Win32 Virus Removal

Does your ISP supply your antivirus software? If so, especially if you're in Europe, you may well be using F-Secure without knowing it. F-Secure is the power behind branded security protection for over 200 ISP partners, and these versions may not look anything like F-Secure Anti-Virus 2012 ($39.99 direct for three licenses). F-Secure Anti-Virus retains the previous edition's clean and simple interface and significantly enhances DeepGuard behavior-based detection. In testing, though, DeepGuard was almost as likely to block a valid program as a malicious one.

F-Secure's main window breaks down protection into three areas: status, tasks, and statistics. Status shows the current state of protection, lets you turn whole sections of the product on or off, and provides access to more detailed settings. Statistics offers a simple display of what the program has done for you in the areas of malware cleanup, email scanning, and blocking of suspicious programs. From the tasks pane you can launch a scan or update, restore files from quarantine, or release an application that's been blocked by DeepGuard.

For all its apparent simplicity, F-Secure is busy, busy, busy under the hood. A local database called the hive coordinates process information from all of the product's components, among them the cloud-based signature detection, local detection, and DeepGuard behavioral detection. This sharing of data lets the various components work efficiently and avoid redundancy.

Installation Tribulation
So how well does this highly-coordinated set of components clean up malware? I installed it on twelve infested test systems to find out. The actual installer is a tiny program that downloads the very latest components for installation. I was slightly surprised to find that after installation the program required another lengthy download to get the latest signature definitions. When fully ready, F-Secure runs a quick scan for active malware. This scan found quite a few threats and in several cases requested an updated to clean them up.

Getting F-Secure installed and running wasn't always easy. On one system the installation wouldn't finish. A second try required use of a special uninstall tool. When the installer failed again I tried the standalone F-Secure Easy Clean. Similar to Norton Power Eraser (Free, 4 stars), this tool is designed to clean up persistent malware that interferes with the full F-Secure product.

I also had to use Easy Clean on several systems that couldn't complete the initial update. In one case I had to resort to F-Secure's text-mode Rescue CD. When that didn't help, tech support advised running a command-line scanner in Safe Mode. I eventually got F-Secure properly installed on all twelve test systems, but it was a chore.

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