Update: 26th May 2002. This page is an archived GWeb page; it will no longer be updated.

InoculateIT Personal Edition is one top virus scanner that supports Windows 95, 98 and NT. It's a full-featured scanner that's absolutely free for home use, with regular (often weekly) virus definition updates.

In comparison to, for example, the behemoth that is McAfee VirusScan, InoculateIT is both swift and easy to maintain. You'll need to register to download the software, but it's well worth it...

Unfortunately, Computer Associates have now ended the 'promotional' phase of their software, and InoculateIT PE has become part of the eTrust EZ Armor 'solution set', available from my-eTrust.com. CA have, however, promised to keep making antivirus signature updates available to registered users, "for as long as InoculateIT Personal Edition is installed on their current personal computer". Consequently I've posted a link to ITPE 5.2 from GWeb's web space below, for those registered users who may need to re-install the virus scanner (after a hard disk crash, for example). If you haven't already done so, I'd recommend making a note of your registration details in case you need to use this (select Help | About in InoculateIT PE to get your details).

I'm running version 5.2, without any problems. Installation of 5.2 will replace previous versions, so you don't need to uninstall the old version first. Computer Associates recommend unzipping the IPESetup.exe file into a temporary '\InoculateITInst' directory, and then running setup.exe. I didn't need to do this, it ran OK as is.

Note that, in my copy of 5.2, the Tools | AutoDownload menu option won't work because it's requesting an invalid service/site (you'll find the details in the Registry, under HKLM\Software\ComputerAssociates\Anti-Virus\AutoDownload). If anyone finds an updated service, drop me a line and I'll post a .reg file to make the changes.

Important: as of May 15th 2002, InoculateIT Personal Edition will no longer be supported by Computer Associates. Until that time, registered ITPE users can migrate to eTrust EZ Antivirus (which is basically ITPE under another name) for half price.