VirusTotal is a site that allows you to scan a file with multiple antivirus for free!
Are you afraid that your antivirus installed on your computer will not detect a virus, or that it will incorrectly detect a file? That’s quite understandable! Each antiviral solution has its advantages and flaws. Not all antivirus have the same viral signature base. Some are quicker to update, others are slower but have other viruses, etc.
When you have a big doubt about a file, it is better to have it analyzed by several antivirus.
Several antivirus
But it should be known that installing multiple antivirus on the same computer can lead to problems due to conflicts between different systems of analysis and protection! This means that instead of protecting you all together, the antivirus will fight among themselves. They will give you problems, will slow down your pc and as a result of these problems, will let viruses pass.
Fortunately, Virustotal is here to help! You submit a file and it checks it with the data contained in the viral database of more than 40 reputable antivirus on the web, and this for free even if these are normally paid! Some examples: Kaspersky, Avast, Antivir, AVG, McAfee, Sophos, Trend Micro, Bitdefender, ClamAV, ESET NOD32, Malwarebytes, Panda, Symantec, DrWeb, etc…
All these antivirus without the need to install them, and it’s free!
Virustotal also offers you to check the urls.
If some antivirus shows you that your file is positive, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the file is infected! There are false positives, as well as false negatives! For me, I consider that below 4 antivirus that tell you that your file is infected, then it probably is not. Unless tenors like Kaspersky, Antivir or other is one of those…
Beyond 4 positives, there is a good chance that the file is really infected!
For the Virustotal website, check here!
Other articles to read: How to test an antivirus or antiviral protection