Last day, we wrote about an emergency kit by Emsisoft for cleaning an infected computer system. But sometimes, to completely remove viruses and other malware from the system, you may need something that lets you scan and clean your system without booting into Windows first. This is when, the best solution is to reboot into a rescue disk and run a full virus scan to disinfect the PC.

Kaspersky Rescue Disk is designed to scan and disinfect x86 and x64-compatible computers that have been infected. The application should be used when the infection is so severe that it is impossible to disinfect the computer using anti-virus applications or malware removal utilities (such as Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool) running under the operating system.

In this article, we will show you how to use the Kaspersky Rescue Disk to clean an infected computer.

Download and burn the Kaspersky Rescue Disk image to a disc or use USB

The first thing you’ll need to do is download the latest version of Kaspersky rescue disk, and then use any of your favorite CD/DVD burning application to burn that ISO image file to an optical disc.

You can also install the Rescue Disk ISO image to a USB device and boot your computer from it (if you are not having optical drive option), follow the steps below:

• In order to use a USB device, you have to first make sure that the device is FAT or FAT32 formatted.

• Download a special utility Kaspersky USB Rescue Disk Maker (rescue2usb.exe).

• On the USB Rescue Disk Maker window, click Browse… and select the iso image of Rescue Disk.

• Select the required USB device from the drop-down menu. and click on the big START button.

  

• Wait until the process is complete.

Use the Kaspersky Rescue Disk to clean an infected PC

Once you have the disk or USB device ready, insert it to the computer and reboot it. After reboot, a message will appear on the screen: Press any key to enter the menu.

Press any key. A loading wizard will start (you will see the menu to select the required language). If you do not press any key in 10 seconds, the computer boots from hard drive automatically. You’ll now be able to choose between the Graphic or Text mode, we recommend using the Graphic mode for keeping the process simple.

Now, accept the End User License Agreement to continue. It then scans your computer for connected devices and searches for file systems of your local and removable disks. After that, within a few seconds you should see the full working environment of Rescue Disk.

Note: If the host operating system is in sleep mode or its operation has been completed incorrectly, you will be asked to mount the file system or restart the computer.

In order to boot from the hard drive to shut down the operating system correctly, select Restart computer.

• If you select Continue, the application will continue mounting the file system, but there is a high risk of file system damage.
• If you select Skip, the application will skip file system mounting. Only boot sectors and autorun elements will be scanned. There is a high risk of file system damage.
• Restart computer allow you to boot from the hard drive to shut down the operating system correctly.

Now, the first thing you should do is switch to the My Update Center tab, and then click the Start update button to download the latest anti-virus definitions.

After updating the virus definition files, switch back to the Objects Scan tab, select the drives that you want to scan, and then click the Start Objects Scan button. It will start scanning, and clean up any viruses that it finds.

Note: You’ll be prompted when it finds any virus, and you’ll have the option to clean or quarantine the files.

If you need to do some in-depth research on the system, you can use some very nifty tools, included in Rescue Disk, directly from the menu below. Utilities included are a file manager, fully working web browser, command line (Terminal), screenshot tool and network setup.

Download Kaspersky Rescue Disk (latest version)

For real-time protection of your Windows operating system, use Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG or Avast or other antivirus of your choice.

Safe Returner is the new application in the anti-malware app market. It aids in the removal of Malware like Trojan Horses, Worms, Adware, Spyware, when standard antivirus software either fails to detect them or fails to effectively remove them. It relies on malware signatures and its own heuristic engine, which analyzes files for activity that is generally associated with malware.

Safe Returner is a complementary solution for users who are already having security software installed, designed to take care of malware which is already present in the system. You have 30 days to test it with absolutely no limitations imposed. The price tag of the program says $29.95 if you decide to buy it. But, if you want to win a free 1 year license of Safe Returner Anti-Malware, then we are having 10 licenses to giveaway, read about the giveaway at the end of this article.

Installing Safe Returner is very, easy as simple as clicking Next, Next and Install, like any other typical Windows app. It comes with a minimalist user interface for carrying out tasks and setting up the program is a piece of cake, which will definitely appeal to beginners and expert users alike.

The four buttons present in the main window lets you check the current state of the software (update, status, subscription status, etc), start new scans, configure the program or find help in using the program. The “Overview” screen offers details about the time and date of the last scan and lets you update the malware database signature. The “Scan” screen as the name suggests is for scanning the computer system, quarantine detected malware objects, etc. The “Settings” window is the place where you configure the app. The “Help” screen provides access to help and support for the app.

During our test, Safe Returner finished its full scan in less than 4 minutes even with other high-resource programs running. It has a self-developed heuristic malware detection engine which displays severity of the Spyware threat, used ranging from High Risk, Moderate Risk, and Low Risk. Besides the normal mode, which displays the threats detected after the scanning is complete, there is also an “Expert” mode available. If you turn on “Expert mode,” it shows valid processes and malware together, no segregation being involved; also, all items in this section have a threat score. This might be confusing for many users.

