Being one of the few tech-savvy people in my family, I’m usually the go-to person when someone has comptuer issues. One of the most common things I have to deal with is a PC full of malware. Despite my insistance on using software that will prevent such things, I rarely find that they’ve listened. That’s why I keep a USB drive with different tools on it. One that I’ve just recently added is the Microsoft Safety Scanner.

I already use Microsoft Security Essentials on my computers at home, as it’s free and hasn’t failed me yet. This new Safety Scanner appears to work in much the same way, only it’s meant to simply get rid of viruses and malware, not prevent the computer from getting them in the future. In fact, the software expires 10 days after downloading, just so that you won’t have outdated definitions. This looks like a nice, free piece of software to use when you need to get rid of an infection on someone else’s computer, because you don’t actually have to install anything. Once you’ve cleaned it up, you can safely install whatever antivirus software you like on the machine.