Question : Need an Offline Virus Scanner

Are there any virus scan programs (for free) that will allow you to download and update the virus database offline? We have a computer with a virus with a virus that we've removed from the network. We'd like to scan it with a different virus scan than the one installed, but most scanners require you to update online.

Answer : Need an Offline Virus Scanner

AVG comes to mind, it's a freebie.  You can download AVG free from here:

http://free.avg.com/ww-en/download-file-ins-afe

After installing it on the standalone computer, you can download the manual update file here:

http://download.avgfree.com/softw/80free/update/u7avi1721zp.bin


Then once you've installed it, copy the update file to the infected computer, open AVG, and go to Tools > Update from directory.  You can then point it to the .bin update file you downloaded.


Also, you could try just booting to an offline CD or USB media, and use a standalone scanner that way..  There are a lot of options, but you could try one of the following free utilities.

Ultimate Boot CD - http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

Dr Web Standalone Scanner - ftp://ftp.drweb.com/pub/drweb/livecd/20091014042001/minDrWebLiveCD-5.0.0.iso

Hope this helps!