Win32 Virus Removal

If one virus detection engine is good, more than one must be better, right? TrustPort Antivirus 2012 ($39.95, direct) relies on antivirus technologies from AVG, BitDefender, and GFI/Sunbelt, among others. Its ability to detect threats is indeed quite impressive. I only wish it was as effective at removing the nasty malware it detects.

From the product's main window you can quickly launch a scan, check for updates, and make simple configuration changes. Clicking "Expert Settings" opens the advanced configuration manager; most users should do so only under instruction from tech support. Existing TrustPort users will notice very little change from the 2011 edition.

Good News from the Labs
TrustPort scored well in tests by several independent antivirus labs. In the latest on-demand malware test from AV-Comparatives.org TrustPort rated ADVANCED+, the highest rating. It received the next-lower rating, ADVANCED, in this lab's proactive test of zero-day detection.

TrustPort has received the VB100 award in all of the ten most recent tests by Virus Bulletin. West Coast Labs certifies TrustPort's technology for virus detection and removal. TrustPort wasn't tested by ICSA Labs or AV-Test.org, but the scores it did receive are impressive. For details on how I derive the overall rating, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

Easy Installation, Rocky Scanning
Installation of TrustPort on my twelve malware-infested test systems went smoothly, for the most part. Malware on three of the systems did interfere, but TrustPort has the unusual ability to install in Safe Mode. Switching to Safe Mode allowed me to complete those three installations.

Five of the test systems crashed with a blue screen error during the scan process, some of them repeatedly. All but one eventually managed to complete a scan without crashing. TrustPort tech support advised turning off the memory scanning feature on the problem system. Doing so allowed the scan to complete without incident.

TrustPort does have the ability to create a BartPE Plugin or a Windows PC CD, for situations when cleanup requires a bootable rescue disc. However, the average user probably won't be able to create such a rescue disc without serious handholding from tech support.

On my standard clean test system TrustPort completed a scan in 21 minutes, a bit faster than the current average. A second scan was only slightly faster. Some competing products speed subsequent scans by skipping known good files. Outpost Antivirus Pro 7.5 ($29.95 direct for three licenses, 3 stars) cut the total scan time by 90 percent in a second scan, and G Data AntiVirus 2012 ($29.95 direct, 3.5 stars) went from 40 minutes for the first scan to less than one minute on subsequent scans.

Great Detection, Not Great Cleanup
TrustPort detected 88 percent of the malware samples. The only product that detected more of this current crop of samples is Panda Cloud Anti-Virus 1.5 Free Edition (Free, 3.5 stars), with 91 percent. However, TrustPort didn't do a very good job of cleaning up the threats it found. Almost a third of the samples were still running after their alleged removal. TrustPort left behind executable files and tons of non-executable junk for most of the rest. As a result it scored just 5.4 points for malware cleanup.

The best malware removal score using the current collection of samples belongs to ZoneAlarm Antivirus + Firewall 2012 ($59.95 direct for three licenses, 3 stars), with 6.0 points. Norton AntiVirus 2011 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars), with 7.9 points, had the best score against the previous collection Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 2011 ($39.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars) came close with 7.8 points.

Looking specifically at rootkits, TrustPort scored 4.4 points. While it detected every rootkit sample, it left over 70 percent of them running. Two of them managed to keep their rootkit technology active despite Trustport's efforts. ZoneAlarm scored 6.7 points in this test, the best recent score. Spyware Doctor managed 9.1 points, the best rootkit removal score using the previous malware collection, and Norton 360 Version 5.0 ($79.99 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars) came in second with 8.4 points.

TrustPort's did a very nice job cleaning up scareware, detecting all of the samples and earning 9.5 points. It's tied for top spot with Panda Cloud Antivirus, Panda Antivirus Pro 2012 ($49.99/year direct for three licenses, 3 stars), and Norman Malware Cleaner 2.1 (Free, 3.5 stars). see How We Test Malware Removal.

TrustPort achieved a high detection rate in my tests and in the independent lab tests. Most of those lab tests don't involve analyzing the product's remediation of detected threats. Had TrustPort been subjected to the ongoing dynamic certification tests from AV-Test.org I suspect the overall results would have been similar to what I encountered.

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