Rescue antiviruses are a very interesting security solution for check your computer for malware or against persistent malicious development if they finally managed to infect it.

Most security solutions are installed on computers and, thanks to their proactive capabilities, anticipate, detect and possibly remove malware. However, this type of permanent installation they are unable to detect some of the malware loaded at system startup or fix security threats that prevent your computer from starting.

And also, while its optimization is improving, They usually affect the performance of your computer to some extent.. Here comes the rescue antivirus. They use an external medium independent of the analyzed PC, which offers significant advantages. They do not penalize performance and allow them to predict the loading of viruses or Trojan horses into memory, making them difficult to remove. In short, they work on any computer both to check its status and to eliminate persistent or difficult-to-remove security threats.

Free rescue antivirus

Not all cyber security software providers offer this type of solution, although not all are updated with the same frequency in terms of interface and operation. They have the latest virus signatures as a guarantee of malware scanning and elimination and are a good response to the increase in malware that comes week after week, especially in Windows, as it is the most used system on the desktop and more infected.

For this reason, it is advisable to have one of them and even if the device is working properly, perform it from time to time as another maintenance task. There is malware that is loaded into memory and once the operating system is running, it is difficult to eradicate and even detect. We will leave you with the most interesting:

Panda Safe Disk. Thanks to the updated interface in the latest version (4.4.3.0), it is very easy to use because it does not have too many customization options. A wizard will load, which will automatically search for available antivirus definitions and, after pressing the start button, will start scanning the entire system for the presence of malicious files.

ESET SysRescue Live. ESET offers image download for burning, but also the option to create it directly on CD or USB. Perfectly updated interface and very easy to use.

Kaspersky Rescue Disk. Kaspersky has not updated the interface for a long time, but its rescue disk based on Gentoo version 18 is a leader in consumer security solutions. You download the ISO image, burn it to the bootable media, and use it.

Bitdefender Rescue CD. Personally, it is one of my favorites. Or I liked it because it was obsolete a few years ago in exchange for the Bitdefender Rescue Mode offer. It uses Xubuntu-based Linux, which offers more options in addition to virus removal. You download the ISO from the link and burn it in the meantime. We will leave you a link web.archive where it is still available.

AVG RescueCD. It offers two different images to create on CD or USB. Its interface is quite spartan on a text basis, but don’t worry, it performs its function and, like others, previously updates the virus base to the latest available.

Trend Micro Rescue Drive. Very easy to create a rescue medium by clicking on the button from its website and with the option to select a CD / DVD or USB drive / hinge. Its interface is the most spartan on the list, in a minimalist text mode with a few basic options.

Norton Bootable Recovery Tool. Symantec provides a wizard disk creation wizard that makes it easy to create external applications as soon as you download the tool. When launched, you will see a non-customizable graphical but minimalist interface, with two main options: scan and clean.

Avira rescue system. Offers image downloads for media creation. Graphical interface with several features, but easy to use. Like the others we’ve seen with a simple interface, its power lies in the search and disinfection engine and its ability to update the virus database, which everyone does.

F-Secure rescue CD. It hasn’t been updated in a long time, but it’s another classic, simple and easy to use. With the Knoppix base, there is no real user interface other than a text dialog where you are asked if you want to start the analysis.

avast. It is the only one on the list that does not offer direct image downloads, and the only option is to create a rescue disk from Avast. The good thing is that this can be done from the free desktop version. The downside is that you have to install it first.

How these ransomware antiviruses work

Virtually all are based on Linux and use formats LiveCD / USBcreated on removable drives and capable of booting without interfering with the installed operating system. Most providers offer the option to create a medium directly from their website or their own tutorial, which is very similar for everyone.

Others simply offer a .ISO image that the user must record, either on optical media or – preferably – on an external drive or USB flash drive. For these cases, just open the program, select the ISO image that we downloaded and the application (Rufus, ImgBurn, Stickifier or any other) will take care of its creation.

Once the rescue medium is created, it is easy to use. We restart the machine with the media inserted in its place to boot from it. If we haven’t done so already, we will have to enter the BIOS and place the optical or USB drive as the first boot mediumalways in front of the hard drive or SSD where we have the system installed.

The media created is in “Live CD” format, so we won’t have to install anything on our computer’s hard drive or SSD. Some solutions offer a visual environment and more features, while others use a text mode dedicated exclusively to malware, with the understanding that the main thing is the performance of its engine and update your virus databasesomething everyone does before scanning the system.

Some solutions are highly customizable and allow you to select scan and clean, boot sector, full or fast scan, files and folders on hard disks or external disks, network access, heuristics and almost everything we find in installable antiviruses.

Like any Linux, some of these rescue antiviruses include tools such as a manual file explorer or a package manager in case we need to install any Linux-based troubleshooting tool, although their main use is antivirus scanning and disinfection.