Sometimes you’ve a file that looks suspicious and appears to be having some virus or malware. Or, even if the file appears to be normal, you want to be doubly sure that the file does not contain any virus before you use that file on your computer. You may have one or two anti-virus software installed on your computer but you’re not satisfied with their results or you want to cross-check with some other anti-virus software. Okay. In such situations, you can have your file checked for a virus not by one or two but by as many as 40+ anti-virus software at the same time! And, that too, without spending a dime!! Just upload the file and wait for 2-3 minutes and you’ll get results from as many as 41 top-class antivirus software (as at the last count) as to whether the file uploaded by you contained any virus or malware or spyware.
VirusTotal is a free online resource for checking viruses or spyware in your files. It is a service that scans suspicious files online and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware detected by anti-virus engines. And, at the time of writing these lines, VirusTotal checks your file simultaneously using 41 anti-virus and security software. It is not a software installed on your computer, so it cannot perform any system-wide virus scans of your computer, but it can check for virus and other security threats in any specific file uploaded by you to its site for security scan. The large number of, and variety of, anti-virus programs used by VirusTotal allow you to check for viruses or malware that your own anti-virus software might have missed. It can also be used to cross-check from other anti-virus products if your anti-virus software has given a false positive report about a virus in a particular file when in fact you did not expect a virus in that file considering the reliability or trustworthiness of the source or nature of the file.
List of anti-virus programs that scan the file uploaded by you:
VirusTotal checks for viruses or other security threats in a file by scanning it with the following anti-virus programs online (the name of the company and its anti-virus product, both are mentioned below):
● Symantec (Norton Antivirus) ● AVG Technologies (AVG) ● McAfee (VirusScan) ● PC Tools (PCTools) ● Comodo (Comodo) ● Microsoft (Malware Protection) ● Kaspersky Lab (AVP) ● F-Secure (F-Secure) ● Panda Security (Panda Platinum) ● AhnLab (V3) ● Antiy Labs (Antiy-AVL) ● Aladdin (eSafe) ● ALWIL (Avast! Antivirus) ● Authentium (Command Antivirus) ● Avira (AntiVir) ● Cat Computer Services (Quick Heal) ● ClamAV (ClamAV) ● CA Inc. (Vet) ● Doctor Web, Ltd. (DrWeb) ● Emsi Software GmbH (a-squared) ● Eset Software (ESET NOD32) ● Fortinet (Fortinet) ● FRISK Software (F-Prot) ● G DATA Software (GData) ● Hacksoft (The Hacker) ● Hauri (ViRobot) ● Ikarus Software (Ikarus) ● INCA Internet (nProtect) ● K7 Computing (K7AntiVirus) ● Norman (Norman Antivirus) ● Prevx (Prevx1) ● Rising Antivirus (Rising) ● Secure Computing (SecureWeb) ● BitDefender GmbH (BitDefender) ● Sophos (SAV) ● Sunbelt Software (Antivirus) ● VirusBlokAda (VBA32) ● Trend Micro (TrendMicro) ● VirusBuster (VirusBuster)
Have a look at the following image showing checking of an executable file by VirusTotal through the aforesaid anti-virus software:
How to upload / send a file for virus-check?
You can send the suspicious file to VirusTotal using any of the following three methods:
(A) Directly upload the file through its website: Visit VirusTotal website. Click Choose File button on its home page; from the Open file dialog box that appears on the screen, select the file from your computer that you want to upload for a virus scan. Then click on Send File button. The file will get uploaded to VirusTotal for virus scan. See, the image below:
(B) Send the file by email: Create a new email message with scan@virustotal.com as destination address of your email. Mention SCAN in the Subject field. Now, attach the file to be scanned with this email; but this file should not exceed 20 MB in size. Send this email. After the file has been scanned for viruses and other security threats at VirusTotal, you will receive an email with a report of the analysis.
(C) Use VirusTotal Uploader program: Download VirusTotal Uploader and install it on your computer. It will allow you to upload a file to VirusTotal directly by clicking on the Send To -> VirusTotal option on the context menu of a file in the Windows Explorer on your computer, which is activated by right-clicking on a file (see image below):
Once a file has been uploaded to VirusTotal, normally the scan should start immediately and within 2-3 minutes you would get the scan report. However, during peak hours, sometimes there may be a queue and it may take some extra time; but in such a situation, VirusTotal will keep you updated about the queue position of your file.
What VirusTotal cannot do?
While VirusTotal peforms an excellent job in thoroughly checking for viruses in the file sent by you to its site, you must understand that VirusTotal is not a substitute for an anti-virus or security software installed on your computer, as it can only scan an individual file online on demand. It does not scan your whole computer for viruses. Thus, it does not offer a continuous protection for your computer.
Please also understand that while use of several anti-virus programs to detect virus in a file is definitely far better protection than that offered by just one anti-virus product, you may still not get 100% protection and these results may not guarantee the harmlessness of a file. This may also be due to the simple reason that several new viruses are written everyday, so it is possible (at least theoretically) that all the leading anti-virus software fail to detect such a new virus in a file.
However, two heads are always better than one; and using the same principle, 41 heads would definitely be better than one head. Therefore, you can expect VirusTotal to provide you the best possible advice for the security threats existing in a file. Being a free service, you must therefore make full use of this service as it concerns the security of your computer / laptop.
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