<<The developers of modern commercial and free security solutions assure users that with their software the computer is completely secure. In reality, this is not always true: as Kaspersky Lab found out in an early 2013 survey, even popular, tried-and-tested solutions can overlook a dangerous malware program and fail to inform users about a threat.
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Kaspersky Security Scan is Kaspersky Lab’s free utility specifically designed as a second opinion solution that runs an extra check on a computer.>>
So, I downloaded Kaspersky Security Scan, but the app just displayed
OK, to stress the meaning of “second opinion”, I put another quote here:
<<An important advantage of Kaspersky Security Scan is that it does not conflict with other security solutions. This means users do not have to uninstall or disable their main anti-malware product before running an extra check with Kaspersky Lab’s utility.>>
That's why I was amazed when I got the “error message”. Is NIS the other application? The logic seems to be broken. My question was: Has anybody been able to run KSS?
After reading your post I downloaded, installed, and scanned my system ("quick scan") with no problem.
Have you ever had a Kaspersky product installed on that computer? The error message you got would seem to indicate that KSS thinks you do. The Help section indicates that KSS cannot be installed on a system that already has a Kaspersky product on it.
@killyourtv: Thanks a lot! You answered my question, but the answer was not exactly what I “wanted”.
Yes, I have been running a Kaspersky product on this computer. Before I installed NIS, I ran Kaspersky's KAVremover.exe the proper way (twice in safe mode). NIS was happy, but obviously my computer still has wounds after the Kapspersky period. Maybe they want to punish me because I leaved them?
I am going to run KAVremover once more and scrutinize the Registry and the disk. If I succeed, I shall give your answer the Solution sign. Cross fingers!
I gather that most of the dedicated cleanup utilities like that Kaspersky and the Norton Removal Tool leave at least some traces if only to prevent people from repeatedly reinstalling a trial program to get longer term protection for free........
It would be interesting to ask Kaspersky about that message -- any idea what happens if you ignore it either by saying OK or by clicking on the [X] ?
@killyourtv: Thanks a lot! You answered my question, but the answer was not exactly what I “wanted”.
Yes, I have been running a Kaspersky product on this computer. Before I installed NIS, I ran Kaspersky's KAVremover.exe the proper way (twice in safe mode). NIS was happy, but obviously my computer still has wounds after the Kapspersky period. Maybe they want to punish me because I leaved them?
I am going to run KAVremover once more and scrutinize the Registry and the disk. If I succeed, I shall give your answer the Solution sign. Cross fingers!
I take it that you didn't have any success with installing KSS? IMO, you should count yourself as lucky if you didn't.
KSS? OMG, what a resource hog that thing is! I know that the initial scan it did after installation was awfully slow, but I just happened to be TRYING to use my computer when this thing wanted to do one of its scheduled scans. WOW. It used from 18% to over 80% of my dual core CPU and made any other task next to impossible to do - for a very long time. I finally tried to stop the scan, and that took forever, too. I'm not sure if it was done or not since - when the program UI finally opened - it showed 0% done, then jumped to 2% done. It also identified a legit program as some sort of Trojan - it gave me a false positive on the initial scan as well.
I could not Revo uninstall it fast enough! In my opinion that thing is crapware. If I ever give up Norton, one thing is for sure: I will not ever be installing anything from Kaspersky.
You are right, killyourtv, I still have not been able to install KSS. Kaspersky Lab does not offer any support for this program. I found traces of the previous installation in a db in Windows' Repository folder, but I have no knowledge about these system files. It is best not to tamper with them.
Your most recent post reminded me of the last years with Kaspersky. Now I definitively do not want to try KSS.... Thanks, your post deserves the “Solution diplomas”.
I do appreciate that, but I really wasn't fishing for solution kudos, I just felt that I should make you, and anyone else, aware of this horrible program. I've seen quite a few people come to the Norton forum after using a Kaspersky product and remark about how it slowed their system to a crawl, I know now that - if KSS is any indication - they weren't exaggerating. I neglected to mention that the uninstall took so long that I was worried I wouldn't be able to get it off my computer. Kaspersky AV may have a good detection rate, but that's all I can see in their favor.
Oh, one more thing. The 2 false positives? The only solution that KSS offered was to take me to a web page where I could buy a Kaspersky product! It (luckily in this case) didn't even try, or offer, to remove what it found. So, I can't recommend it on any level.
Based on your comments I decided to give KSS a try and my experience was different than yours. Quick scan on my PC only took about 2 minutes and used about 50% of my dual core cpu while scanning. The only problem I had was that the program would not update the definitions database. This is from the KSS user guide:
Once started, the application downloads database updates, if it sees that updates have not been downloaded within the last 12 hours. Updating the databases may take several minutes.
The automatic update never happened on my PC and there does not appear to be a way to update the database manually, so my PC was scanned with definitions from last year:
Anyone expecting KSS to clean up any malware it finds can forget it, from the user guide:
It is important to keep in mind that Kaspersky Security Scan does not remove malicious objects and does not disinfect infected files. If scanning reveals that your computer is in danger, we recommend that you purchase a fully functional anti-virus application from Kaspersky Lab.
On my PC KSS uninstalled quickly and with no problems. In conclusion, I do not recommend KSS, it is definitely not a sensible replacement for MBAM.
Hi, Turbo. I certainly appreciate your feedback on this. It's good to know that what I experienced is not a universal experience. Makes me wonder why KSS did not like my system though. I've never run into such issues with any other "second opinion" scanner, including the trial version of Zemana Anti-Malware (which is apparently a re-brand of the Hitman Pro scanner) that I'm currently testing. But I agree that KSS isn't a reasonable replacement for MBAM, or SAS either. Cheers.
I forgot to mention that in spite of the fact that it has a stripped down GUI, almost no configurability options and no malware removal capability, KSS was hogging almost 300 MB of disk space. Have you ever heard of any on demand scanner that was so bloated? MBAM is taking up not quite 30 MB:
