combofix

All scanning tools can fit the description of "unsafe". Even software from major security companies often do things that are unsafe and they also have frequent false positives. Especially when it comes to detecting/knowing the difference between real malware (like we remove in forums like this) and the tools used to remove malware (like ComboFix and many others). The major security companies do such a poor job in staying on top of what real infections exist everyday (i.e., They rarely detect many of these problems and if they do, they do very little to remove them. In addition they are supposed to protect you from these infections to begin with and do not.) If the commercial tools did a more effective job at protecting PCs and also in finding and removing malware, tools like ComboFix would not have to be designed by people like us who are in the pits removing troublesome malware everyday.

Tools like ComboFix take an approach where they operate at the kernel level of the operating system. They do this so that they can remove malware that cannot be removed by most normal methods. This is why some people and software companies could be using the word unsafe when referring to ComboFix. The fact remains that we use it several hundred times each week and so do many many other forums. And we rarely have a problem. Could we?? Yes of course but we have just as many similar problems when people who used Symantec or McAfee cannot boot their PC after a scan and reboot. The root cause of the reboot problem is really the malware itself and the act of removing it can sometimes cause a PC to no longer boot. Some malware is design this way on purpose to prevent you from removing it.