When protecting your PC from online threats, any weapon you come across is welcome, especially if they can take care of what other security applications don’t. McAfee AVERT Stinger is a small virus extractor specialised in hunting the viruses listed by McAfee.

Because it is lightweight, the program saves you the hassle of big and cumbersome antivirus applications and you can easily run it in the background while you carry out another task. Just launch McAfee AVERT Stinger, select your directory, press the scan now button, and wait for the results to come. The application runs relatively quickly depending on the size of the directory you have chosen to scan and if McAfee AVERT Stinger finds any malware it will pop up on the screen. The application is very basic but it can scan self-extracting executables and compressed files and will automatically remove viruses it comes across. To find out which viruses McAfee AVERT Stinger recognizes just click on the list button and scroll the names of all malware recognized by the antivirus manufacturer.

If there is one drawback to this application, it’s that you can not update the virus list, so you will need to reinstall the latest version of McAfee AVERT Stinger every time McAfee publishes a new list. A great advantage of most security suites is that they automatically update and incorporate new virus definitions without you having to worry about it. In this sense, and considering that new viruses pop up every day, McAfee AVERT Stinger has a very short life span. So if you don’t monitor the Mcafee website for a new version every now and then, your copy of the program might quickly be obsolete.

Despite McAfee AVERT Stinger’s obvious shortcoming, we believe that it is a good addition to your arsenal of security applications. It’s always good to have specialised software to hunt specific malware and the fact that this program works with McAfee’s very own list of viruses makes it a source to trust. If you remember to reinstall it every now and then you’ll have yourself a discreet yet effective addition to your PC protection.