The Cleaner 4.0 - part II

by Andrew Cooper

Configuring and scanning

As soon as the most recent Trojan definitions were downloaded I could not wait to start the scanning, but decided to check what scanning options were available.

In the Scanning section of the Options menu you can change three settings. You can designate specific file types to ignore (for example, if you do not want to scan ".txt"), you can scan the contents of compressed files (archives) and you can scan for hidden executables.

For the initial scan I enabled the last two options, but I assume this takes more time so on a regular basis I think I can disable it generally and enable it only for specific files:



There is also a section called "Cleaning" where you can set specific actions the Cleaner should take when it encounters infected files. These settings are very typical and similar to those in antivirus software, letting you choose to just Report, to Quarantine or to Clean malicious Trojans.

I check marked two options "Always ask" and "Just report" and then went to the main window and pressed the "Scan now" button. After testing other anti-trojan programs (Anti-Trojan and Pest-Patrol) I was almost certain that no Trojans would be reported.

As the test started it said it will take about 20 minutes to finish, but as time passed it estimated a total of 60 minutes. I assume this is because I specified the scanning of the contents of compressed files and hidden executables.

It eventually took the Cleaner more than two hours to complete the scanning of my 40 MB hard drive. I decided to re-do the test, but with some turned off options that probably caused it to slow down.

As expected the second test was much quicker. It took 30 minutes to finish the scan this time. Not as quick as Anti-Trojan and Pest-Patrol, but perhaps the Cleaner uses more sophisticated techniques?



In order to scan a specific file or folder you have to choose File in the menu and then select either "Scan File(s)" or "Scan Folders.

Both scans did not identify any Trojans on my system, so I started examining additional features the Cleaner offers its users.

Continue to Part III
Back to Part I