Review: Ultra Virus Killer (UVK)
UVK is a tool that helps technicians not only malware on a Windows PC, but actually repair the damage. Although other programs provide similar functionality, UVK consolidates them all into one handy tool.
UVK has a portable and an installed version, both free. The Common license, $30, unlocks features such as System Booster and Immunization. For $50, you can include a company logo and links to your website. The program interface is module-based and each module performs a specific function based on your needs.
Technicians can completely automate most aspects of UVK by using the System repair module. System Repair will download and run popular removal tools such as MalwareBytes AntiMalware and Kaspersky TDSS Killer. Third party programs can also be added to the automation scripts. The list of actions is quite extensive (over 50), but include the fixes commonly needed to remove malware: fixing DNS and hosts, removing entries from the registry, security updates, and fixing popular browsers. Technicians can pick which functions to perform during automation.
Sometimes, malware doesn’t leave a system easily and removal needs more intervention. The advanced detection portion of UVK includes modules that analyze programs currently running on the system via the Process Manager, Memory modules manager, Alternate Streams manager, Service manager and the Autorun manager. The Scan and Create log module creates a full report of running processes and installed programs similar to HijackThis.
These modules help technicians find suspect programs running and the corresponding files on the hard drive. The suspect program can be killed directly within UVK and the files related to the malware deleted.
The paid version has additional features. System booster module cleans up the registry, temp files, and Windows problems that could be causing a slow down. System Immunization, also paid only, protects systems against changes after removal. With the paid version you can password protect UVK to prevent clients from using the program, and the branded version includes your company logo.
Other smaller modules include system reports as well as links to websites that might be of use to technicians.
Overall, UVK impressed me with the power and ease of use. I’ve used other programs similar to this such as D7, but the interface here was much more approachable and the licensing cost is very reasonable. UVK brings nothing unique to the table. All these functions exist in other programs. The key is having all of it in one place, on a portable USB stick and the automated aspect of the program. The branded version is best for onsite technicians who might have a client watching over their shoulder, but for bench techs the added expense is not necessary.
UVK, excellent-priced, is a program I would recommend for any technician who removes malware.
Check Out Ultra Virus Killer (UVK) Here
Written by Dave Greenbaum
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Nice review, thanks.
Just wanted to correct a small mistake: The System immunization is not paid only. It only requires a license to immunize all users. Otherwise it is free.
Is there a technibble discount code? I want to buy the full license, with a % off incentive :)
compudoctor, I don’t have any discount codes yet. I’ll probably make a few ones, for Technibble, GeGeek and a few others in the future.
Anyway, I think the pricing is already low enough, if I make discount codes, I’ll probably have increase the overall price by the amount of the discount.
Plus, the USD has lowered a lot since I started selling licenses, and I’ve always supported the difference myself, and never increased the price of the licenses.
I think $30 is a fantastic price! No one should need a discount code for a product that is as awesome as UVK! Try to go to Wally World and see what $30 gets you……Fred, I want to thank you for such a great product! I don’t do many computer repairs right now, but when I do, I always use UVK because I know it will work.
Fred has moved UVK on leaps and bounds, from when he first started working on the project.
Thanks for all your hard work here Fred. It is appreciated :)
Thanks for the kind words, Nige. Yeah, it’s been a long road.
glad you have put the automated virus removal tools back into the program….and please don’t get greedy and mess with the pricing every other month!
Mark, I haven’t changed the pricing in 4 years! ;)
Great! keep up the good work…….The reason i don’t like d7 is the constant price changes
HA –
price changing is the least of D7’s worries (at lest for me).
We originally started using D7 before it was even really a full program. We had found it on some forum and there wasn’t much to the program aside from a set of already known tools put into one program (that executes those tools) and some nice scripts.
We started using it a lot and giving feedback on improvements.
Roll forward a few months (maybe a year?) and there is a paid version, we were so happy with the updates that we decided to give him our money. Before I purchased the software I made it very clear that we wanted a lifetime license with updates to the software. We were assured that we would never be required to pay for further updates.
Recently he changed the pricing for D7 (or he calls it D7II, which is essentially the same product) where it would be monthly to get any new updates! I contacted him and asked if he was going to do what other companies do and provide us with our lifetime key for the new version (AVG even does this). He not only stated know but essentially told me to jump off a cliff and proceeded to tell me no one in the IT industry provides updates for “free” …I hate to tell him but that is exactly how it works, we bought a lifetime license to D7…. if D7II actually was different then I could see the argument but its not…in fact it doesn’t even have a full feature set yet.
The server is a bit overloaded today. If some of you can’t download or connect, please try again later. I’m upgrading to a better plan.
The Technibble hug of death. We can move a fair bit of traffic :)
I guess you’re right, Bryce. I wasn’t expecting this much traffic, or I would have upgraded earlier. :)
I had a bit of trouble downloading as you noted above, but the second attempt worked fine. Now, my AVG is flagging both the portable and installed versions as an “unknown virus”. Is this normal, or do I actually have an infected copy? Thanks
It’s just a false positive. I’ll contact AVG again. Thanks for reporting.
