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Scanguard Ultimate Antivirus Review
Is it really worth downloading?
By Jon Martindale Jon Martindale Writer Jon Martindale has been a feature tech writer for more than 10 years.
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Scanguard Ultimate Antivi...
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He's written for publications such as Digital Trends, KitGuru, and ITProPortal. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on August 15, 2021 Fact checked by Nikki Elmwood Fact checked by
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Isaac Schmidt Member
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Scanguard Ultimate Antivirus
Luis Alvarez/Getty Images What We Like Attractive interface is easy to understand Affordable compared to other optimization tools Setup is quick What We Don't Like Installation and login requires disabling antivirus Automated scan at startup without any prompting Real time protection disabled by default Suggested legitimate files get quarantined It invented virus infections There's no way to stop scans in progress There's no warning against deliberate virus downloads Many reports of false positives and scareware tactics Scans take a long time Scanguard is not only ineffective at its job but invents threats and concerns to scare users into paying for it.
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Henry Schmidt 1 minutes ago
Even when they do, its manufactured concerns make it appear far more effective than it is and risk h...
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Sophie Martin Member
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
Even when they do, its manufactured concerns make it appear far more effective than it is and risk harming legitimate system use. Buy on Scanguard.com 1.8
Scanguard Ultimate Antivirus
Luis Alvarez/Getty Images Buy on Scanguard.com in this article Expand Design Type of Protection Scan Locations Types of Malware Ease of Use Update frequency Performance Additional Tools Type of Support Price Competition Final Verdict Specs Scanguard is a tool that positions itself as an all-in-one antivirus and PC optimization tool with much to offer.
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Christopher Lee Member
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
It has a free scanning option and a premium package that offers a more complete suite of tools. However, there are concerns over false positives and a number of reports of scareware tactics being used to promote the premium version.
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Evelyn Zhang 9 minutes ago
We installed Scanguard on a test system to see how well it performs and whether its detractors are c...
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Hannah Kim 10 minutes ago
Design Attractive Intuitive but Alarmist
Scanguard's client is quite an attractive...
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Elijah Patel Member
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
We installed Scanguard on a test system to see how well it performs and whether its detractors are correct in their assessments. Keep reading to see our full findings.
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Ella Rodriguez 5 minutes ago
Design Attractive Intuitive but Alarmist
Scanguard's client is quite an attractive...
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Liam Wilson Member
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
Design Attractive Intuitive but Alarmist
Scanguard's client is quite an attractive one, with blues, grays, and whites used to great effect and intuitive menus that are well-labeled and, in some cases, color-coded to help the user to understand the importance of certain information. However, there is a lot of unneeded information, too.
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Scarlett Brown Member
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
This includes graphs and bar charts that look impressive at a glance, but are overblown and unnecessary. It also goes out of its way right from the beginning to make it clear there are problems with your system.
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Madison Singh Member
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
This appears to be a core component of the way Scanguard operates. ScnGuard
Type of Protection Where' s the Antivirus
Scanguard is supposed to be an antivirus tool, with the creators claiming it can block worms, Trojans, viruses, adware, and ransomware. However, in practice, it didn't appear to pick up any legitimate threats at all.
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Aria Nguyen 11 minutes ago
In our first major scan on a brand new Windows 10 install, it discovered dozens of "threats," most o...
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Jack Thompson 7 minutes ago
One was related to how Windows handles dial-up Internet connections. We confirmed that these f...
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Scarlett Brown Member
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20 minutes ago
Thursday, 08 May 2025
In our first major scan on a brand new Windows 10 install, it discovered dozens of "threats," most of which were said to be Trojans. On closer inspection, however, all of these files were legitimate Windows applications or services.
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Amelia Singh Moderator
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
One was related to how Windows handles dial-up Internet connections. We confirmed that these files weren't a threat with multiple other anti-malware tools, which did not discover any problems with the system. To make matters worse, when we deliberately downloaded viruses to test the effectiveness of Scanguard, and it didn't detect any of them.
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Ava White 9 minutes ago
In fact, it didn't find them when using real-time protection or with a remedial scan afterward. Wind...
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Christopher Lee 44 minutes ago
Scanguard was all too willing to recommend quarantining legitimate Windows files that it erroneously...
In fact, it didn't find them when using real-time protection or with a remedial scan afterward. Windows Defender noticed them, though, as did our other anti-malware suites. We actually had to disable those just to test Scanguard antivirus, and it still failed to notice the nefarious software.
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Madison Singh Member
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
Scanguard was all too willing to recommend quarantining legitimate Windows files that it erroneously claimed had been infected with a Trojan.
Scan Locations Everything You Give it Access To
We only placed a single drive in our test system and Scanguard appeared to dig through everything on it in its search of (allegedly) infected files and applications.
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Luna Park 13 minutes ago
Introducing additional drives would give it more to scan and you can customize what you give it acce...
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Alexander Wang Member
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28 minutes ago
Thursday, 08 May 2025
Introducing additional drives would give it more to scan and you can customize what you give it access to in the settings menu.
Types of Malware Everything and Nothing
Although Scanguard claims to detect every type of malware and offers comprehensive protection against all manner of threats, we didn't discover a single legitimate threat that it could detect. While that doesn't mean that there aren't some viruses it could detect and block, as far as we've seen, it doesn't protect against anything and goes out of its way to point the finger at otherwise legitimate files.
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Evelyn Zhang Member
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
Ease of Use Simple Enough
Scanguard antivirus starts a scan the moment you open it for the first time, giving you no chance to customize what it's looking for or how it's doing it. But it's only a quick scan, so if you were pleased to see a scan taking place immediately, you might think that your system is protected when you resolve any issues the scan finds.
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Amelia Singh 19 minutes ago
But it barely scans anything on that initial run. To conduct a proper, full scan, you have to trigge...
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Charlotte Lee 15 minutes ago
It's all relatively straightforward and well labeled, but we wouldn't recommend following th...
But it barely scans anything on that initial run. To conduct a proper, full scan, you have to trigger it manually. When it finishes, you'll be given the option to resolve threats by quarantining or deleting them.
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Elijah Patel Member
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
It's all relatively straightforward and well labeled, but we wouldn't recommend following through on any of its suggestions.
Update Frequency Daily
Scanguard claims to perform regular updates to its virus definitions—even though it failed to detect a virus from 2003.
Scanguard real-time protection is turned off by default for some reason, but even with it enabled, Scanguard failed to notice any of the threats we put in front of it, despite Windows Defender picking them up immediately.
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Natalie Lopez 34 minutes ago
When it came to scanning for threats, Scanguard was all too willing to recommend quarantining legiti...
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Andrew Wilson 26 minutes ago
Not only that, but the whole scanning process takes an inordinately long time compared to other anti...
When it came to scanning for threats, Scanguard was all too willing to recommend quarantining legitimate Windows files that it erroneously claimed had been infected with a Trojan. After confirming that these files were not infected, there were only two options for why this might have happened: Scanguard is woefully unprepared to deal with false positives.It deliberately suggests files for quarantine, knowing they aren't infected, to appear more effective and to encourage purchasing higher-tier subscriptions.
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Sophie Martin 70 minutes ago
Not only that, but the whole scanning process takes an inordinately long time compared to other anti...
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Evelyn Zhang 49 minutes ago
It has System Tune-Up Optimization Tools, which claim to find problematic software and files which m...
Not only that, but the whole scanning process takes an inordinately long time compared to other anti-malware applications. This is a damning indictment of Scanguard and suggests it isn't remotely adequate to perform its core task: protecting the users who paid for it. ScanGuard
Additional Tools Comprehensive But Dubious
Scanguard offers a number of additional functions beyond antivirus detection.
