I have reviewed Multi Virus Cleaner before and generally liked the free on demand scanner. In the 2011 version expect the same interface as the previous one but a lot of under the hood changes. For example, there is a brand new behavior engine provided by the parent company VirusKeeper, there are now at least double the definitions of the previous version (14,905 definitions to be exact), and there is more emphasis on running malicious process detection. Multi Virus Cleaner 2011 is also compatible with a wide range of PC’s and only requires 500 mhz or less to operate correctly, which makes it perfect for netbooks.
The installation hasn’t changed much in the 2011 version, i.e. I still had some difficulties. The download was a small 6.2 megabytes in size. The program has trouble running on 64 bit windows versions. However, the key is to use the compatibility wizard to select any OS other than Windows 7 which will allow operation. Another nice feature is that even though I had Norton installed concurrently, I didn’t run into any conflicts. This is because Multi Virus Cleaner uses on demand scanning and doesn’t have a real time shield enabled. If one does have an additional free antivirus make sure to disable the real time protection. Also, the update system still doesn’t work and just does a redirect to publishers website.
All of the scanning options are still the same in the 2011 version (e.g. quick, full, spyware, memory, custom, and deep scans). The program also retains its extremely fast scanning technology. According to Windows Resource Monitor, Multi Virus Cleaner 2011 scanned from 20 to 28 megabytes per second. This makes it, with certainty, the fastest free antivirus available. Memory usage is steady at about 84 megabytes of RAM while CPU usage can vary from 5 percent up to 13 percent. I believe Multi Virus Cleaner 2011 slows itself down based upon system usage. The scanner didn’t detect any infections on the test computer.
Even though settings are still quite sparse one is essentially getting the full version technology of VirusKeeper (the parent program) for free. Multi Virus Cleaner 2011 should be used as a second opinion scanner only and does not replace comprehensive protection from full featured free antivirus like Avast.
