

This tool can come in very handy for those files that we download from the Internet, and that we want to check before launching them, to make sure that we don't come across any unpleasant surprises when we use them.ĭownload ClamXAV right now and discover a simple and free antivirus for your Mac, that doesn't use system resources while latent. Once the analysis has finished, the program will offer us a report indicating if any of the files have been infected by any of the threats known by the application. Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) is a free software, cross-platform antimalware toolkit able to detect many types of malware, including viruses.It was developed for Unix and has third party versions available for AIX, BSD, HP-UX, Linux, macOS, OpenVMS, OSF (Tru64) and Solaris.As of version 0.97.5, ClamAV builds and runs on Microsoft Windows. Free trialBuy now Clean up your classroom, common room or campus Keeping all your Macs clean and virus-free is remarkably simple with ClamXAV and remarkably cost-effective too. The program has a very simple interface to which we'll be able to drag those files that we want to analyze. The ClamXAV scanner efficiently heads off malware and viruses in the workplace and can help you to comply with critical audit requirements and guidelines. You can protect yourself slightly by not using VPC's 'shared folders', but that's a useful feature which you shouldn't have to be without.Although there aren't many threats in the form of viruses for Mac, it's also true that there are hardly any tools with which we can avoid becoming infected by them, so a program like ClamXAV can be of great usefulness.ĬlamXAV isn't an ordinary antivirus that remains always active in the background, because it only analyzes the files that we tell it to. I think its well worth the 30 and by paying for it Im helping to ensure the. VPC will run any application you tell it to, virus or no virus, it doesn't know the difference. Note: ClamXav used to be free but as of June 2015 is a commercial product.
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This gives you the opportunity to avoid the file altogether or at least copy and paste any vital information into a new document and send that instead.ĭon't forget, if you run VirtualPC you can still become infected and lose valuable data on your Mac even though technically you're running Windows inside a sandbox.

If you then forward that document to a less wise person who has not turned off the macro support, then you have most likely just sent him a shiny new Pandora's Box with a sign saying 'Open this end'!įlippancy aside, I'm sure you get the idea: check the file before opening and/or sending it on to someone else.

However, this doesn't mean we should get complacent about checking incoming email attachments or web downloads, for two reasons.įirstly, there's no guarantee that we Mac users will continue to enjoy the status quo, but more importantly, the majority of the computing world use machines running MS Windows, for which an enormous quantity of viruses exist, so we must be vigilant in checking the files we pass on to our friends and colleagues etc.įor example, if you're a wise person and you've turned MS Office's macro support off then you're not going to notice that virus which is hiding inside this month's edition of Extreme Ironing.doc which your friend sent you. ClamXav uses as a back-end a slightly modified version of the tried, tested, and very popular ClamAv open source antivirus engine.īack in the days before OS X, the number of viruses which attacked Macintosh users totalled somewhere between about 60 and 80.
