My answer to the original question : NO.
I don't use any scanner during 5 years already and my computer is installed in a special way.
The funny thing about malware is, that they betray themselves by CHANGING my system, I use the same CHANGE as a weapon to remove malware and this works already 5 years.
I have beaten the very best scanners so far, they can't find anything, except false positives.
(False positives is another disadvantage of scanners, they make scanners dangerous, especially for credulous users.)
All scanners are based on blacklisting, which means they will never remove :
- unknown/new malware that is not on any blacklist of any scanner.
- known malware that is not on the blacklist of the used scanner, maybe on the blacklist of another scanner.
Heuristics only remove more malware, but not ALL malware.
AV-scanners have a pretty good detection rate, but AS-scanners have a lower detection rate.
You need at least two AS-scanners and replace them regularly with two other AS-scanners
in order to find malware that wasn't detected by your previous AS-scanners.
You can have only "1" AV-scanners to avoid conflicts, which isn't really safe either.
Good AS-scanners are Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and SUPERAntiSpyware.
The scanner message "Congratulations! No malware found" works like a drug to make you feel
comfortable and sleep better, but that doesn't mean your computer is absolutely malware-free.
Don't spend any money on scanners, because some free AV-scanners are also ADVANCED+ AV-scanners.
This is one of the best AV-scanner tests :
http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_od_aug2010.pdf
