Since the advent of the DOS and Windows operating systems, all kinds of viruses have begun to develop as actively. Some of them were aimed at incapacitating systems; a bit later, spies, ransomware, and advertising threats appeared. In this regard, the need to protect computer systems very urgently arose. One of the most famous software products of this direction is the Russian development of Doctor Web. User reviews are the exact opposite. Let's try to look at the main features of the utilities that are available for use from an unbiased point of view, but taking into account the opinions of both users and specialists who have tried these tools in practice.
Basic Doctor Web Utilities for Virus Removal
The Russian developer on the anti-virus software market offers users a lot of interesting solutions that are designed to protect any system from the effects of viruses, including computers running Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, as well as mobile devices. The main applications of the regular and portable types are many, but among the most popular and most frequently used, the following can be distinguished:
- full-time antiviruses with comprehensive protection (Dr. Web Antivirus, Security Space, Katana);
- portable scanner Dr. Web CureIt !;
- Rescue Pack boot utility
- antiviruses for the Android and Android TV mobile platforms.
Standard anti-virus Dr. Web: licensing issues
Unfortunately, if you do not take portable tools into account, all protective products are paid.
In principle, the developer himself on the official website offers to buy programs of a certain direction, recommended or chosen by the user himself, with the acquisition of a license for a period of three months. But there is one interesting “trick”. Many users note that even on the developer's site there is an offer of daily billing for the use of antivirus by subscription from the Store (Doctor Web for a day costs only 1.50 rubles). When installing at home or in offices, you can immediately purchase two licenses for activation. But there are problems. Reviews about Doctor Web in this regard do not look the best. Many users with activation, despite having an official license, often have a lot of problems.
To top it all, as noted, even if you have the same officially purchased Doctor Web license, contacting the support team is completely pointless. In rare cases, it is possible to get some kind of intelligible consultation or solution to resolve activation problems. But it is not all that bad. According to experts, basically this opinion is very widespread among those users who didn’t pay a dime for the software product, but downloaded cracked versions or purchased box modifications (which were really underdeveloped at the time).
Download the desired software product
It is obvious that you must download the selected distribution exclusively from the official online resource of the developer.
At the same time, it is especially worth paying attention to that it is completely optional to purchase a key for activating Doctor Web for a year. To download freely available for all paid programs, their special demos have been posted, however, somewhat limited in capabilities, but allowing to fully appreciate their functionality. Naturally, after a certain period of time, Doctor Web will require a license in any case. There are two ways: either you will have to buy it, or the antivirus will stop working, and it will need to be removed.
System Resource Load
As for the system requirements of any software product presented by the developer, they cannot be called too high. This applies equally to the load on the resources of computers or mobile devices. Even when using the settings of any program installed by default, this does not affect the performance of the operating systems too much.
But here feedback from Doctor Web from some users suggests that the value of using the processor and RAM in the conditional list can be placed somewhere between Kaspersky Lab software and Eset. Of course, it can not be compared with some other (even free) software products like AVG or Panda Cloud Antivirus, however, it is still not so high.
On Demand Scan
Regarding the scan, which is launched by the user in the standard anti-virus Dr. Web, many say that it lasts much longer than usual. However, this does not apply to the portable healing utility.
In addition, some experts in the field of information security note that the anti-virus databases of absolutely all programs, when compared with similar protective products, do not look too voluminous. Accordingly, not all known viruses are recognized (in a sense, the antivirus can be called oriented to behavioral analysis, that is, to identify potentially dangerous or unwanted software).
Threat response
Cripples on the Internet go and about the detection of viruses. It should be noted immediately that none of the well-known software products, including even the latest version of Doctor Web, unfortunately does not respond to advertising applets and browser hijackers belonging to the Hijackers and Adware categories. But the most unpleasant thing, which is noted by almost everyone who has encountered the problem of viruses penetrating computers, is that they check, treat, or delete threats after they have settled in a computer system. In other words, the virus files in the form of the same cache and temporary files (if it comes to the Internet) first go to the hard drive (saved), and only then their neutralization begins. It must be assumed that the use of any kind of "sandboxes" or "cloud" tools for this is not provided.
