Similar to AntiVir Antivirus, Avira offers all of the same technology and the features available on the company’s free rescue system.  The rescue system boots into its own operating system to and scans a computer for viruses that may prevent Windows from a normal boot process. 

    There are several features that separate the Avira Rescue System from other bootable free antivirus.  The first is that Avira actively supports the software.  Rather than making it a painstaking process just to find the rescue  software in the doldrums of an antivirus site, Avira prominently displays the software on their product page.  In addition, the rescue cd is actually updated throughout the day with the latest virus definitions.  This is unlike other rescue cd’s which may be updated on a weekly basis at best.  Avira also includes a built-in update capability that is located with the Rescue CD software.

    The next feature is that the size of the rescue disk is the smallest available at 64 megabytes which is about a third smaller than all other competing rescue antivirus.    The small size all has its drawbacks in that the rescue CD doesn’t include other system restore features that are found in the Bitdefender free suite like rootkit detection.  However, Avira software as a whole offers some of the highest detection rates according to AV-compartives.org and the Rescue System even includes Spyware detection and removal capability.

    Avira also packs their software in a convenient executable format with included burning software.  Some Rescue CDs only include .iso files and require a user to supply their own burning software.  One huge drawback to Avira though is that it doesn’t include a capability to put the rescue system on a flash drive like the Norton Recovery Tool.

Download the Avira Rescue System Free Antivirus