I am trying to find an app that is portable. I have systems that will come back to our factory from the field. And I am trying to find a method and tool(s) to scan them for viruses. These are standalone systems which have not direct internet connection. I have both Windows and Linux systems. I need a way to scan as well as update virus definitions prior to scanning.

I think ClamWin would work for windows systems. What can I do for linux system. I would much rather have one cross-funtional product versus 2 OS specific products.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

It will be hard to find one AV app that works on both Linux/Windows. At one time, there was an attempt do something like this for AVs, but that was way back in the early days of the internet. Clam AV (for Linux) furnishes its scan engine/virus signatures to the ClamWin project, but the ClamWin developers still have to prepare a port of the Clam AV C++ code for Linux over to C++ code for Windows. The Windows code (as it now is on ClamWin) does not really contain all the functionality of the true Clam AV Linux version.

A portable app is usually portable on only one OS. It is portable only in that you can put it on a USB and use it on other similar operating systems for which it was designed.

Regards,

If I understand I could use ClamWin on my Windows Worksations that come back and ClamAV for my Linux workstations, I trying to understand the pricing of both as well as the method(s) to undate the definition files.

Both ClamWin and Clam AV are free Open Source applications. ClamWin has a license under the GNU General Public License. I think Clam AV is the same (or similar). You can read about ClamWin at https://www.clamwin.com/content/view/71/1/ on the web (the About page).

Be aware that ClamWin is not a real-time, on access scanner--it is an on-demand/on schedule scanner. Clam Av on Linux does have a mode that is similar to on-access/real-time, which I think is a bit more limited than those of the commercial scanners. You should use ClamWin as a backup scanner to a real-time Windows scanner. Clam AV prepares approximately 1,000 virus signatures each day, but this is not enough to provide adequate protection to Windows users. In my opinion, good protection results from approximately 10,000 daily signatures. Neither program has any extensive heuristics--they are primarily signature-based.

Regards,