How to use Virustotal to scan downloads.

Best practice is to scan everything you download, locally, and at Virustotal.
Just drag and drop the file in question on this page...


There is a size limit on the files you can upload.
I don't know the exact amount, but I've uploaded files as large as 400MB, recently.








Here is the scan result for Firefox 94.0.1.
You want to pay attention to the results of the well-known scan engines that I marked with RED dots.
All the engines that think the file is bad, will float to the top, and be marked with RED text.



Just use your head. If only 1 or 2 "off-the-wall" engines find a problem, you can usually assume they are false positives.
If you get 6-10 RED results at the top, you should be a bit more suspicious.
Check the "names" of the scan engines, that are calling the file... bad.

If most of the scan engines (marked with the RED dots), find a problem with a file, you should probably just delete the file.






Now this would probably be the other extreme.
This is a cheat engine for a game. (Just used for an example).
It's actually a clean file, but 99.999% are not.
Stay far away from cheats, hacks, keygens, etc., Your computer will thank you.

So if a program gets results like this... delete the file... fast.







Last but not least we have the false positives. This is WhyNotWin11.exe from GitHub
This is a tiny program for checking to see if your computer can run Windows 11.
It's definitely a safe, clean program.









Like anything else, you just have to use your head.
Think about the kind of file you are scanning at Virustotal and think about the results you get.

If ALL those "top shelf" scan engines (marked with RED dots in the 1st pic), say a file is bad...
Delete the file... immediately !!!

Remember, it only takes a second to get infected. It takes hours or days to remove an infection. If it's even possible.

It's also worth noting that even after checking with an AV, if you are going to open an unknown file (or website), it's always best to do it in a sandbox.

z3r010 said:

It's also worth noting that even after checking with an AV, if you are going to open an unknown file (or website), it's always best to do it in a sandbox.

Enable or Disable Windows Sandbox in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the Windows Sandbox feature for all users in Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education. Windows Sandbox provides a lightweight desktop environment to safely run applications in isolation. Software installed inside the Windows Sandbox...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

Another excellent option.
You can't be too careful, when downloading things from the internet.

Remember, "It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you".

Max file size is 650MB

I think Virustotal context menu desktop app is also good choice to have.

z3r010 said:

It's also worth noting that even after checking with an AV, if you are going to open an unknown file (or website), it's always best to do it in a sandbox.

Enable or Disable Windows Sandbox in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the Windows Sandbox feature for all users in Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education. Windows Sandbox provides a lightweight desktop environment to safely run applications in isolation. Software installed inside the Windows Sandbox...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

This is one of a few reasons i recently switched from vmware workstation/esxi to hyper-v. I could have a sandboxed vm there, but its not as easy as sandbox. Vmware's last update was supposed to make vmware and hyperv play nice together, but only if you turn off virtualization for the vmware machines processor making it dog slow.