UVK is deleted at download from Major Geeks and Publishers website, as directed from your website, as soon as it is downloaded as having a Trojan.
Ben, can you tell which Anti virus program you use? Thanks.
I just purchased the product. I downloaded the portable version. It ran fine on my computer with Nod32 installed but as soon as I ran it on a computer with a freshly installed copy of AVG, it flags the program with an unidentified virus. I emailed Carifred and sent a picture of the AVG screen but I have not heard anything back. Wondering how to proceed?
sorry I missed the comment directly above.
Mark, I contacted AVG yesterday asking them to whitelist the application. Until we hear back from them, you’ll have to add the application to the AVG’s exclusions.
Can you please tell which email address you mailed to (without the @)?
I didn’t get any mail from you yesterday.
Symantec
Oh finally a D7’ish solution but waaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper. Is it better?. I will try it and might buy it depends on the outcome, D7 prices hurt. (when you dont live in US and dont earn $s of course)
Unless I have missed something this looks like $30 per client computer plus the cost of Malwarebytes, etc. Without much effort this could be a $200-$300 per client.
Nathan, If you read the licence FAQ page you will see:
Can I use the same license key in more than one machine?
Yes. UVK is a technician tool, so it is supposed to be used by the same user in more than one computer.
http://www.carifred.com/uvk/custom_label/faq.php#Can_I_use_the_same_license_key_in_more_than_one_machine
As for the third party apps (MBAM, SAS, etc), UVK will download their free version, unless they are already installed and up to date, in which case the installed application is launched (free or not).
Most of the SW mentioned is free for home or evaluation, not for enterprise or SOHO use. Since this is a professional forum I must assume that we are discussing using UVK for profit both in the enterprise and SOHO. To use tools that are “free” to the home user in an enterprise or SOHO is unethical.
True. But that doesn’t mean you have to install a different license in each machine. MBAM offers a tool that uninstalls the application and removes licence info, allowing to use the same license in a new machine. SAS offers a tech license, which can be used in as many machines as you want.
UVK offers the custom third party apps, allowing you to automate installing, registering and running those applications, including the MBAM removal tool.
So you only need one license for each product.
@Fred:
MBAM is very specific in their EULA. It looks to me like running MBAM under UVK violates the license. The Tech version is $399/yr.
“2. Restrictions. You may not run the Software on a network. You may not use on behalf of, or make the functionality of the Software available to, third parties for any purpose, including, but not limited to, providing any computer repair, help desk or troubleshooting service. You may not combine this Software with any third party script, application, hardware or tools which would cause it to run on an automated or unattended basis…”
I have not looked up any of the other SW but as nice as this configuration looks on the surface, I am not sure ethically I can use it for this purpose.
So for the moment I stand by my premise that UVK integrated with other SW is a very expensive solution for the independent technician in the enterprise or SOHO. I am sure many an enterprise will buy into this solution.
For the tech and the home user it is still a bit dicey. As a professional tech may I load free versions of SW on a computer. I don’t know as it is a commercial (the tech), home user conflict.
Personally, I have no problem buying these tools. However, my rates reflect this overhead and I never have to question my ethics.
So I’m just slightly confused on how the license works. The FAQ states that “Computer techs should not leave an activated license installed in the client’s computer.” If the license is not activated on the clients computer do things like immunization continue to work? If I need to use it again, I have to reactivate it each time?
The immunization works by setting a few policies and acl permissions in the registry. Than means it will continue to work even if you uninstall UVK.
However, you should not remove the backups created by the application when uninstalling. The backups contain information about the current immunization’s state.
The reason the faq says techs should not leave a license key in the client’s computer is that the client may use that key to create a pirated copy of the software. If that happens, I would have to blacklist that key, and it would no longer work. I will update that info in the faq.
So, for $50, I get a custom branded antimalware tool with all these features that I can load on as many of my customers computers as I want? With my logo? This looks to be a great tool for my small business customers.
To be perfectly honest, I’ve seen this application around a bit and the logo has always put me off from downloading it because I always thought it looked outdated (I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but sometimes that’s all you have to go by). Looks pretty good though so going to give it a shot.
Does anyone know if I can run this program on an offline hard drive (ie I take a HDD out of the original machine and put it in a tech machine to scan)?
BTW I also agree with some of the comments above re: the D7 pricing. I didn’t like the D7 author selling lifetime licenses and then changing the deal in under 12 months!
Dipper, UVK was not conceived to work with offline drives. In order to scan an offline drive it would need to load the registry hives from the offline drive, and map all the registry paths to the path of that drive for both read/write operations. A bit complicated, but possible to be done.
Some of the current features may be useful, though. For instance you can create custom third party apps that download, install and execute third party programs conceived to work with offline drives.
