Expert’s Rating
Our Verdict
In summary , this app has a couple of bugs here and there . Getting stuck while glance over a big DMG is certainly distressful . But on the other hand , it catch nine out of 10 of our computer virus , and we observe that a pop - up dialog appears at the end of each scan suggesting you get through Antivirus Zap ’s developers if your problem persists . That ’s the kind of personal serve that you just wo n’t get with the swelled name in antivirus .
Antivirus Zap differs from theother antivirus for Mac we ’ve reviewedin a handful of important ways . First , it ’s availablethrough the Mac App Store . second , it ’s just £ 4.99/$4.99 as a one - off monetary value – although at the time of writing was available at half price . In other words , this is n’t a annual subscription service like the others reviewed here .
Antivirus Zap is alsoincredibly highly see on the App Storein term of reviews , demonstrate 4.8/5 stars from 856 followup at the clip of composition . Therefore , we began our critique with eminent hopes .
Installing via the App Store also means the app is much easy to get onto a Mac because you just purchase and it ’s there in your apps leaning , ready to go . There was no presentment about installing a kernel mental faculty . This was authoritative , as we explain later .
After performing a malware definitions update , we clicked the Full Scan release . Next we had to help Antivirus Zap overcome the sandboxing limitations put in place by the App Store . Put simply , all apps in the App Store are only allowed to access their own file computer storage area so by default they ca n’t access , for deterrent example , the Applications folder .
Mercifully , there is a way around this and that ’s to have the user click so that the app can graze the folders it postulate . Rather remarkably , Antivirus Zap call for access to just the Applications and rest home folders . We anticipated it requesting admission to the root of the driveway . However , during scanning it somehow report searching through the main /Library booklet . This is a little curious .
However , the CAT scan was quick at around five second and it catch nine of our virus , missing only XcodeGhost .
outstandingly the app did n’t automatically delete or quarantine the malware it had found . It simply present a list to the substance abuser , who can then select to delete them from within Antivirus Zap .
When we mounted the XcodeGhost DMG and attempted to scan it , the scan got stick after 224660 files had been glance over ( no , we ’ve no idea why Xcode needs that many file either ) . We await a few hours but the scanner never cause beyond that peak , and therefore the scan never completed . When it got stuck the app report having found no septic files .
It was only when excerpt the malware from the password protect zips that we realised a limitation with Antivirus Zap that we perhaps should ’ve spotted in the beginning . It does n’t offer on - need protection . call up how it did n’t establish a kernel module ? Well , that ’s the reason why – it does n’t ask one .
In other countersign , even if you leave Antivirus Zap running in the background , it wo n’t supervise what files are created to notice malware being added to the system . It is only built for scan on demand . Not only that but there ’s no scheduler to function scans in the backcloth at opportune times , and the app did n’t appear to scan at boot time , so it really is only for those occasions when you decide to skim for malware .
Other than computer virus scanning in various ways ( including a speedy and separate normal scan ) , you’re able to also do a browser app Restore Scan , which blend a nimble CAT scan along with removing all cookies , extensions and caches presumptively from all browsers set up on the system .
Weirdly , when we tried this feature it say it could n’t run because Safari was undetermined – although it was n’t . Our adept dead reckoning is that Safari had entered App Nap , so was n’t demonstrate as function yet was actually present in the backdrop . depart it and then quitting it fixed the issue for Antivirus Zap However , surely this is something the Antivirus Zap developer would know about – and so could cater for ?
