Find and remove malicious software with Mcafee Stinger

Mcafee Stinger is an antivirus scanner intended to be used if you think a computer has been infected.

It doesn't provide any active protection like a full anti-virus program but is a useful tool to copy onto a USB memory key or CD so that you can scan a computer that is acting strangely.

There is no installation required for Stinger: simply run the downloaded file.

There are some preferences that can be set although the defaults are quite acceptable. Stinger can be set to scan for suspicious processes, registry entries, boot sectors and rootkits. It can merely report on viruses although it is set to repair them by default.

Without making any changes Stinger will scan the entire hard disk of the computer but it is possible to add specific folders to the scan.

The List Viruses button shows a list of all the viruses that Stinger can detect and remove.

All that remains to make the scan is to click on the green Scan Now button. The folders and files that are being scanned are shown with a report of anything it finds.

Mcafee Stinger comes with all the virus-definition files included so there is no need to connect to the internet to get the latest updates.

For this reason it is best to download Stinger when it is needed so that you always have the latest version.