Pen Drive Anti-Virus

[RobC]

Ok, what I am looking for is an Anti-virus proggie (preferably free!) that I can install straight to my USB pen drive. Size isn't a problem as it's a 1Gb drive, but it needs to work on pretty much any version of Windows as it'll be used for AV scans on computers in my other line of work.

 

So... Any suggestions?

[Sirbendy]

mcafee stinger?

 

IIRC, F-Prot had a "self contained" version as well.

[penguinpowered]

Clamwin. It's completely free and Open Source (IIRC).

It's basically a Windows version of ClamAV for Linux.

 

I use it almost exclusively.

[tarquel]

@Rob:

 

I use a bootable CD with loadsa stuff on it - inc my repackaged apps and countless other things.

 

The trouble is that to boot from a CD, you cant read/write to NTFS [without the use of a v. highly priced program called NTFSDOS Pro or using some other 3rd party program - tho of course, there is linux live cd's hehe]. Its aways advisable to boot the target machine using a clean boot disk/CD/usb pen/HDD/etc and perform a full a/v scan there.

 

Yes - I do a bit of work outside of the school too lol

 

@sirbendy - Mcafee stinger is not a full a/v scanner remember Only a specific list of things it finds

 

F-ProT I use [the free DOS one] but it doesnt seem to work within windows XP & on NTFS partitions - unless using a method as above

 

@penguinpowered:

 

Now that sounds good Shall have to give it a try

 

Regards all

Nath

[Sirbendy]

tarquel-PE Builder will allow you acces to NTFS natively, and I'm sure theres a clamwin plugin in one of the online repositories...

[tarquel]

Damn it - knew there was something missing from my post

 

PEBuilder is great - used it yesterday to restore a crappy 98 pc ghosted image from another pc [p2p music dept network]. The network configurator is good indeed - and great how you can add more network cards to the build too.

 

I really need to make a rebuild - though it isnt too great with older [98/95] machines if you put loads of stuff into it.

 

Gonna have to make a lite CD up with just ghost, A/V and the basic tools in it

 

Regards

Nath

[russdev]

keep meaning to look at pebuilder

 

Russ

[tarquel]

Do so russ - you'll be glad you did

 

Nath

[MkII]

Can't you do all that with a Linux live CD as well - less effort that PE

[Sirbendy]

I use it at home as well...I've even created a ghosted "universal" config for my home machines...I really hate installing XP. 4 minutes, and I'm laughing.

 

The only thing PEbuilder has let me down on is my wifi cards..and thats me being too lazy to mod the drivers..

[RobC]

I have looked into the whole LiveCD/PE side of things, but the bit that I don't like is the update side of things.

 

@Nath - How do you handle keeping your virus definitions up-to-date? As far as I'm aware, you can't write a bootable CD as multi-session...

[tarquel]

no, u cant - but all u have to do is update the a/v signatures in ur pe build on ur pc - and remake the cd. Easy as that

 

For my other CD, i have a script that i've made that updates the various signatures and new versions of certain things - stinger, hijackthis, etc..

 

If you need any pointers, IM me on MSN

 

Cheers

N.

[russdev]

what could do is have live cd and then antvirus stuff on you rmem stick if really wanted to...

 

russ

[Ric_]

Check http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/knoppixhks/chapter/hack78.pdf out!

[MkII]

That's very useful Ric - thanks.

[free4440273]

i can second clamwin as a great anti-virus also - small footprint, very simple setup (seconds), automatic update.

[penguinpowered]

That's why I prefer ClamWin over all the others. It's small, fast and has lots of features and it isn't full of bloat or annoying/patronising dialogs and interfaces.

Perfect for using as a secondary scanner or (as in my case) your primary one.

[free4440273]

absolutely, wish they would a network edition which could be managed from the server.

[free4440273]

wish they would create a network edition

[MkII]

Shame there's no on-access, real time scanner. It'd call for a bit of self discipline!

[RobC]

Well, thanks for all the advice. I've gone with ClamWin for now, but I haven't had a chance to test it fully. It runs quite nicely from my pen drive though, and updates quickly so should be good.

 

Rob.

[tarquel]

How did ya do that then Rob?

[RobC]

If you mean 'how did I install it on my pen-drive?', then I simply changed the install location to be my pen-drive.

 

If you're being silly, then I'm just missing the obvious...

[tarquel]

lol - no i was serious but i was just wondering if you run it from the pen drive on other machines?

 

If so and it works then I assume it doesnt require anything other than the directory you install it to i.e. it doesnt install anything to the windows directory or make registry changes/additions?

 

Thats all i was wondering hehe

 

N.

[RobC]

Nope, that's one thing I always watch for during installs (or the ones that show you detailed progress anyway) to see if they are installing anything outwith the program's install dir.

 

I successfully run Ad-aware, spybot & now ClanWin straight from my pen drive on any Windows PC without haveing to install anything on them. Only thing I have to do is keep definitions up-to-date on a known good machine.

 

In fact, if I get some time I might do some testing and start a Pen Drive Software section in the wiki.