The 10 best portable antivirus to carry on a USB

The eternal dilemma: Antivirus yes or antivirus no? In the case of Android, if we do not root or install APKs, we can pull perfectly with Play Protect, the standard antivirus that Google Play incorporates. As for Windows, things change a lot, especially if we have the computer connected to the Internet and we browse webs of dubious quality or download torrents left and right. There it is essential to have a good antivurus installed in the system.

But what happens if our computer becomes infected and we cannot install or run an antivirus or they block our access to the Internet? In these situations, the best - and sometimes the only thing - we can do is carry out an antivirus scan from a USB stick or a bootable CD if our PC still has a disc player.

The 10 best free portable antivirus: do not require installation and can be carried on a pendrive

The great advantage of portable antivirus is that many times do not require installation, in general they are usually free, and in many cases they don't even need have an internet connection to work. Therefore, they are a good tool to combat the most harmful and persistent viruses and malware.

Microsoft Safety Scanner

If Windows Defender, the antivirus that comes standard with Windows 10, is not available or is not doing its job correctly, we can always take a look at Microsoft Safety Scanner. A tool that performs security analysis to help us eliminate spyware, viruses, malware, Trojans, and other nasty malicious acts.

It is basically about an executable file that we can copy onto a USB stick. It is compatible with other antivirus programs that we may have installed, and includes an updated malware database. However, we must bear in mind that, in order to keep the database up to date, the program expires 10 days after it has been downloaded. Therefore, it is convenient to download it again when we need to use it.

Download Microsoft Safety Scanner

Norton Power Eraser

Norton is a name of reference within the security industry. Norton Power Eraser is a portable and lightweight antivirus that helps us eliminate all those viruses, malware and security threats without having to install anything on the computer.

One of the most interesting features is that has a "reputation scanner", a tool that submits suspicious files and folders to Symantec for analysis by a digital signature-based threat detection engine. In short, one of the most powerful and reliable portable antivirus that we can find today.

Download Norton Power Eraser

Emsisoft Emergency Kit

Award-winning antimalware scanner that works both with a graphical interface and with the command line. To put it to work download and open the executable to extract the Emergency Kit. If you do not have an Internet connection, select "No" to skip the online definition update. Note: if you want to have the virus database updated you can copy the EEC folder to another PC and let it update.

Updates to the Emergency Kit are made every 24 hours, so its threat detection level is considerably high. The application as such allows quick, comprehensive and personalized scans. It also has a whitelist option where we can exclude files, folders or processes from the scan. One of the most complete free and portable antivirus on the market.

Download Emsisoft Emergency Kit

Intel McAfee GetSusp

McAfee GetSusp is a tool for those who believe that they have some unidentified virus or malware on their computer. GetSusp eliminates any need for technical knowledge to detect and isolate threats. To do this, it uses the McAfee Global Threat Intelligence (GTI) File Reputation database to monitor any suspicious files.

In addition to GetSusp, McAfee also has other portable security tools, such as McAfee Stinger (a utility to detect specific viruses) and McAfee RootkitRemover (utility to remove complex rootkits and associated malware).

Download Intel McAfee GetSusp

Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool

Kaspersky is known to be one of the most powerful antivirus on the market, so its Virus Removal Tool is also one of the most recommended options when choosing a good portable antivirus to carry on a USB stick. In recent times the tool has undergone several changes and now it does not have as many configuration options, making it a much more compact utility.

Once we run the KVRT application, it will display the database in a temporary folder and we can begin to scan the system memory, startup items, disk boot sectors, storage drives and any other folder or drive that we need. You are interested by pressing the button "Add object".

After several days, Kaspersky will warn us that the database is obsolete and must be updated, allowing us to download an updated version of your dictionary (the executable on its official website is updated every 2 hours or so).

Download Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool

Dr. Web CureIt!

The lightweight and portable version of Dr. Web antivirus weighs around 200MB and is an option to consider. Despite its size, it is not necessary to carry out any installation process of any kind or download any database. Just run the program and we will directly scan the system for infections.

Dr. Web performs a quick scan to detect all kinds of viruses, adware, and more. Once the scan is completed, the tool will give us the option to neutralize the threat automatically, thus avoiding that we have to eliminate the virus by hand ourselves.

Download Dr. Web CureIt!

Zemana AntiMalware Portable

Another excellent portable antivirus, compatible with most versions of Windows. It has a certainly elegant interface and its features include real-time protection, smart quarantine, scan scheduling, and more.

Detects and removes annoying browser extensions, toolbars, adware and all kinds of unwanted applications. One of the best alternatives to the classic Norton or McAfee antivirus of a lifetime.

Download Zemana AntiMalware Portable

ESET Free Online Scanner

A very useful tool that uses the same ThreatSense technology as the ESET Smart Security and ESET NOD32 Antivirus applications. The utility allows one-time free scans to detect and eliminate malware, Trojans, spyware, phishing, viruses and any other type of threat from the computer. It also does not require any type of registration. We download the application, run it and get to work!

Download ESET Free Online Scanner

Comodo Cleaning Essentials

If we are looking for a powerful portable antimalware we cannot overlook Comodo Cleaning Essentials. This security tool is capable of detecting and eliminating any type of threat, from viruses or rootkits to wrong registry entries.

The application includes cloud scans to deliver real-time security analysis, as well as a KillSwitch module that allows us to analyze programs that are in use at the time of the scan and close them if they are infected or pose a threat. Another detail to mention is the Autorun Analyzer, which allows us to control and manage the applications and services that are loaded at system startup.

Download Comodo Cleaning Essentials (64-bit)

Download Comodo Cleaning Essentials (32-bit)

Avira PC Cleaner

Avira PC Cleaner is a malware detector that we can use as a complement to other security products. Supports Windows XP (SP3) and higher systems, and does not require any type of installation, registration or additional drivers. Now, it has a downside and that is that it requires a first Internet connection to download the more than 100MB necessary to update the database.

The objective of this tool is to carry out a security analysis on demand, making sure that the antivirus that we have installed works correctly and detecting any malware or threat that may have bypassed the usual detection filters.

The developer has stopped updating the app, but it can still be downloaded from Avira's servers. Perfect for analyzing and cleaning old equipment with certain years behind it.

Download Avira PC Cleaner