Are bootable anti-virus/malware scans as good as the "normal" ones?

[Bogdanov89]

I recently started using the various bootable anti-virus/malware scanners, like the Kaspersky's Rescue Disk.

However i am really interested in how do these bootable scans compare to the "normal" Windows run scans.

For example, would a maximum scan from Kaspersky Rescue Disk find as many malware/viruses as a max scan from Kaspersky Total Security?

Assuming both anti-virus/malware scanners are up to date (latest versions and databases), which is expected to reliably find and clean more viruses/malware?

Thank you for helping out

 

[John Connor]

I'm guessing the bootaable version would work better since the malware can't see if your runnig an anti-virus and some malware won't get removed via Windows. Thus a live CD is needed sometimes. But this doesn't mean you don't run an anti-virus on your computer.

I run Sandboxie for the broswer which creates a virtual environment so nothing touches the computer. Add to that an addon called NoScript and Bitdefender Free.

 

[smakme7757]

They are better at finding and removing virus on an infected system.

That's because they scan the hard drive while it's offline and not in use. Which gives a lot of advantages.

 

[PliotronX]

I haven't found a live CD that can find anything Malwarebytes from normal or safe mode cannot. It is also inconvenient to have the media laying around, booting (sometimes not possible with secure boot for example) to it, a 200MB definition update, extremely lengthy scans, etc. For expedience, if MBAM, Emsisoft, and Adwcleaner don't fully clean it out, a reload is in order.

 

[corkyg]

In theory, bootable AV/Am ware should work as well, if not better except for the fact that unless it can update its definitions on line with each use, it may be working with stale data.

 

[John Connor]

If interested in bootable malware scanners check out SARDU.