Since the advent of DOS and Windows operating systems, all kinds of viruses have begun to develop just as actively. Some of them were aimed at disabling systems, and a little later, spies, ransomware and adware appeared. In this regard, the need to protect computer systems has become very acute. One of the most famous software products in this area is the Russian development Doctor Web. User reviews are exactly the 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 removing viruses
The Russian developer in the anti-virus software market offers users a lot of interesting solutions that are designed to protect any system from viruses, including computers running Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, as well asmobile devices. There are a lot of basic applications of regular and portable type, but among the most popular and most frequently used are the following:
- regular antiviruses with comprehensive protection (Dr. Web Antivirus, Security Space, Katana);
- portable scanner Dr. Web CureIt!;
- boot utility Rescue Pack;
- antiviruses for Android mobile platforms and Android TV.
Dr. Web: licensing issues
Unfortunately, apart from portable tools, all security products are chargeable.
In principle, the developer himself on the official website offers to buy programs of a certain direction, recommended or chosen by the user, with the purchase of a license for a period of three months or more. But there is one interesting "trick" here. Many users note that even on the developer's website there is an offer of daily billing for using the antivirus by subscription from the Store (Doctor Web costs only 1.50 rubles per day). When installing at home or in offices, you can immediately purchase two licenses for activation. But there are problems here. Reviews about Doctor Web in this respect do not look the best. Many users with activation, despite the presence of an official license, quite often have a lot of problems.
To top it all off, as noted, even if you have the very officially purchased Doctor Web license, contactcustomer support is completely pointless. In rare cases, it is possible to get some kind of intelligible advice or a solution that allows you to fix activation problems. But it is not all that bad. According to experts, this opinion is generally very widespread among those users who did not pay a penny for a software product, but downloaded hacked versions or purchased boxed modifications (which were really unfinished at one time).
Download the desired software product
It is quite obvious that the selected distribution must be downloaded exclusively from the developer's official website.
In this case, it is especially worth paying attention that initially it is absolutely not necessary to purchase a key to activate Doctor Web for a year. For downloading in free access for all paid programs, their special demo versions are posted, although somewhat limited in capabilities, but allowing them to fully evaluate their functionality. Naturally, after a certain period of time, Doctor Web will require a license anyway. There are two ways: either you have to buy it, or the antivirus will stop working and you will need to remove it.
Load on system resources
As for the system requirements of any software product presented by the developer, they cannot be called too high. This equally applies to the load on the resources of computers or mobile devices. Even when using the settings of any program installed byby default, this does not affect the performance of the operating systems themselves too much.
But the feedback about Doctor Web from some users suggests that the value of using the processor and RAM in the conditional list can be placed somewhere between the software products of Kaspersky Lab and Eset. Of course, it doesn't compare to some other (even free) software like AVG or Panda Cloud Antivirus, but it's still not that high.
Scan on Demand
Regarding the scanning that is launched by the user himself in the standard Dr. Web, many note that it lasts much longer than usual. However, this does not apply to the portable healing tool.
Besides, some experts in the field of information security note that the anti-virus databases of absolutely all programs, when compared with similar security products, do not look too voluminous. Accordingly, far from all known viruses are recognized (in a sense, an antivirus can be called focused on behavioral analysis, that is, on identifying potentially dangerous or unwanted software).
Threat response
Rumours on the Internet go about the detection of viruses. It should be noted right away that advertising applets and browser hijackers belonging to the categories of Hijackers and Adware, none of the known softwareproducts, including even the latest version of Doctor Web, alas, does not respond. But the most unpleasant thing, which is noted by almost everyone who has encountered the problem of viruses penetrating computers, is due to the fact that threats are checked, treated or removed after they have settled in the computer system. In other words, virus files in the form of the same cache and temporary files (if we are talking about the Internet) first get to the hard drive (are saved), and only then their neutralization begins. It must be assumed that the use of any "sandbox" or "cloud" tools for this is not provided.
Blocking loopholes for viruses from the Internet
The situation with the very neutralization of threats is no better. Among the reviews about Doctor Web, quite often you can find negative statements about the fact that when certain dangerous threats are detected, the antivirus behaves in a completely drastic 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, is left without the Internet. Some try to restore the system (in this case, the antivirus creates a rollback point on its own), but this does not lead to anything. Even after uninstalling the program, it is sometimes impossible to restore access (we will discuss this in more detail when describing the portable scanner).
Uninstall antivirus
Getting rid of regular antivirus, including the free version of Doctor Web, is not so easy. Use to uninstall programs section andcomponents looks completely meaningless, because after the deactivation of the main application, a huge number of residual components remain in the system, which even after a reboot in automatic or manual mode cannot be removed, which leads to the inability to install another antivirus, since the system believes that it already has a protective means. 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 uninstallation only under this condition of starting the computer (and not with standard Windows tools, but with the help of special programs like iObit Uninstaller).
But despite this, you can also use your own uninstaller. You only need to delete the application itself, the quarantine, and copies of protected objects.
Katana software product
But one of the newest developments called Katana is unique in its kind. As stated on the official website, this program can be quite simply used as a second regular antivirus, since it does not conflict with previously installed software at all. It is not clear, however, who and why may need to install a second means of stationary protection, but the fact remains.
Portable scanner: what to consider when using it
Portable and well-known conditionallya free utility called Dr. Web CureIt!, recommended for checking infected computers, also has its own characteristics. Among the advantages, one can note a fairly fast scan and the absence in the latest versions of the requirement for a mandatory preliminary update of anti-virus databases.
However, despite this, there are also disadvantages. Downloading the scanner is not possible without the consent of the user to send statistics. But the saddest thing is that during the scanning process, the scanner immediately includes applications designed to optimize and increase system performance, or uninstallers (most often this refers to iObit software developments) in the list of potential unwanted software.
Finally, returning to stationary modifications, it is worth explaining why the user, upon completion of checks, treatment or neutralization of identified threats, remains 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 uninstalling the antivirus, the contents of the specified file do not change. Therefore, in order to restore access, you need to restore the Hosts file to its original form (you can copy its correct contents for different Windows systems directly on the Microsoft support site).
No less often, complaints are received that the scanner "heals" mail archives too hard, after which they become inaccessible. Apparently, such opinions are expressed only by those users whodid not delve into the program settings.
But you can set exceptions in it, and the archives are added to the list of files not to be scanned immediately. True, it is impossible to select some kind of pending action for detected viruses or software, since there is simply no such item there (the anti-virus either disinfects objects, or places them in quarantine, or deletes them).
Rescue Pack Boot Utility
This bootable applet can not be considered too much, since its principle of operation is similar to the well-known utility Kaspersky Rescue Disk.
Nevertheless, you can use it to fix some problems when the operating system does not boot at all due to virus infection. True, as evidenced by the reviews of some users, Doctor Web removes viruses even before the system starts, exactly like all other programs of this developer. So after completing the check, get ready for the fact that some applications may stop working, or your Internet access will be disabled (how to restore it, I think, is already clear from the example above).
User opinions are divided
As you can see, the reviews about Doctor Web are not so flattering, although many users also note the positive aspects of all anti-virus tools. If you use such programs specifically in offices, this is one hundred percent justified, since you do not have to include additionalfirewalls or set all sorts of restrictions for users to install unnecessary applications. The most important thing is to understand the intricacies of antivirus settings (there are really a lot of them, and it is not always advisable to use the default options). If you configure protection individually, you can avoid the appearance of many problems that were mentioned above.
