Emsisoft Anti-Malware is a piece of AV software that uses a dual scanning engine to detect threats. In this regard, the parallel use of BitDefender signatures along with its own is supposed to increase the effectiveness of this product. Emsisoft Anti-Malware has both a free and a paid version. Thus, although you can enjoy on-demand virus detection for free, you need to buy the complete license if you want to have real-time protection and receive various updates a day.
It is good you can start three types of scans: full, quick and custom. Just as their names suggest, full and quick checkups differ on their thoroughness and speed while a custom scan lets you examine only a particular element, such as a folder or a file. Luckily, it is possible to schedule periodical antivirus examinations.
As said, real-time protection is only available if you purchase it. This feature provides protection against dangerous websites based on a frequently updated list. Moreover, it can explore files on the background to check if they are blacklisted as malicious. Finally, it is also possible to detect infected files just because of their behavior.
Logically, the worth of any AV software lies on its effectiveness. Thanks goodness, Emsisoft Anti-Malware ranked among the best tools of its kind according to various benchmark tests available online. However, it has been reported as finding too many false positives based on their behavior, such is the case of some applications attempting to modify Windows startup list.
All in all, Emsisoft Anti-Malware has the main advantage of being highly reliable. Besides, it has a beautiful modern interface, which is appropriate for beginners and experts alike. Also, the tool is very configurable, including setting new rules and creating exclusion lists.
v6.0 [Apr 28, 2011]
* Completely re-written dual scan engine framework for multi-core optimizations.
* 450% speed improvement on average – with the same things being scanned.
* Advanced caching for self optimizing scans – it gets faster with every scan.
* New direct disk access scan mode for better rootkit detection (TDL-3, ZeroAccess, TDL-4, Sinowal).
* Changed scan presets - added Rootkit scan, excluded Cookie scan.
* Improved false positive handling.
* Desired actions to be taken on scan completion can be set before the scan now, too.
* The postfixes of infections were changed to !E1 and !E2.
* New animation during active scans.
* User interface simplifications for better usability.
* Added loading scan engine animation in security setup wizard.
* Missed scheduled scans can optionally be run on next program startup.
* Significantly reduced performance impact of the file guard with smart caching.
* Optimizations to strongly speed up the boot process.
* Reduced false positives in real world use due to internal rating system.
* File guard file extensions list can now be reset to defaults.
* Internal and custom host blocker rules can be viewed more conveniently now.
* Re-organized the guard tray icon menu to provide quick access to common features.
* User accounts are no longer required. Switched to a simple key-based system.
* Simplifications in license dialogs.
* New referral rewards program to obtain a full version license for free by referring new users.
* Get 1 month for free by referring another 1 month trial user.
* Get 6 months for free by referring a buying customer.
* New long term customer bonus program – renewals get 5% cheaper every year.
* Improved notification when license is about to expire soon.
* Each license is limited to use on one computer now.
* Settings can now be exported and imported by category.
* Added security prompts to confirm final deletion of files, rules or logs.
* Added newsletter subscription link in news area.
* Improved update system for greater stability of online updates.
* No more use of the registry to store settings – using ini files now.
* Code cleanup and improvements to avoid potential crashes and hangs.
* Simplified the setup process significantly.
* Removed the trojan horse animation.
