12 Free Online Virus Scanners

May 15, 2015

Free online virus scanners are good options for one-off virus scans, if installing a full fledged antivirus program isn't an option for some reason, or maybe just for an extra layer of precaution. Regardless of why you're using one, each of the free online virus scan services listed below are completely free!

1.VirusTotal

You can upload a specific file to VirusTotal to have it scanned by various antivirus engines or enter a website address to have VirusTotal scan an entire page for malicious links.

Archives like ZIP and RAR can be uploaded but the maximum acceptable size for any file type is 128 MB.

A browser extension is also available for Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer users that allows URLs to be scanned from the right-click menu and files to be checked for viruses before downloading them.

2. Metascan Online

Metascan Online is a slick website that allows files up to 140 MB to be uploaded and scanned against 40+ different antivirus engines at once, including ones used by popular vendors like Microsoft, Kaspersky, McAfee, and AVG.

Able to upload 7Z, EXE, ZIP and a few other similar file types to Metascan Online, as well as other common files like images and documents.

In addition to uploading a file to Metascan Online, it can also scan by IP address, hash value, and website URL, as well as scan using an app. Some of the apps include a Chrome extension that scans all downloads, an Android scanner, and one for Windows and Mac that checks any folder for malware.

Results are really easy to read; a bright green check mark is placed next to each antivirus engine that identifies a file as safe and a red mark with the virus name if found to be malicious

3. Panda ActiveScan 2.0

Panda ActiveScan 2.0 is an online virus scanner that installs itself as a browser addon to scan a local computer. It works with Firefox and Internet Explorer only.

The scanner can check for viruses, Trojans, worms, dialers, tracking cookies, and other types of malicious files.

You can choose to run Panda ActiveScan 2.0 with a quick scan to check for actively running threats only or a full scan to look inside every folder on the computer. You can also scan custom areas like your mail, documents, or any other folder.

4. BullGuard Virus Scan

BullGuard Virus Scanner works with Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer to quickly scan critical areas of a computer.

Once the browser extension is installed, BullGuard Virus Scanner starts in seconds to scan currently running processes, established network connections, autorun files, browser plugins, system folders, and the DLL and EXE files found in program installation directories.

When finished, you can view a report that shows everything that was scanned.

5. ESET Online Scanner

ESET Online Scanner installs an addon so it can clean your computer from an Internet browser. It supports scanning removable media, the memory, local drives, and network drives.

Internet Explorer is the only supported browser, but Chrome and Firefox users are instead prompted to download the installer file and run the setup like a regular program.

Before a scan begins, you can choose specific options like whether to remove threats automatically if they're found, to scan inside archives, to enable rootkit detection, and if you wish to check for potentially unwanted programs.

6. Avira

Avira's online virus scanner uses the same antivirus engine as the popular Avira Antivirus program to scan submitted files and URLs through an online form.

The form asks for your contact details so the URL of the results can be sent to you. A maximum of 5 files no larger than 20 MB each can be uploaded.

7. Jotti's Malware Scan

Over 20 antivirus engines are used to scan one file at a time (up to 25 MB) that you upload to Jotti's Malware Scan.

The date and scan detection status of each antivirus engine is shown in an easy to read list so you can clearly see which ones did or didn't find the file to be dangerous.

Jotti.org also includes a hash search if you wish not to upload a file but instead enter the MD5 or SHA-1 cryptographic hash function of a file. This will only work if the file was scanned by Jotti.org at an earlier date, by you or someone else.

Note: Jotti's Malware Scan is sometimes busy, making you wait in a line before your file can be processed.

8. NoDistribute

NoDistribute is an online virus scanner that lets you upload one file at a time to be scanned with over 30 unique antivirus engines simultaneously.

When a scan is complete, you can share the direct link with others that point to the results page, which is pretty handy.

There are a few drawbacks here: A measly 6 MB is the maximum file size NoDistribute accepts, only one file can be scanned at once, and only 4 files can be uploaded within a 24 hour period.

9. ThreatExpert

Another online virus scanner is ThreatExpert. You can upload files as large as 5 MB (one at a time) and get the results of the scan sent to you as an email.

Instead of using a browser, you can download the Submission Applet to upload files to ThreatExpert from your desktop in Windows.

If you create a free account with ThreatExpert, you can keep track of the results of all files you've sent in for scanning.

10. FortiGuard Online Virus Scanner

FortiGuard Online Virus Scanner is a super simple online virus scanner that works in any browser. It works by letting you upload a file to the website for scanning.

You have the option to show the scan results on screen only or to send the results to you as an email after the scan completes.

11. ScanThis!

Enter the direct URL to a file or upload a local file to ScanThis! to have the website check the file against the popular ClamAV scanning engine.

I've ranked ScanThis! low on this list because I wasn't able to get it to work very many times, but maybe you'll have better luck.

12.Hybrid Analysis

Hybrid Analysis by Payload Security is a free malware analysis service that runs files that you upload to it in a virtual sandbox environment.

The service supports select file types only. Supported are PE (Portable Executable) formats like exe, com or dll, major Microsoft Office document formats such as docx, xlsx or pptx, and Java jar files.

Common archive formats such as 7z, zip or gzip2 are supported by Payload Security on top of that.

Hybrid Analysis is an advanced security tool that provides you with detailed information about supported files that you upload to the service.

While it takes some deeper understanding of Windows and program code to understand the advanced parts of the analysis, some of its features are useful to all Windows users.

This includes execution screenshots, information about network traffic or the general threat assessment rating of the file.

Credit to: http://freebies.about.com/