Blocking Internet virus loopholes
The situation with the very neutralization of threats is no better. Among the reviews of Doctor Web, quite often you can find negative comments about the fact that when certain dangerous threats are detected, the antivirus behaves in a completely dramatic way - it blocks all ports for incoming and outgoing traffic! So it turns out that after the antivirus performs such actions, the user, to put it mildly, remains without the Internet. Some people try to restore the system (the antivirus in this case creates a rollback point on its own), but this does not lead to anything. Even after deleting a program, sometimes it is impossible to restore access (we will dwell on this in more detail when describing a portable scanner).
Antivirus Removal
Getting rid of a full-time antivirus, including the free version of Doctor Web, is not so simple. Using programs and components to delete the partition seems completely pointless, because after deactivating the main application, the system has a huge amount of residual components that cannot be eliminated even after rebooting in automatic or manual mode, which makes it impossible to install another antivirus, because the system considers that it already has a protective agent. This provokes conflicts at the program level. Using uninstallers doesn't look any better. They also do not always cope with the removal of this software product. The only way out is to boot in safe mode and perform uninstall only under this condition of starting the computer (and not using standard Windows tools, but using special programs like iObit Uninstaller).
But, despite this, you can also use your own uninstaller. Only you need to delete the program itself, and quarantine, and copies of protected objects.
Katana Software Product
But one of the newest developments under the name Katana of its kind is unique. According to the official website, this program can be used quite simply as the second full-time antivirus, since it does not conflict with previously installed software at all. It is unclear, however, who and why might need the installation of a second means of stationary protection, but the fact remains.
Portable scanner: what to consider when using it
A portable and well-known shareware utility called Dr. Web CureIt !, recommended for scanning infected computers, also has its own characteristics. Among the pluses, one can note a fairly quick scan and the absence in the latest versions of the requirement for a preliminary preliminary update of anti-virus databases.
However, despite this, there are also disadvantages. Downloading the scanner is impossible without the consent of the user to send statistics. But the saddest thing is that during the scan process, the scanner immediately includes in the list of potential unwanted software applications designed to optimize and improve system performance, or uninstallers (most often this relates to iObit software developments).
Finally, returning to the stationary modifications, it is worth explaining why the user, after completing the checks, treatment or neutralization of the identified threats, is left without access to the Internet or some sites. The fact is that absolutely all programs of this developer prescribe their own restrictions in the Hosts system file. After removing the antivirus, the contents of the specified file does not change. Therefore, in order to regain access, you need to bring the Hosts file in its original form (you can copy its correct contents for different Windows systems directly on the Microsoft technical support site).
No less often complaints are received that the scanner is too diligently "treating" mail archives, after which they become inaccessible. Apparently, such opinions are expressed only by those users who did not delve into the program settings.
But you can set exceptions in it, and the archives are added to the list of files not subject to scanning immediately. True, it is impossible to select some delayed action for detected viruses or software, because there is simply no such item (the antivirus either disinfects objects, quarantines them, or deletes them).
Rescue Pack Utility
This boot applet may not be particularly considered, since the principle of its operation is similar to the notorious Kaspersky Rescue Disk utility.
Nevertheless, it can be used to eliminate some problems when the operating system, due to infection by viruses, does not load at all. True, as testimonials of some users indicate, Doctor Web removes viruses even before the system starts, just like all other programs of this developer. So after checking, get ready for the fact that some applications may stop working, or your Internet access will be turned off (how to restore it, I think, from the example above it’s already clear).
User opinions are divided
As you can see, reviews about Doctor Web are not so flattering, although so many users have noted the positive aspects of all anti-virus tools. If you use such programs in the office, it is one hundred percent justified, because you do not have to include additional firewalls or set all kinds of restrictions for users to install unnecessary applications. The most important thing is to deal with the intricacies of antivirus settings (there are really a lot of them, and it is not always advisable to use the options set by default). If you configure the protection individually, you can avoid the appearance of many problems, which were mentioned above.