Simple Update-able Antivirus CD?

February 27, 2008 5:10 PM

I'm after a bootable antivirus CD to scan a Windows XP computer. It must be fast, update-able and easy to use.

I know about all the various live CDs (such as the linux variety boot CDs and Bart PE) that have all sort of utilities, but they usually take a while to set up and have far more features than I need. Additionally, when the virus definitions are out-of-date, you have to repeat the process and create the CD all over again.

What I'm after (in an ideal world) would be a program that runs on safe computer that gets daily updates like a regular antivirus program, but that instead of running scans, it could create an antivirus CD on demand that had the latest definitions on it. Kinda like a disposable antivirus CD creator.

Alternatively, just one I could download every now and again that I could just pop in a computer, run a test and reboot - no fiddling with menus and choosing the right application etc.

Am I asking too much? Does such a thing exist?

Thank you!

posted by joshnunn to computers & internet (8 comments total)

What about a bootable USB key? You could just update the virus definitions after booting from the key, and it would actually require even less work.
posted by delmoi at 5:36 PM on February 27, 2008

I was going to say I'd accept that as an alternative to a CD, but it still needs to be easily update-able, and not cluttered with other guff I don't need.

Any known USB software to do this instead?
posted by joshnunn at 5:56 PM on February 27, 2008

ClamWin portable is a portable AV scanner that will update on your USB.
posted by jmd82 at 6:50 PM on February 27, 2008

Can I boot to it?
posted by joshnunn at 7:05 PM on February 27, 2008

Avast Bart CD is the awesomest!
It has a program that you run. It downloads the latest updates, compiles the ISO and drops it in a folder of your choosing. then you just have to burn that ISO and boot it on the computer

It also includes scandisk (really useful, sometimes if windows won't boot this will fix it), a file explorer (so you can hook up a usb drive and recover files), registry cleaner, junk file cleaner, and a data shredder if you're donating a computer.

I use it regularly at my job and the only problems I encounter is on laptops that are preloaded with an encrypted hard drive that stores restoration information it, and a C drive partition stored within that. In those cases you cannot use this product.

The only bad thing is it costs money(subscription to updates), but is well worth it
posted by ijoyner at 5:52 AM on February 28, 2008

No, cannot boot to the ClamWin as far as I know.
posted by jmd82 at 6:05 AM on February 28, 2008

Well linux is not incredibly simple, but I've found the Trinity Rescue Kit to be very handy for a number of things including virus scanning. It is usable on a CD, althrough I was able to get it bootable on a 4GB flash drive as well (made two partitions, a hidden 100mb fat16 for Trinity, the rest on a normal fat32 for routine file storage). Here is a list of engines it comes with. Once set up and able to connect to the internet, updating DATs is easy.
posted by samsara at 7:35 AM on February 28, 2008

Thank you everyone. I'm about to start a trial of Avast. I'll let you know how it goes for our purposes.
posted by joshnunn at 9:34 PM on March 2, 2008