Stinger - Recommended settings?

Hi Team,

I post here because "similar threads" on my question are all four years old or older, plus they do not already answer my questions.

I downloaded Stinger from McAfee because I wanted something portable to put on a memory stick when I go to a friend's house to fix up their computer.

It doesn't write to a registry but you can set Preferences that are stored in a small file in the same folder.

What are the recommended Preferences? Specifically...

• Should "Super Scan" (off by default) be checked -- and what does it do?
• How aggressive should the search setting be (I'm thinking "Very High" should be selected)?
• And what choice should be checked as the default action?

 

Thank you very much!

kestrel, I swear I searched the McAfee website far and wide for such a page and I also googled dozens of websites, both to no avail.

So, I learned something new. Stinger uses cloud computing, i.e., it looks on the Net to update its virus database. Of course that won't work on a computer that is so ... scrod ... already that it can't go online anymore, so it's probably a good idea to replace one's copy of Stinger every month in order to keep its built-in virus database current.

That help page refers to an older version of Stinger. Nothing there about the Super Scan option, any idea what it might do?

I think it's probably a good idea that they recommend to choose "Report Only" for the first scan, I've seen one report of Stinger destroying a system when it was set to Repair immediately. Strangely, Stinger's default setting is Repair!

 

That is excellent advice. Really, top notch. You guys are the best there is on the Internet.

However, keep in mind that when someone not particularly computer literate gets hit by a virus or other malfunction, they may not be able to go online. Or they may be apprehensive about turning to strangers on the Internet for help. And I am glad when I can help out a friend... if I am able to.

Anyway, I decided to give a Stinger a spin on my computer. Here's what I found. (Stinger 10.1.0.1361 built on 31 Jan 2011, Windows Home Premium 64-bit.)

1. It's slow. A full-system scan takes two hours, that's more than twice the time it took Microsoft Security Essentials for a full-system scan less than a week ago.
2. It found four false positives. Reason I am sure they are false is (1) the previous MSE scan found nothing and (2) the files in question came from reputable websites (PortableApps, PC-WELT, Combofix).
3. 4 false positives for a total 370,125 files isn't bad. I had set the network heuristics to "Very High", and all 4 false positives came from the cloud, not the built-in virus database.
4. Logging is almost non-existent. It tells you what viruses it thinks it found and where, how many files were scanned... and that's all.
5. In particular, the log file contained no information on what, if anything, Super Scan had done (I had turned it on for the purposes of this test).

So, I'm unsure what exactly Stinger is good for. It can be useful, I suppose, if nothing else is to hand... and if it removes viruses effectively, which I haven't tested. Because it runs from a memory stick, it may come in handy when an infected PC has disabled all antivirus software installed on the machine.

I may keep it as a second-line tool but probably not as a first option.

Again, kestrel, many thanks for all you do here.