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Madison Singh Member
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
It has System Tune-Up Optimization Tools, which claim to find problematic software and files which might slow your system down. For us, this boiled down to removing cookies from our browser, which Scanguard did without informing us that this would cause a need to log back into websites, or potentially lose form data or other on-site information.
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Andrew Wilson 17 minutes ago
It also offers disc cleaning and web-security protections. The former will clean out junk files but ...
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Jack Thompson Member
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21 minutes ago
Thursday, 08 May 2025
It also offers disc cleaning and web-security protections. The former will clean out junk files but found none on our new Windows install, which isn't particularly surprising. The web security function didn't prevent us from actively downloading viruses, even though Windows Defender attempted to do so (we blocked its protections for the purpose of this review).
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Oliver Taylor 11 minutes ago
At best, these tools are basic and ineffective, but at worst, like the antivirus, they may malicious...
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Sofia Garcia 21 minutes ago
The live web chat and phone support don't deal with technical inquiries, however, and sent us to...
At best, these tools are basic and ineffective, but at worst, like the antivirus, they may maliciously look for problems in order to appear more useful than they are. We were skeptical of it finding more than 300 cookies in Chrome immediately after installing it, for example.
Type of Support Varied But Inaccessible
Scanguard offers a robust support system that combines a detailed FAQ with email correspondence, live web chat, and a personal phone support system.
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David Cohen 5 minutes ago
The live web chat and phone support don't deal with technical inquiries, however, and sent us to...
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Natalie Lopez Member
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23 minutes ago
Thursday, 08 May 2025
The live web chat and phone support don't deal with technical inquiries, however, and sent us to the email team instead. Many third-party reviews suggest that these emails are either never responded to or, when they are, the information presented is not helpful.
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Noah Davis 12 minutes ago
Scanguard's official website appeared completely inaccessible for days surrounding our review, a...
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Lily Watson 13 minutes ago
Competition Scanguard vs Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes has been our gold standard for antiv...
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Ava White Moderator
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96 minutes ago
Thursday, 08 May 2025
Scanguard's official website appeared completely inaccessible for days surrounding our review, as well.
Price Reasonable But at What Cost
At $25 for the year, the Essential Anti-Virus protection package is reasonably priced compared to the competition. Considering the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of Scanguard, though, there is almost no bang for your buck here, no matter the price.
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Lily Watson Moderator
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
Competition Scanguard vs Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes has been our gold standard for antivirus protection, so how does Scanguard measure up against it? The difference is night and day.
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Sebastian Silva Member
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26 minutes ago
Thursday, 08 May 2025
Where Malwarebytes offers a fast, transparent, effective, and comprehensive anti-malware solution, Scanguard appears to go out of its way to scare its users and give them misinformation, failing to protect them when it matters. Do yourself a favor—go with Malwarebytes. Final Verdict Ineffective and not worth installing on your machine.
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Amelia Singh Moderator
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27 minutes ago
Thursday, 08 May 2025
The fact that we had to disable our antivirus software on the test machine just to access the Scanguard website and again to install it should tell you everything you need to know; other antivirus applications do not trust Scanguard. Not only is it ineffective as an antivirus application and a failure at blocking viruses that are nearly two decades old, but it claimed that legitimate files had been infected when they hadn't been.
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Dylan Patel Member
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
That could lead to a system that functions poorly, while remaining unprotected. We're giving this one a hard pass.
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Charlotte Lee Member
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Thursday, 08 May 2025
Specs
Product Name ScanGuard Ultimate Antivirus Price $60.00 Platforms Windows, MacOS, Android Type of License Scanguard Ultimate Antivirus Number of Devices Protected Unlimited System Requirements Windows XP or later, MacOS 10.8 Mountain Lion or later, 800MB drive space. Control Panel/Administration Limited Payment Options Credit/debit card Price $60/year Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know!
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