How to Scan Your Computer Without an Antivirus

Have you came across a situation where you didn’t have an antivirus? I am not too sure about you, but I did. I am not talking about the new computer which you had just bought from a trusted computer store. This is because new computers are usually very clean and scanning your new computer is the last thing you want to do on top of installing all the necessary software.

So when did I come across the situation where I didn’t have an antivirus? The answer is, when my computer was infected with a Malware. At that moment, I couldn’t use my antivirus to scan my computer. The malware was so annoying where my computer was non-stop getting pop-ups and unknown errors.

[Read also: 5 Worst Computer Viruses in History]

At that time, I thought my best solution was to format my computer but I wasn’t ready to do so simply because I did not have a good backup practice at that time. Finally, I was lucky enough to scan my computer and remove those malware without using an antivirus.

scan computer without antivirus

So what did I use instead?

I used an online virus scanner to do the job. At that moment, I could only think of using the Trend Micro Housecall, one of the online virus scanners that I recommended to my friends but today, there are plenty of online virus scanners out there.

Sometimes, when you have an old computer which you do not access the internet frequently; you could skip the antivirus installation simply because antivirus use quite a lot of resources. As an alternative, you could do a weekly scan with an online virus scanner instead.

The proper way to scan your computer and remove Malware

These are the steps which I did to scan my computer when antivirus was not around.

  1. Restart your computer.
  2. Press F8 or F6 to go to the SAFE MODE.
  3. Remember to choose the option of SAFE MODE with NETWORKING. Otherwise, you will not be able to run the online virus scanner.
  4. Go to the Trend Micro Housecall – the online scanner edition.
  5. Download the application and start scanning.
  6. Remove whatever infections found unless you know very well that the file is not an infection.

The reason I asked you to boot into the Safe Mode is simply because you can remove whatever file without having the dependency. Some Malware are not able to be removed on a normal mode due to certain critical dependencies that it claims to have.

The best thing about online scanners is they are totally free. You don’t have to pay anything for the service to get your Malware removed. If you happen to come across an online scanner that you need to pay, skip it and go for another alternative.

Remember that each Malware has their own behavior and causes different computer security risks. It is never safe to let a Malware staying alive in your computer for too long. I am very sure that you don’t want to wake up the next morning seeing your bank account had been emptied by some cyber criminals.

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