Advice Request What is the best Second Opinion Scanner to an AV?

[SearchLight]

Best AV has always been a subjective discussion.

It was also suggested by many on this forum to use as a compliment to an AV, a second opinion scanner without real time protection activated, if it should possess that feature.

I am aware of Malwarebytes, Zemana Anti-Malware, Norton Power Eraser, and Hitman to mention a few.

That being said, what would you recommend as the best second opinion scanner with good detection to an av?

 

[harlan4096]

I would say better a combination of some of them, those You have mentioned would be enough...

 

[Dhruv2193]

Malwarebytes and Emsisoft

 

[Rengar]

1. https://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/tdsskiller/
2. https://support.eset.com/kb2372/
3. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/rkill/
4. http://www.gmer.net/
5. https://www.comodo.com/business-security/network-protection/cleaning-essentials.php
6. https://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/eek/

For some reason the links arent working

Karpersky TDDSKiller, Eset scanner,RKill,Gmer,Comodo cleaning essensials,Emsisoft emergency kit.

 

[Mahesh Sudula]

Emsisoft, TDSS, NPE, RogueKiller are enough in my opinion
Note: Choose a PAID AV solution instead of free AV

 

[Ink]

Note: Choose a PAID AV solution instead of free AV

What's this got to do with this topic?

If you are implying a Free AV cannot perform the same as a Paid AV, that is total rubbish.

Most Antivirus software cannot completely protect modern systems without default-deny, whitelisting, isolation/virtualisation or other non-signature based methods. Some Paid AV might not include any of these features, whilst a Free AV might.

An Antivirus solution alone cannot protect all users, all of the time. The chances might improve with one of the above technologies with a backup plan.

Yet it can fail, because Windows.

 

[TairikuOkami]

That being said, what would you recommend as the best second opinion scanner with good detection to an av?

That depends how often do you scan? Some portable scanners can be updated, other have to be re-downloaded.

Emsisoft Emergency Kit as a stable scanner.

Support tools: Kaspersky TDDSKiller, RKill, FRST, Autoruns.

One time tools (any of those): Dr.Web CureIt (it uses a randomized name), Norton PE, ESET Online Scanner, Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool.

 

[Aerdian]

My opinion would be not to go too overboard with secondary scanners. In my opinion, you should use 2, no more than 3 secondary scanners. I use Malwarebytes Free (Premium provides real-time protection, which you don't want when you have another AV program running), Zemana Antimalware, and HitmanPro and, in my opinion, that is a good secondary scanner set. As I have seen above, Emsisoft Emergency Kit is another really good option

 

[TairikuOkami]

I use Malwarebytes Free (Premium provides real-time protection, which you don't want when you have another AV program running), Zemana Antimalware, and HitmanPro

Good choices, but a few things to reconsider: HitmanPro does not work without internet at all, so if malware breaks it, it is useless.
Malwarebytes and Zemana install their drivers, which could interfere with realtime AV. Not to mention their degrading detection lately.

 

[Mahesh Sudula]

What's this got to do with this topic?

If you are implying a Free AV cannot perform the same as a Paid AV, that is total rubbish.

Most Antivirus software cannot completely protect modern systems without default-deny, whitelisting, isolation/virtualisation or other non-signature based methods. Some Paid AV might not include any of these features, whilst a Free AV might.

An Antivirus solution alone cannot protect all users, all of the time. The chances might improve with one of the above technologies with a backup plan.

Yet it can fail, because Windows.

No where i criticized free av..but my intention is to use a paid av for better customer care and protection
Paid av will have a definite edge overall than free av believe it or not
I mean to say PAID AV+ SOS= Better Protection. Free AV are exempted from my list

 

[Ink]

I don't believe there is any best type of on-demand scanners. Most are specific to targeting certain types of malware, ransomware or adware.

No where i criticized free av..but my intention is to use a paid av for better customer care and protection
Paid av will have a definite edge overall than free av believe it or not
I mean to say PAID AV+ SOS= Better Protection. Free AV are exempted from my list

"Paid AV" and "Better protection" in the same line.

What's SOS?

 

[yitworths]

What's SOS?

