eScan Antivirus and Spyware Toolkit

eScan is a free utility that can be downloaded and run directly without the need to install it. This toolkit is compatible with Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, XP, Windows 2008, 32 & 64-bit OS. This utility can also be run even if the system already has an antivirus software installed. The interface is pretty simple and gives you multiple options for scanning the system. You can select whether you want to scan the entire drive, folder, etc. Also it provides you the option to scan startup folders, spyware, registry and system folders.

To check performance, we installed viruses and spyware on a system. We enabled the option that scans & cleans the drive which contains viruses. The results were not encouraging as within the entire drive full of viruses, it was able to detect 15007 objects. Out of these, it showed total critical objects as 8857, total disinfected ones as 351 and total deleted objects as 211, with no errors. The time taken by it was approx 30 minutes. For scanning the PC with all options, it took 34 minutes and the total number of objects scanned was huge. The number of critical and disinfected objects was almost similar and it deleted 223 objects with 13 errors. It also maintains a complete log report of all network activity for good. However,  Norton and PC Tools,  reviewed in January 2010, performed better.  Norton was able to detect and delete all the viruses it detected, within in 2 hours; while PC Tools took 45 minutes.

Price: Free Meant for: Small office and home users Key Specs: Software installation not required, faster scanning rate Contact: MicroWorld Software Services, Mumbai Telephone: 2826 5701 Website: www.escanav.com