Norton Satellite App: Scan Local, Dropbox Files, Facebook News Feed For Malware [Windows 8 App]

Norton Satellite is a freeware Windows 8 App from the house of the security expert Symantec. Norton Satellite scans your files and folders for viruses in your personal cloud or Dropbox account. The free Windows 8 app also keeps your social life on Facebook safe by scanning links in your Facebook feeds. With the help of Norton Satellite you can make sure that the files saved in the cloud, on your PC, or external storage devices are safe before sharing with friends. Read more after the break.

With the boost of online cloud storage services giving users gigabytes of online storage space for free, the pace at which users are storing data on the cloud has increased. Not only the free storage space but the convenience of accessing your files from anywhere and sharing them with your friends are some of the reasons behind the success of the cloud. Even main-stream operating systems are integrating cloud services deeply into its core. OS X comes with Apple iCloud integration, Ubuntu comes with Ubuntu One and now Windows 8 comes with SkyDrive. Productivity suites are also taking the advantage of the cloud, take such as Microsoft Office 2013 that supports saving your files to your SkyDrive account.

Syncing files to the cloud and keeping them up-to-date in all your linked computers and devices also increases threat level. If one of your computer is affected by malware and that system syncs the infected files to your cloud, then its highly likely that your other computers may also get infected. This is where Norton Satellite comes into play.

How to install Norton Satellite?

You can download Norton Satellite app from the Windows Store and install it using the instructions below.

  1. On the Windows 8 Start screen, click on the Store app icon to open the Windows Store. You can also press the Windows + Q hotkey to bring up Windows Store search charms.
  2. Search with the terms “Norton Satellite” or browse the store to find the Norton Satellite app.
  3. Once found, click on the Norton Satellite app, then click on Install.
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete installation.

Using Norton Satellite

After installing the app, you can launch it from the Start Screen. You will see the app is divided into four main sections: Scan Facebook Feed, Scan Dropbox, Scan a File and Scan a Folder.

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As obvious, you are required to be logged into your Facebook account to scan your Facebook feed for malicious links. Similarly for scanning Dropbox files for malware, you will need to login to your Dropbox account. After a scan is complete, the last scan date is shown in the app. This will allow you to decide if its been too long, and if you should scan your files again or not. You can also scan specific files and folders in your local storage and SkyDrive.

To make sure it can catch-all the malicious files and links, Norton Satellite uses the latest virus definitions from Symantec. So, if you are scanning anything using Norton Satellite, you need to keep your Internet connection up. The scan is fast and after scanning, it lets you know whether the file or link is safe or not. For Dropbox, you can only find the virus infected files but cannot remove them. You need to manually remove the files that are suspicious or vulnerable from your Dropbox cloud storage.

Please keep in mind that Norton Satellite is not a replacement for any real-time security suite. It is meant as a stand-alone virus scanner without any real-time protection. You should always use a full-fledged security suite to protect your computer from malware.

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