How to know if a file is safe and does not have a virus before downloading it?

When downloading files from the Internet, there is always a fear that they will be infected with viruses or malware. Luckily, today there are ways to know if a file is safe or not. For this, it is also important to know the types of computer viruses and how to protect yourself from them.

Currently one of the simplest ways to transmit the virus on the Internet is through highly requested files, such as programs, games, videos, among others. Viruses are embedded in these files and reach users' devices via downloads.




It's important be very careful with files that are promoted as free or free, because they are the ones most likely to carry the virus. Therefore, the best measures against viruses must be applied.

If you don't take care when downloading files from the Internet, your electronic devices can be infected with dangerous viruses such as spyware, a spy on our devices that looks for passwords and private information. Protecting a PC with an Antivirus, Firewall, Anti Spyware and Anti Spam is urgent in these cases.

It will always be best to download files from secure and official web pages. Likewise, if you want to know if a file is safe or not, simply parse its URL. As you do it? Read on to find out.

Find out if a file is safe or not with Virus Total

You can choose to manually remove a virus from your PC without an antivirus program with Virus Total. This is a website offering free file analysis, links or download links via online antivirus. Checking your files with Total Virus is like scanning them with more than 50 different antiviruses.


 



How to know if a file is safe and does not have a virus before downloading it?

These features position it as one of the websites of virus detection more accurate on the Internet. Filtering files and links through it to know if a file is safe or not is like scanning it with a different antivirus.

How to use it?

Using Virus Total to find out if a file is safe or not is quick and easy, here you will learn how to go through the process step by step.

1. The first thing to do to analyze the link of the file you want to download is to locate it in the search bar of the browser. Place the mouse over the link, shade it and press " Ctrl + C »To copy it.

2. After copying the link, go to the Virus Total website. Three options will appear, click on » URL «

3. Once there you will see a search bar, paste the link there using "Ctrl + v" and press the button " Search ". Wait a few seconds while Virus Total analyzes the link of the file you want to download.

When it is ready, the result will be displayed on the screen. There you will see that under the analyzed link there is a box called "Detection report" or detection range. This shows the number of positive results compared to the amount of antivirus in its database. There are currently 50.

Therefore, the results can range from 0 to 50, where zero is totally clean and 50 is dangerous. Eg:


How to know if a file is safe and does not have a virus before downloading it?


 

  • 0/50 means that the link is completely virus and malware free
  • 10/50 means that the file is of dubious origin
  • 30/50 it is better not to download this file as it most likely contains viruses

Using this tool it is very easy to know if a file is safe or not before downloading it. If you use browsers such as Firefox or Chrome, you do not need to access the Virus Total website to be able to analyze a link.



By simply adding the VTzilla extension, you can analyze the links directly from the web page where the file you want to download is located.

After installing it, the option to scan the link with Virus Total will appear in the browser shortcut menu by clicking there a new tab will open with the results.


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