Clean your system from malware with Microsoft Safety Scanner

Cyber crime today is a profitable business and as such thousands of new and complex malwares are emerging every day. So, whatever accurate be the technology of a particular antimalware it can't assure to give 100% protection to their users. It is, therefore, always advisable to check your system occasionally with a secondary scanner.

Microsoft every month delivers through windows update Microsoft® Windows® Malicious Software Removal Tool for automatic scanning the system for major malwares circulating in the wild. In addition to this tool Microsoft have also made available Microsoft Safety Scanner, which one can download and run for checking and cleaning malware from their system.

Features

• Microsoft Safety Scanner uses the complete database of Microsoft Security Essentials for scanning and cleaning malware. So, if you are running Microsoft Security Essentials as your antimalware you don't need this tool.
• Microsoft Safety Scanner is a complete portable tool. You don't have to install it or extract and run it like most portable tools.
• Being a complete portable tool Microsoft Safety Scanner can't update its definitions, you have to download the entire application (~70Mb) if you want to scan with latest definitions.
• Microsoft Safety Scanner expires 10 days after being downloaded. Then you need to download the application again.
• Microsoft Safety Scanner is a complete freeware. You don't have to pay for scanning or cleaning threats.
• Microsoft Safety Scanner can perform Quick Scan and Full Scan. In addition it can also scan in Custom locations. Full scan is very much thorough and takes much time to complete.

•  Microsoft Safety Scanner can be used in safe mode or in normal mode. But it is always advisable to do the scan in safe mode otherwise malicious processes (if present) can terminate the scanning process of Microsoft Safety Scanner.
• The worst part in Microsoft Safety Scanner is that it removes all found infections automatically without giving the user a choice or creating a backup. This can be harmful in case it ever encounter a false positive detection. Although independent tests indicate that Microsoft Security Essentials and therefore Microsoft Safety Scanner have least false positives.
• Microsoft Safety Scanner can detect Potentially unwanted software but do not automatically handle those giving the user a choice to deal with those. In this case also if the user decides to remove that file he will not be given a choice to create a backup.

•  After scan completion user can see the scan results.

• Microsoft Safety Scanner [msert.exe] consumes moderate system resources during the scan. You will be able to continue your work while the scan is being done.

My Verdict
In my experience Microsoft Safety Scanner is a very reliable tool although I have not yet cleaned any malware infested computer with this tool but I have not faced with any false detection also. From the testing of independent testing labs like AV-TEST and AV Comparatives, it is proved that Microsoft Security Essentials can repair malware infections well and of course it has good detection of malwares. So, with the same engine and database Microsoft Safety Scanner keeps the same performance.

Download
Microsoft Safety Scanner can be downloaded from its homepage by clicking on the blue Download Now button. It detects its platform (32bit or 64 bit) automatically and starts download of the appropriate application. But you can also use the following links to download the appropriate installer.
32 Bit Installer
http://definitionupdates.microsoft.com/download/definitionupdates/safetyscanner/x86/msert.exe

64 Bit Installer
http://definitionupdates.microsoft.com/download/definitionupdates/safetyscanner/amd64/msert.exe

I hope you will find this application useful!