By Eddie Wrenn
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Getting a virus cleaned off your computer can be a burden at the best of times.
But now a new USB stick aims to make it far easier by giving you the same tools as the professionals - and all you have to do is plug it in.
The FixMeStick supposedly finds the files which other anti-virus programmes miss by using powerful anti-virus software normally used by computer technicians.
All users have to do is put it into a USB slot on their PC and it will do the rest.
Fix Me: Stick the USB key into your PC and it will stop Windows from loading - and scan your computer for errors
The FixMeStick’s advantages are that it works as an automatic safe disk that means you can boot your computer from the drive, and it cleans up the damage.
Rather than scanning it starts your machine again then interrupts Windows so that it can carry out a full check before it loads.
Scanning takes up to a few hours depending on how big your hard drive is and quarantining any viruses takes around 45 minutes.
The product is extremely thorough and uses three anti-virus programmes powered by Kaspersky Lab, Sophos, and GFI, three of the biggest names in computer security.
FixMeStick co-founder Marty Algire said: ‘This is about enabling everyone to rid their machines of malware.
‘And it will help people continue to enjoy their computers and the Internet.’
Early reviews of the FixMeStick however have raised a number of issues.
NEW VIRUSES CAN HACK BANKS
Two new viruses can steal money from bank accounts and can do so automatically - without any hacker's supervision, researchers said.
The latest variants of the widespread SpyEye and Zeus programs have already stolen as much as 13,000EU (around £10,500) at a time from a single account and are in the early stages of deployment, according to investigators at Trend Micro, a Japan-based security company that has many banks as customers.
Trend Micro Vice President Tom Kellerman said his company's researchers had seen the new attacks on a dozen financial institutions in Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy.
Giving it three stars out of five, PC Mag’s Neil Rubenking said that it ‘can be a bit heavy-handed, wiping out files that it shouldn't’.
He said; ‘When its engines detect a valid file infested by malware, it can't disinfect the file back to its original status.
‘All it can do is toss that file into quarantine. If this happens to an essential Windows file, you may be hosed.’
Among the other problems was that the removal ‘failed to prevent several detected rootkits from running’.
On Amazon.com however reviews from members of the public were more positive and were on average five out of five.
An S M Rivenes wrote: ‘This is an amazing product - simple, user-friendly and works unbelievably well.’
The FixMeStick is available from its Montreal-based manufacturers via the website fixmestick.com.
It costs $49.99 (£31.86) then $29.99 (£15.92) per year to renew the license.
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Using anti virus scanners of any persuasion to remove viruses is exactly the same as catching the horse after it has bolted and paying someone to catch the horse for you.The problem is, the horse will undoubtedly bolt again as will the payments.The solution people is to use Linux,an operating system which is totally free and for which you do not require any virus scanner as there are NO linux viruses on the net .Windows has roughly 50,000 viruses targetted at it daily.Linux if so desired,can be dual booted with "Windows" if people so desire.There are even ways of running Windows applications within Linux if required.There are Linux applications free that are at least the equal of Microsoft software.Are you using an android smart phone?then you are already using LInux.I install Linux for 70 plus year olds who in a very short time period are completely at ease with the simplicity and security of the system. Check out PCLinux and Ubuntu, weg. Let the micr osoft red arrows begin!
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"..On Amazon.com however reviews from members of the public were more positive and were on average five out of five..An S M Rivenes wrote: ‘This is an amazing product - simple, user-friendly and works unbelievably well.’ 'S M Rivenes' is now inline for the monthly top-bonus award for initiatives which help the company according to a 'Fix Me Stick' insider who contacted the press later today.....(If it deletes files instead of repairing them, and can also do the same to important operating system files - apparently) it's about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.
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Until a couple of years back, I owned a very successful computer repair retail business here in Canada for a number of years, repairing 2500 machines a year. Cleaning a virus from a computer is straightforward enough tehre are all sorts of tools out there to do this, many of which are free. However, the real repair comes in the skills required to repair the dammage done by those infections to the software of the machine to make it function properly again. Many big box stores hire unqualified minimum wage monkeys to man their service departments often (70% of cases) resort to OS reinstalls to correct the problems as well as stealing your data, trawling your private stuff harvesting your credit card banking details. My business never did any of these things. We reinstalled only in about 1 in 50 cases, preferring to repair the registry files to make the system work again.
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Alternatively you could install free anti-virus software such as AVG.
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Do the virus definitions automatically update? I assume not, therefore they will be out of date quick enough. Boot it up in safe mode and download a free antivirus + malwarebytes/spybot, it's virtually the same thing and is free..
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anyone who knows anything about IT will stay away from this .the old saying comes to mind if it is not broke dont fix it.you need antivirus yes but it needs to run real time not plug in.if you dont use antivirus then you are asking for trouble worked in IT for years and il stick with what i know .
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Most proper technicians don't need software to remove viruses. What's more, there is no "fix all" program in existence and likely never will be. Virus programs are there to milk money from PC illiterate people. How many of them are actually more difficult to get rid of when your done with them and I wonder, how many of them place viruses on the internet to generate revenue? Questions that should be asked !
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By simply going to well know free software sites (filehippo or Ninite) you can obtain all the software you need to prevent this occuring. Be Proactive not Reactive
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A better fix is to maintain a proper firewall and have a good antivirus - and then buy a cheap USB stick, and download Malwarebytes onto it, as well as SuperAntiSpyware. This pair get rid of most nasties - SAS knocks them out, and allows MB to be installed and to run.
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Yea, or you could just restart the computer, with your an antivirus CD inside...
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