Virus rescue disks can be used in situations where your antivirus software has stopped working. They’re available for a number of antivirus providers and are simple to use, giving users a wide range of customization options in terms of the way they want the program to run a scan on their system.
Some offer a familiar desktop environment, and others offer users a collection of bonus utilities. For instance, Kaspersky’s Rescue disk is powered by the Xfce Linux desktop and features Firefox, Thumar File Manager and a handful of other apps that can be used for other uses. This rescue disk includes the ability to select the specific files that should be scanned or to indicate whether you wish to exclude files that are that are larger than a specific size.
Other rescue disks are not equipped with sophisticated interfaces, such as published here Trend Micro’s. It doesn’t have an interface with graphical user interface, and users navigate using the arrow keys. This basic rescue disk however, compensates the absence of features with a small download size as well as a strong track record in detecting malware in the AV-Comparatives’ tests of real-world security.
If you’re looking for a more user-friendly product should consider ESET’s SysRescue Live which has one of the most refined and well-rounded interfaces on this list. It’s built on the same antivirus engine that is used in ESET’s full-featured software and its user-friendly interface provides numerous options to select from, such as an intelligent or custom-built scan, setting exclusions, and selecting whether to run the scan in a quick or deep mode.