Norton Power Eraser 6.6.0.2153

Overview

Norton Power Eraser is a portable on-demand virus scanning utility that is designed to detect and remove threats that other antivirus software might miss. It uses Norton's most aggressive scanning technology, as the name suggests, examining files for malicious components using a stricter set of criteria than conventional counterparts. It also doesn't contain any extra features – its sole purpose is to identify and remove every potential threat. While most antivirus scanners are cautious about the files and programs they remove, Power Eraser is much less forgiving, so be sure to pay attention to what it removes in case you want to keep or restore those files.

Installation

As a no-installation portable app, Norton Power Eraser can be loaded from a USB drive and used on any Windows machine within seconds. There are no bundled apps or offers, and the whole process is as easy as launching NPE.exe.

Interface

There are only 4 modules in Power Eraser: Scan for Risks (the basic Power Eraser scan), Unwanted Application Scan, Advanced Options, and Undo Previous Fix. The Advanced Options module provides 3 alternative scan types: Reputation Scan (runs a Norton Cloud check on the file/folder of your choice), System Scan (scans the whole operating system), and Multi-Boot Scan (performs a scan on the specified operating system – for machines with multiple Windows operating systems). Overall, the interface is simple enough for a child to use.

Pros

• Norton's most aggressive virus scanning technology – finds threats that might be overlooked by other scanners by using a stricter set of definitions

• Undo Fix - New version can now show you previous scan/repair sessions and provides the option to restore wiped files.

• You can restore files to a separate partition to be on the safe side

• Bottom of the main window contains a link to Norton's professional remote malware removal service

• Can perform a rootkit scan if you allow a reboot when prompted

• Unwanted application scan searches for apps that are hurting your computer's performance

• Scan times are remarkably quick

• Has no installation and can be loaded onto a USB drive for portable virus detection – useful for machines that are badly damaged by malware

Cons

• Given its aggressive scanning methods, this tool may remove legitimate software or files after misidentifying them as malware. However, encountering the occasional false positive is a necessary downside of using such a strong virus removal tool.

• There's no way to stop/abort a scan once you've started scanning for unwanted applications

Alternatives

There's no shortage of alternative virus scanners out there, many of which are just as aggressive as Norton Power Eraser, including but not limited to Malwarebytes Anti-malware, herdProtect, Comodo Cleaning Essentials, and SecureAPlus.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a program that will hunt down the peskier malware that other scanners aren't flagging, it may be worthwhile to try Norton Power Eraser as an extra measure. The ability to load this tool onto a USB drive and launch it without installation makes it ideal for machines that are unable to access the internet.