Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

FixMeStick is Fortune 500-grade anti-malware technology in the form of Linux that boots from a USB drive. After booting itself up in Linux, it first tries to update itself over the Internet, then it runs 3 of the best anti-malware engines (Kaspersky, Sophos, GFI Vipre) to scan up to 3 Windows computers. Since the Windows operating system is not running, Windows malware can't interfere with the Linux anti-malware engines. Not running under Windows is a major benefit, and this is similar to what Fortune 500 company IT security departments use to clean Windows computers. Most highly recommended. Let me say the above again in a different way in case it's not clear. The FixMeStick USB drive boots up as Linux. It then scans your Windows drives for malware. Doing so FixMeStick is completely immune from any Windows malware on your computer since it is doing the scanning from Linux, not Windows. Windows is not running at all when FixMeStick operates. FixMeStick runs exclusively under Linux when it checks your Windows drives. Most computers made in the past several years allow booting from USB, so select that during boot time or in the BIOS. If it won't allow that, then start Windows and click on the FixMeStick icon as the USB drive and it will install a temporary boot record / boot manager to let the computer boot the USB drive. Either way works, but cold booting (i.e., from power off) directly into Linux on the USB drive is preferred since there's less chance any Windows malware can affect the Fixmestick itself. The license lasts for one year and you can scan up to 3 computers any number of times within a given month. In the next month, you can scan another 3 computers. When the license runs out after 1 year, it needs to be be renewed on the FixMeStick web site for another year. Currently the renewals are the same price as the first year at about $60. This is fair pricing for a Linux hardware solution and 3 of the best anti-malware engines. Limitations: FixMeStick can find and quarantine infected files, and it can get severely infected machines working again, including in cases where Windows based solutions definitely won't work. Like all anti-malware technologies, the engines sometimes have false positive type errors, and if an infected file has important information or is required for the system to run, quarantining it may mean that you lose data or functionality, but the quarantine can be undone if needed. The user interface is simple, clear, logical and easy to use. FixMeStick also can't do things like clean the Windows registry or scan inside types of archives or databases that it doesn't know about. It also cannot repair infected files, it can only quarantine them. For those functions you may need Windows-based anti-malware. However FixMeStick will usually allow you to get Windows working sufficiently so you can run the Windows-based clean up. Without something like FixMeStick, you may not even be able to get Windows running again, so it's definitely very useful even with some limitations. Also FixMeStick will definitely find and correct some types of problems that Windows-based anti-malware programs simply can't, for example because they are being corrupted by the malware. FixMeStick is like getting completely independent second opinions from 3 very good doctors about what's wrong with your computer, and it can quarantine malicious files without using Windows. Overall, FixMeStick is a serious, professional-grade tool that can be indispensible for fixing Windows computers. Note that Microsoft has a free program called "Windows Defender Offline" that runs a WinPe (Windows Preinstallation Environment) version of Windows from a CD, DVD or USB to somewhat similar effect, but it doesn't have the nice user interface or ability to easily update itself from the network that FixMeStick has. Since Amazon doesn't seem to allow links in reviews, do an Internet search for "Windows Defender Offline".