SOS is related to emergency or may be sometimes stands for emegency. SOS=Save Our Souls
Paid av + SOS av, may be something like that. You run SOS av when you smell something fishy...something like that.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

each scanner has its own strengths and weaknesses, there is no best. If you want the best, you must combine 2 scanners at least:

My best combo:
Internet is available: Zemana + norton power eraser
Internet is not available: Emsisoft emergency kit
Unbootable machine, rescue CD: ESET SysRescue

Reasons:
- Zemana: fully cloud, no need for update, always has the latest signatures, multi-engines, very fast, good signatures, the absolute best against worms, file-less malwares, and already infected PC, can detect and revert malware's changes effectively | Cons: doesn't scan all user data folder -> can miss some malwares but you can scan it manually

- Norton power eraser: checks the reputation of files so it doesn't need signatures -> can detect new malwares due to their poor reputation | Cons: only for advanced users because of false positive rate, many safe programs have low reputations

- HitmanPro: 4 engines (kaspersky, BD, sophos & their own engine), good detection rate, sometimes better than zemana, sometimes worse | Cons: extremely poor against file-less malwares, not the fastest scanner, requires license to use in long term in 1 machine

- Emsisoft emergency kit: dual engines, great signatures against non zero-day malwares, very fast speed | Cons: not the best against worms, file-less malwares, very new malwares, requires signatures update and the update takes very long time

-ESET SysRescue: fast scanning speed and good signatures | Other rescue CDs have very slow scanning speed (Kaspersky) or poor/basic/not the same signatures (bitdefender, avira) compared to their AV products

 

[Ink]

SOS is related to emergency or may be sometimes stands for emegency. SOS=Save Our Souls
Paid av + SOS av, may be something like that. You run SOS av when you smell something fishy...something like that.

If that is the case, then obviously either the great "Paid AV" or User has made an error. Good job.

 

[BigWrench]

Evjl's Rain says.....

"each scanner has its own strengths and weaknesses, there is no best. If you want the best, you must combine 2 scanners at least:

My best combo:
Internet is available: Zemana + norton power eraser
Internet is not available: Emsisoft emergency kit
Unbootable machine, rescue CD: ESET SysRescue "

Couldn't agree more!

 

[Quassar]

i prefer SecureAPlus instand of Zemana cause

Zemana do some trick like in old times. They added scanners engines and now with time they delete engines from if and now god know what they rly and how much engines have, you cant even see from some time and decide which turn off.

While SAP dont trick you and you can still get access and see which currently they use and turn of if you dont like one of them.

Norton is good but if you search another solid alternative you can use Avira Rescue System or buy avira addon to SAP as offline AV

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

Herdprotect. It scans every file with the full 68 engine set.

Download herdProtect - MajorGeeks

Also a big fan of Trend Housecall for it's great heuristics and utilization of Trend TDS ML/AI. HitmanPro is my third favorite.

 

[Quassar]

MBAM have only good web filter engine good but as anti-malware scanner it's just poor and worth to use it.
Is not anymore good like in old good time dunno why peoples still offer it look like typcial fanboy's where not matter how softare will fail down they will stil with it like capitan who will stay with ship

 

[RoboMan]

Best AV has always been a subjective discussion.

It was also suggested by many on this forum to use as a compliment to an AV, a second opinion scanner without real time protection activated, if it should possess that feature.

I am aware of Malwarebytes, Zemana Anti-Malware, Norton Power Eraser, and Hitman to mention a few.

That being said, what would you recommend as the best second opinion scanner with good detection to an av?

I wouldn't rely on a second-opinion scanenr as a compliment to an AV, more like a tool to help with detections. As for compliments I would search on VoodooShield or OSArmor.

For second-opinion scanners my personal choice is always, in this order:

1. ESET Online Scanner
2. Zemana AntiMalware
3. Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool

I've found ESET Online Scanner to be the most complete, deep and up-to-definitions tool. When I clean infected machines, it is the very first and sometimes the only one to detect everything there is, including keygens and cracks others do not detect. I've found Zemana to be great against browser hijacks and adware, and hidden malware remnants (like in AppData folder). And Kaspersky is very useful for overall scanning, detecting kind of every major threat on an infected machine.

 

[BigWrench]

Herdprotect. It scans every file with the full 68 engine set.

Download herdProtect - MajorGeeks

Also a big fan of Trend Housecall for it's great heuristics and utilization of Trend TDS ML/AI. HitmanPro is my third favorite.

I totally forgot about herdprotect.

Even though I use it!