You can also use its powerful file deletion feature to help you manually remove infected file objects.
If one have bought the “Branding Licence”, he still have to load the keyfile after launching the application in order to get the features (logo, company name, etc.), right?
So if one goes to a clients home and take UVK in a pendrive, he will also have to take the filekey in order to use it AFTER launching UVK in the clients computer?
Thanks, and sorry for the poor English
Tech, all you have to do is copy the license key file and your logo to the same folder where you have the UVKSetup.exe or UVKPortable.exe file.
Important: The file name of the license key must be key.uvkey.
The disclaimer will no longer be shown, and the setup process will be branded too. Test with one of the demo keys to see the effect.
To quickly remove UVK after performing the repair, use the portable version instead. The license key is automatically uninstalled along with the application.
Out of curiosity, because this looks like a very promising tool, I decided to run UVK on one of my old test PCs this evening. Among other things I ran the DefragAndOptimize script.
I’ve been waiting for hours now, for it to complete. The message Optimizing System Boot has been staring me in the face for an hour. Zero HD activity.
Exactly how long can this take? Surely not this long??
Erik, when UVK shows “Optimizing System Boot…” it is running the rundll32.exe Advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks command. It can take a very long time the first time it runs, especially on Windows 8/8.1.
It is usually faster the next times it is executed.
The command takes a list of the files run when Windows boots up from %Windir%\Prefetch\layout.ini.
Then it optimizes the layout of those files in the hard drive for a faster boot, and also defraggs those files.
There is no way of predicting the time the command takes to run, because it depends on many factors, such as the size of the system partition, how fragmented it is, and the system performance.
Thanks for that explanation, Fred.
I waited close to 2 hours last night, waiting for the process to finish; but before it did I had to shut down and unplug the PCs because of a very nearby lightning storm. Typical!
I’ll run it again tonight. This is an old XP machine, with two very big HDs in it. No storms on the horizon tonight; so I’m sure I can run it overnight…
This isn’t meant to be a troll and I’m not trying to single out this particular program. But I’ve seen so many tools that are like this one that look great until I see that it ‘cleans’ or ‘repairs’ the registry. I know that this doesn’t mean that the entire tool is worthless, but I’ve always understood that ‘cleaning’ the registry is unnecessary and potentially destructive. That said, why do tool developers keep creating them? Is it just another feature added to make the tool attractive to the layperson? Or is it a matter of ‘Tool X has it so we need to have it too’? Just wonderin’…
Jim, IMHO cleaning up the registry after a malware/adware removal is an essential step.
The infected files are deleted, but usually there are many registry entries pointing to the infected files left behind. ActiveX/COM objects, shared DLLs, orphan services, scheduled tasks and autorun entries are the most common.
I know that most of the registry cleaners cause damage. In fact, that’s the main reason why I decided to create a registry cleaner myself. I wanted to know exactly what it does. I’ve been using UVK’s registry cleaner in my personal PCs on a daily basis, and I use it in all my repairs.
I always notice a great performance improvement, and never had any related issue.
Fair enough. I think that it is the ‘trust us, we know what we are doing’ attitude of most registry cleaners that has helped turn me against them. That and the incorrect information about the registry that they use to sell their product. Up until now, I’ve left it to the specialized tools (Kaspersky, MBAM, AdwCleaner, Autoruns, etc) to deal with cleaning up the registry, services, etc. But I’m all for a tool that help streamline the process. I’ll be sure to take a look at yours.
Jim, I’m sure you won’t regret to have a look. I do not use the “Trust us, we know what we’re doing” attitude. Rather, I use a “See for yourself” one.
UVK’s system booster allows you – even in the free version – to quickly jump to the invalid item found (registry entry, shortcut or file), and see for yourself if it is invalid or not. It also explains why the item has been marked as “invalid”.
Fred, just tried to update from version 6.0.0.2 and Avast is flagging the .exe as a virus.
HISTORY OF MAKING IT SIMPLE FOR GEEKS
1. MRI BY GEEK SQUAD
2. HBCD
3. COMBOFIX
4. D7
5. ULTRA VIRUS KILLER
THEY WERE GOOD IN THEIR DAYS. I GUESS FOR IT IS REINVENTING THE WHEEL. IF YOU GOT CUSTOMERS WHO STAY INFECTED OR MESS UP ALL THE TIME, WELL THEN LOCK THE COMPUTER DOWN LIKE WITH DEEP FREEZE OR TIME MACHINE. REMEMBER TO KEEP IT SIMPLE. GET THEM ON THE CLOUD LIKE FOR EXAMPLE USE A WEBMAIL LIKE GMAIL TO GET YOUR EMAIL. THEY CAN SAVE THIER PIC;S AND DOCUMENTS THERE TOO. KEEP IT SIMPLE. IT HAS MADE ME ALOT OF MONEY PEOPLE. DON’T EVER BE CLOSED TO NEW IDEA’S.