If a malware infection gets advanced enough to compromise a computer and its main antivirus, the user must act quickly to save their information and get the system back to a minimum state of security. One option is to disconnect it completely from the network and use an antimalware that runs portably, directly from a USB drive or other external storage. Emsisoft Emergency Kit is one of them.
The fact that there is some decrease in its frequency or that we haven't suffered one in a long time does not mean they disappeared. Malware infections wait for the right moment, and they only need to get lucky once to achieve their goal. For these reasons, our vigilance must be constant. If you have doubts about a file, analyze it immediately, and if you receive a computer with an active infection... expect resistance.
The maintenance USB drive
That's when our famous "maintenance USB drive" comes into play, a resource that anyone can reproduce at a very low cost (most of the tools involved are freeware). There, Emsisoft Emergency Kit deserves a place, a portable emergency antimalware that its developer presents as a second opinion against the effects of a malware infection.
Setting up Emsisoft Emergency Kit
The complete Emsisoft Emergency Kit package requires a download that exceeds 300 megabytes, so I recommend decompressing it (the destination path is C:\EEK) on a clean computer. Once done, open the antimalware to update its database, then move the EEK folder to a USB drive, and run the antimalware again on the affected computer.
Scan options
The scan parameters are three: "Quick scan", recommended for systems that are believed to be clean or that recently had a fresh Windows installation, "Malware scan", a more thorough sweep of suspicious areas, and "Custom scan", which allows us to add or remove multiple configuration values, including searching secondary drives.
Features and extras
This portable antimalware has a quarantine zone and another for configuring exclusions, plus a section with the activity history. It also activates by default the Anti-Malware Network, a service to send statistics to Emsisoft about infected items and blocked hosts, which we can disable for privacy reasons.
Limitations
As expected, Emsisoft Emergency Kit is not a perfect solution. In the first place, it's true that we still depend on an active connection to receive updates (I haven't seen any option to download signatures and databases manually), and in the second place, the program is very insistent on recommending a more permanent tool, which of course is one of Emsisoft's trialware. Despite those details, it fulfills its role as a secondary portable antimalware well. Download a copy, and personally, I hope you never have to use it.
Official site and download: Click here
