DOS Antivirus

hi, could any one tell me is the DOS based Antivirus programs is alternative to the windows based antivirus programs? for ex. can i use F-Port instead of Mcafee?

regards

Dont fully understand your question ?

Anyhow, most AV vendors have a DOS based version of their AV. You will be unable to run the DOS based version if you are running Windows 95 onwards, the DOS Based version of the software is only for DOS operating systems (an usually Windows 3.x)

Cheers

Still a bit unclear as to what you are after like smurf.

Post win 98, there is no DOS. It may look like DOS but it is not dropping below windows to the operating system but rather a software window acting like the old DOS used to act.

Because of this, it is covered by the windows antivirus. Also, as far as I know, all antivirus programs embed themselves into the boot sector so that they run immediately on boot up.

If you are after antivirus for a platform that is pre-NT, you may find a bit of trouble in that none of those operating systems are supported by MS and consequently, dropped by AV companies. You may be able to find an old version of an AV solution but it will be quite likely that that version no longer receives virus signature updates of the modern virii rendering it pretty useless and giving you a false sense of security.

Perhaps if you tell us what you are trying to do?

what i mean is can i use the DOS based AV for scanning all the files? i read that F-port (DOS AV version) can scan all the files in hard disks, so what is the difference with Windows AV? Windows AV is also scans the files in the hard disks, right?

Well, yes you can - but as starfire says you might struggle to get an up-to-date signature for your DOS-based antivirus software so would it be worth it? Also you might struggle using your DOS-based AV software to scan a Windows machine from within the Windows command prompt which, as smurf rightly says, is just a command shell running in Windows and not real DOS. I suppose you could boot the machine from a DOS or Win98 boot disk to do it, but then you might be up against it as those OSs can't access NTFS volumes directly unless you use a third-party utility such as ntfsdos. But, if you can overcome any such issues, and the viruses you're looking for are older varieties (as many of them still are), then go for it and let us know what happens!

thanx every one, i think i'll test it, if any damage happens to my computer i'll sue TheBishop

thnx & regards