efficient, but tends to make false positives.

Another tool I really like is KVRT (Kaspersky Virus Removal Tools) which complements well the scans of Malwarebytes and NPE :)
MB also cannot detect malicious scripts.
 

Freki123

Level 15
Verified
Top Poster
Aug 10, 2013
737
I don't care about removal of malware only detection. When a scanner would find something I would treat the pc as infected and roll it back from an offline backup or install from scratch.
Atm using EEK and Hitman Pro which afaik runs forever free (when you only scan stuff with it and never try to delete something).
 

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