Installing the right and efficient anti-malware software installed on our computers is a must-have. If you search on the internet, you will find many antivirus and malware detection software. Some of these are free antivirus software, while some are paid software.
Modern malware is extremely sophisticated. These malicious programs are smart enough to hide on the infected computer, where it can be re-initiated at a later time. Not all paid and free antivirus software are able to detect and remove such ‘clever’ viruses completely from the system. As a result, the need to install an efficient anti-malware tool is increasing. ProtectU is a small free open-source malware remover tool that you may want to check out. This free tool is designed to remove malware that may have gotten past your standard anti-virus software.
ProtectU – Free malware detection software
ProtectU is a 19.4 MB download and the installation of the app is easy and takes no time. This free tool is designed to remove malware that may have gotten past your standard anti-virus software.
Once you install ProtectU, you can see its icon in the bucket at the bottom of your PC’s screen. The user interface is simple and easy to understand. Click on the notification area icon and you will see the main window of the app.
This antivirus and malware detection app has three tabs on the left side. Click on ‘New Diagnosis’ to scan your system using ProtectU. The program starts scanning all the files and folders in your PC. You can see the progress of scanning on the top of the window. Just below the progress bar, you can see the section which is being scanned at the moment. In the above image, ProtectU app is scanning the Documents folder. If you don’t wish to scan your system, you can cancel the scanning by clicking on the ‘Cancel this diagnosis’ tab at the bottom.
Once this anti-malware program scans your system thoroughly for malware, viruses and other unwanted programs, it shows you the ‘General Status’ of the scanning.
As you can see in the image below, if your system is free of any viruses and malware programs, the app will display a message saying, ‘Your system is checked and verified’.
If you wish to run another diagnosis, you can click on the orange tab at the bottom saying, ‘Run a new diagnosis’ or once again, click on the ‘New Diagnosis’ tab in the left side menu.
Lurking malware may exist in a variety of forms, such as a file, a hidden file or a partially corrupted file – and it can hide the mechanisms that initiate the virus, such as a start-up service or a registry item. In the worst-case scenario, the malware could be working for a third party that aims to steal valuable information like bank account numbers or personal identifiers without calling attention to it. To tackle this situation, ProtectU offers free updates on the latest viruses and malware programs.
There is no way to know how effective this tool can be, but if you wish to try it, you can download it from Github.
Who is behind this program? Is it a well known a/v company or is it just an individual who is “experimenting” with a/v software? Can’t find out much on the internet but github yields some results. Just curious!
I just installed on my Windows 10 64b machine. On my first run Windows Defender informed me that the software is infected with Trojan:Win32/Gatrid.E!cl. Also, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium popped up a window that a supsicious website was blocked. BE WARNED – STAY AWAY!
My Kaspersky and Malwarebytes did not throw up a warning. Anyway here are the scan reports: https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/f0d9e7c74641805db196c26688e295b7fe09d763bca747e712510d8be84976a2/analysis/ and https://virusscan.jotti.org/en-US/filescanjob/3rzr4ng4cx.
I too first ran a VirusTotal (VT) scan before installing and can confirm that the VT report showed 0/56. Perhaps this is why I trust Windows Defender (WD) over other Anti-Virus software. WD even showed the alert level to be ‘SEVERE’. I suspect that Malwarebytes Anti-Malware window only popped up after the uninstall and the ProtectU software attempted to open a suspicious website. More can be read about this malware here http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/threat/encyclopedia/Entry.aspx?Name=Trojan:Win32/Gatrid.E!plock
Second that…github data a single style page with eleven sentences, none describing how it works on what specifically, first text line is (sic) “What ProtectU can do for you?”, and only a generic user name at a yandex email as contact or background. Just routinely questioning in age where 100% innocent things update with malware/spyware down the line after trust made/taken for granted.
same problem over here