5 Best sites to scan malicious files on your PC Online

A scan of malicious files on your computer, made through sites with online antivirus, is very similar to the scan that a traditional antivirus, installed on the PC does. In addition, free online scanning can detect viruses and other malware. The only difference between these types of virus scanning for a traditional virus scanning program is that all the work is done on a server on the Internet.

Online antivirus sites do this a bit differently. Some al

..low you to upload a file for scanning, others scan for sites that contain malware, and some even install browser add-ons or small programs that scan your entire computer, but do the work online behind the scenes.

Sites with online antivirus are good options for single virus scans, if installing a full antivirus program is not an option for some reason, or perhaps just an extra layer of precaution.

Regardless of why you want to use an online antivirus, each of the online antivirus sites listed below are completely free! You can also use an on-demand antivirus for another protection layer, or a bootable antivirus tool, if the computer does not start because of the virus.

At the bottom of this page we provide a list of email addresses, with several online antivirus, to which you can send files directly and believe you are infected. This is a great option for scanning viruses on your smartphone!

5 sites with online antivirus

VirusTotal

Strengths

  • Easy to share scan results and search for previous results.
  • Android support to keep your mobile devices safe.

Negative points

  • Technically for personal use only; Commercial use is not allowed.
  • The web interface only allows you to scan one file at a time.

You can upload a specific Virus Total file so that it is scanned by various antivirus engines, or you can enter a website address so VirusTotal can scan a whole page for malicious links.

Files such as ZIP and RAR can be loaded, but the maximum acceptable size for any file type is 256 MB.

A browser extension is also available for Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer users, which allow URLs to be checked from the right-click menu, and from files to be scanned for viruses before they are downloaded.

VirusTotal

Strengths

  • Virus scanning more comprehensive than any other free alternative.
  • No installation required.

Negative points

  • You should scan the files one by one.
  • Limited support for browser integration.

MetaDefender Cloud (formerly Metascan Online) is a site that allows files up to 140 MB to be sent and scanned on more than 30 different antivirus engines at the same time, including those used by vendors known as Microsoft, Kaspersky, McAfee and AVG.

Some files that you may be interested in scanning in MetaDefender Cloud can be 7Z, EXE and ZIP, but you can also scan others such as images, videos and documents.

In addition to sending a file to MetaDefender Cloud, it can also check by IP address, hash value, and URL of the site.

The results are really easy to read; a bright green checkmark is placed next to each anti-virus engine, which identifies a file as secure and a red flag with the name of the virus if it is considered malicious. There’s also a Chrome extension you can install to check for downloads made through that browser.

MetaDefender Cloud

Avira

Strengths

  • Option to upgrade for more features and wider protection.
  • Very simple and friendly interface.

Negative points

  • It is not as reliable in detecting phishing malware.
  • It reports false positives often.

Avira’s online antivirus uses the same antivirus engine as the popular Avira AntiVirus program to scan files and URLs sent through an online form.

The form requests your contact details, so that the results URL can be sent to you. A maximum of five files of up to 50 MB each can be uploaded.

Avira

Jotti

Strengths

  • Comprehensive virus scanning helps you identify false positives from real threats.

Negative points

  • Unpleasant interface, with lots of distracting ads.
  • Significantly slower than other options.

More than 20 antivirus engines are used to scan up to five files at a time (with a 100 MB limit for each) that you send to Jotti’s Malware Scan.

The date and scan detection status of each anti-virus engine are shown in an easy-to-read list so you can see clearly which ones found the malicious file.

Jotti.org also includes a  hash lookup, if you do not want to upload a file, but instead insert the MD5 or SHA-1 cryptographic hash function of a file. This will only work if the file has been scanned by Jotti.org on an earlier date by you or someone else.

The Jotti Malware Scan server can sometimes get busy, causing you to wait in a line before the file can be processed.

Malware Scan Jotti

FortiGuard Online Virus Scanner

Strengths

  • Extremely easy to use.
  • The site includes useful cyber security news and resources.

Negative points

  • The size of the file greatly limits its usefulness.
  • No browser integration.

So send a file to the FortiGuard Online Virus Scanner, and you will have a quick and efficient scan. After uploading the file, enter your name and email address in case they need to send a message about the file. After submitting the file for review, wait for the page refresh, and you will see the results at the top.

Files uploaded to this online virus scanner can only have 1 MB.

FortiGuard Online Virus Scanner

Send files by email

Instead of using one of the online antivirus sites, you can use one of the email addresses listed below to scan for suspicious files. The results of a virus scan are sent by e-mail to the sender.

  • VirusTotal: [email protected]
    Files uploaded to VirusTotal can be up to 32 MB. Type “SCAN” in the subject to get an automatic reply in plain text format or “SCAN + XML” to XML format
  • MetaDefender Cloud: [email protected]
    Forward suspicious files to MetaDefender Cloud for complete analysis.
  • Sophos: [email protected]
    Use “Sample submitted for review” as the email subject. The password protects files in the ZIP file format and inserts the password into the body of the message. The results are scanned and then analyzed by a real person, who will send the results
  • Avira: [email protected]
    To send files to Avira, compress them in any file format and specify the password in the email. You will receive an automatic response with the results. Also a URL that stores all the checks they have already done on your email address will come.
  • eScan: [email protected]
    Compact the files in ZIP or RAR format, protected with a password, and include the password in the email. You will receive a simple answer that says whether the files are clean or not
  • McAfee: [email protected]
    Compacing a ZIP file with “infected” as a password and sending it to the email.
  • Norman Safeground: [email protected]
    Put the files in a ZIP with the password “infected” and send them to the email.

In conclusion, these are the best sites with online antivirus to scan malicious files on your PC. In addition, emails are fast and very efficient ways to scan for viruses and malware in specific files.

Sites with online antivirus are a good request to use when you are using a computer that is not yours, such as the company’s PC, and you can not or do not want to download an antivirus program. They are also useful for forming an extra layer of protection, especially when you strongly suspect a file and suspect that your antivirus was not effective enough.

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