VirIT eXplorer Lite is an Italian antivirus that includes a lot different features. The program includes realtime antispyware and antivirus plus a full intrusion detection system. One of the key features of the program is that it can run on any version of Windows from Windows 95 to Windows 7 32 bit and 64bit editions. The company even advertises that the software can work on all Windows server operating systems too.
The install file is quite small at only 7 megabytes. The installer includes many different languages (English, Italian, and more) as this is an international program. The install finished in just a few seconds and required a restart. The program installed a nice right click virus scanner in the context menu.
VirIT eXplorer Lite has two components the scanner and the IDS system. The first is the VirIT Lite Monitor which is the intrusion detection system (IDS). The Monitor automatically detects and deletes any malware that it finds and also looks for. The VirIT Lite Monitor also detects changes to Internet Explorers Homepage and BHO’s settings etc. For example, I used the “Fix Internet Explorer†option in the program (restores IE defaults). After I did this, I was prompted on any change to the homepage or search page.
The next component of VirIT eXplorer is the actual virus scanning interface. The interface is unique in that it show sall explorer files in the left pane. When the program starts a scan, it show exactly which file folder it is scanning and opens the folder and all subfolders. During scanning, VirIT uses minimal resources. The whole software only uses a measly 14 megabytes of RAM and 13% CPU power. This is by far the least I have seen of any free antivirus reviewed yet. Unfortunately, the scanner is quite slow and only scans at about 2 megabytes per second.
One downside to VirIT eXplorer is that the program looks quite outdated. The icons used are either from Windows 95 or Windows 3.1 and look pretty antiquated. It also takes a while get used operating the program because there are only icons to click and no wording except for the context menu. Even though VirIT eXplorer aesthetics are quite bad it is a trade off because of its minimal resource impact. Also, the program is still regularly updated. The latest update was released yesterday.
VirIT eXplorer also scans for rootkits and rouge ADS streams. The software has an automatic update functionality. The updates are kind of slow considering that the server is located in Italy. In addition, the Virus Encyclopedia does not function on the latest version. VirIT explorer also includes a handy startup program analyzer.