It examines all the system files, the Windows Registry and the programs and files loaded at boot time. Majority of malicious programs (once triggered) load this way. Safe Returner is designed specifically to disable/remove Malware without the user having to manually edit system files or the Registry. False positives were reported during our test, which we were expecting because of the aggressive heuristics engine Safe Returner relies on. The program comes in-built with VirusTotal uploader which is a plus, since, you can confirm if the marked program is really a malware or it is a false positive before dealing with it.

Before running a scan of the computer with Safe Returner, you have to be perfectly aware, the application will automatically stop some processes, if you click on “Yes” in the dialog box that comes up before starting the scan. In our case, Foobar2000 was forced to shut down so that the scanning could start.

Safe Returner does not come with any kind of proactive protection, but it detects threats that may have slipped through your regular antivirus software and have already infected the system. Safe Returner is a smart version of Sysinternal’s Autoruns which also shows you what programs are configured to run during system boot up.

Safe Returner Anti-Malware 1 year valid Free License Giveaway

Thanks to the makers of Safe Returner for providing us 10 licensed copies of Safe Returner valid for 1 year, for giving away to our readers.

To win, simply, subscribe us and write a comment below using the same email registered for subscription, so that we can verify that the entry is valid. If you are already a subscriber, simply comment below using the same email address, you don’t have to subscribe again.

It will great if you share the word about the giveaway with your friends and colleagues, so that they too can take part in the giveaway.

Note: For new subscribers, don’t forget to click on the confirmation email sent to you by FeedBurner to start our email subscription. If we find that your subscription is incomplete than your entry for the giveaway will not be considered.

Please enter your correct e-mail address that you used to subscribe us in the email field of the comment form (the email is kept hidden from the public) so that we can send you the license key, if you are one of the lucky winner.

You can take part in this giveaway until November 12, 2010. The winners will be randomly picked and announced on November 13, 2010. Good Luck!

Winners will receive their free licenses soon in their email address. Thank you for participating.

[ Download Safe Returner Anti-Malware (30-days trial copy for evaluation) ]

SSDownloader is an open source application which makes downloading current versions of popular antivirus, anti-malware, firewall, and other system utility software a snap. It is basically a special download manager built to download the latest version of security suites or system utilities directly from the manufacturer’s website.

This app offers some advantages of its own, like a user don’t have to check the manufacturer or developer website to download the latest version of his favorite security or utility app. It also protects users from downloading rogue security softwares as it gets all the apps from the respective developer/manufacturer’s site. Also, since there are many popular security software available for Windows, some of which are free and others are paid versions. So, lots of people don’t know which anti-virus and anti-spyware software they should use in their systems.

As you can see in the above screenshot, SSDownloader allows the user to download almost any of the popular anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall and other useful software in the list in just one click. After download, users can then install and test the security app. If the user doesn’t like it, then they can easily remove all traces of the security app with the help of our ultimate collection of popular antivirus/security suite removal tools collection, before installing another security app.

Features:

• Download the most popular free and paid security software and system utilities with only one click
• It will automatically detect your OS version (i.e. 32-bit/64-bit edition), and download the correct version of the apps
• Always the newest versions of the apps will be downloaded
• Select the apps that you want to download and you will see a notification as soon your downloads finished

You can Download SSDownloader from the project page at Sourceforge.

Update: You can find information about the latest version of SSDownloader here.

a-squared Anti-Malware gives a comprehensive PC protection against trojans, viruses, spyware, adware, worms, bots, keyloggers, rootkits and dialers with 2 cleaning scanners (anti-virus + anti-spyware) in 1 and 2 guards (signature scan + behavior analysis) against new infections. Unlike other malware protection products, a-squared Anti-Malware was designed to run parallel with other antivirus and firewall software without troubles. In case you find a conflict with another software, the support team will help to solve the problem quickly.

a-squared Anti-Malware runs on Windows XP, Vista, 7 as well as on 2003/2008 Servers in all 32 bit editions. On x64-systems the scanner and OnExecution guard work very well, but the behavior blocking module (Malware-IDS) does not run currently. In regular guard mode are approx. 100 MB free RAM required. We suggest to use it on computers with at least 512 MB RAM, best would be 1 GB RAM.

Update: Giveaway page now live, visit the offer page now.

Key Features

• 2 world class scanners combined - best in multiple tests!
• Against all dangers: viruses, spyware, trojans, bots, rootkits, etc.
• Advanced cleaning to remove every infection
• File guard that checks programs while startup
• Permanent behavior analysis of all active programs
• Surf protection that blocks harmful and fraudulent websites
• Community and cloud-based help with decisions
• Bonus feature: Application protection against manipulations
• Explorer integration – right click scan
• Easy to use – little alert windows
• Extensive program help and video tutorials
• HiJackFree tool for professional users included
• Commandline Scanner included

Good news is that Emsisoft will giveaway a-squared anti-malware 4.5 for free (worth $40) on November 11, 2009 (11/11 at 11:11 (CET) – for only 24h).

To get this giveaway, visit the offer page here on November 11, 2009 at 11:11 (CET). You can get a-squared Anti-malware 4.5 for free on that day, available for 24 hours starting from 11:11 CET.

So, mark this date in your calender and bookmark the offer page. Make a reminder about this event if you want to get a-squared anti-malware 4.5 for free!