Avira PC Cleaner is a small, free and on-demand virus scanner that lets you know whether your Windows system is infected with malicious software or how far your existing security suite is protecting your from malware’s and other threats. The PC Cleaner quickly checks your system for any potential threats, if threats are detected, it will display details about the malware and helps you to remove them.
Similar to Kaspersky Security Scan (KSS), you can run Avira PC Cleaner on your Windows PC along with your existing Security suite or anti-virus software. According to Avira, this free application is compatible with all Antivirus software’s, but we suggest to run this scanner while disabling your existing antivrus software to avoid conflicts.
To uncover malware and other threats, the PC Cleaner relies on heuristic technology, generic signature detection, and threat signatures.We can call Avira PC Cleaner as a complementary security solution, because it doesn’t requires installation and has malware removing capability unlike KSS .
We recommend to run this PC cleaner frequently to tighten-up the security of your Windows system.Further more, you can copy the app to an external USB device.This will allow you to scan a computer with the PC Cleaner without an Internet connection.
Avira PC Cleaner Installation and Functioning:
One should note that the PC Cleaner from Avira will not offer any real-time protection, it’s just an standalone scanner designed to detect and remove malware from windows system.
For running this application, you have to download the installer from Avira website, the installer is around 2.2 MB. When you double-click and launch this file, for the first time it will download updates, Virus definition files (VDF) and other files, these files will be around 50 to 100 MB, which will be stored in a temporary folder. After downloading the updates, it will create two short cuts on your desktop, one will be for launching the PC Cleaner scanner and other will be for removing this application.
Every time when you launch the application, it will check for updates and downloads the new updates,if there are no new updates, the scanner window will appear.This free app offers two types of scans : Quick and Full Scan. The Quick mode is the default scan , when you click the “Scan system” button on the app’s main window, by default the scanner will start in quick mode and in this mode, the scanner will look for malware infections (viruses and other threats) in the most important parts of the system.
For Full Scan, you have to select this option and hit the “Scan system” button , this scan method will take much time to complete and it is recommended to run it when your system is idle, this scan method will check for malware infections over entire system.
After completing the scan, depending on your system it will display either ‘No threats were found’ or ‘A possible threat was detected’. If threats are detected, you can view the details of the detected malware and delete them either by selecting “Remove Selected” or “Remove all” option.
For portable version of this app, you can click on the ‘Copy to USB’ option on the main window and select the external USB stick device.Overall, one has to note that this application is not a permanent replacement for a complete antivirus solution,
Advantages:
1. Free,Standalone Scanner
2. Capablity to remove malware
3. Works alongside with other Antivirus software
4.Portable, can be moved to USB device ( this version doesn’t requires Internet connection)
Disadvantages:
1. Not a Complete Replacement of Antivirus
2. Requires an Internet connection
3.No log file
4. Doesn’t indicates location of infected files
Conclusion :
Avira PC Cleaner is a Complementary scanner with cleaning abilities and can act as a second line of defense for your PC’s security.
Download : PC Cleaner from Avira
