FixMeStick ... Is this junk or actually a good virus removal product?

[DaveLembke]

Guy at work hit me up today telling me that he bought a USB Stick that is an antivirus and it cost him $60 at Best Buy. Was wondering if anyone heard anything about these as to if they are good or junk?

According to what he described it is not a proactive method of avoiding malware and viruses, but instead its used to remove and clean up infections after already infected.

The FixMeStick® is an external, hardware device that runs before your computer starts enabling it to remove viruses, spyware, trojans, rootkits, and malware that anti-virus programs often cannot, so that you can keep the computer you have.

I just have doubts that a USB stick can be a solution for cleaning up a system with very little user interaction. Just like registry repair tools and the PC Doctor stuff etc, I am curious if this is junk or not. Marketing to sell a USB stick with bootable Linux that has a antivirus on it that scans and removes viruses and nothing more, no corrections for altered system files etc but a simple killing off of infected files etc, in which a system might work again but is swiss cheese full of scars from the malware/virus that was on it.

https://www.fixmestick.com/

[Salmon Trout]

FixMeStick has been advertised on TV for several years. It uses scanning engines from Sophos, Kaspersky, and VIPRE... it is primarily intended to get a computer to a more stable state so that you can use your existing anti-virus and other security tools to complete the disinfection process. I don't know if it is complete "junk", that is, I don't think it is a scam, but my first thought was "Why pay for something when you can do the same things for free?" and this PCMag review more or less says the same thing:

Pros
Bootable, USB-based antivirus uses scanning engines from Sophos, Kaspersky, and GFI/VIPRE. Extremely easy to use. Full undo in case of problems. Remote-control tech support available if needed.

Cons
Can't disinfect virus-infected files, can only quarantine them. Quarantine of system files rendered two test systems unbootable, requiring full undo. Can't handle malware traces in Registry. Alleged removal failed to prevent several detected rootkits from running.

Collateral Damage
FixMeStick can be a bit heavy-handed, wiping out files that it shouldn't. When its engines detect a valid file infested by malware, it can't disinfect the file back to its original status. All it can do is toss that file into quarantine. If this happens to an essential Windows file, you may be hosed.

There are many free LiveCD/Rescue CD utilities which can do the same thing so I see no reason to purchase this product. "
 

The review found quite a lot of failings

http://uk.pcmag.com/fixmestick/18864/review/fixmestick

[patio]

Garbage...

Not even worth 60 cents...much less 60 Bucks...

[Salmon Trout]

Garbage...Not even worth 60 cents...much less 60 Bucks...

Absolutely.

[DaveLembke]

Thanks for input on this. I kind of figured that it was probably junk since there never has been a one product fix all solution yet for systems that are infected other than restoring from a clean image to an earlier state or complete reinstall.

In every system I have cleaned up to remove malware or virus's the systems still had signs of damage, so generally its a matter of stopping the virus or malware and then after full scan to make sure clean, then copying the vital data to an external, then restore system from a clean image prior to infection or perform clean installation and then add the data back to the system and any programs that are required to pair up with the data etc.

[patio]

You should borrow it from your bud and have a looksee at what files are on it...

Likely a bunch of freeware tools readily available along with a boot time scanner.

[camerongray]

Does look pretty worthless to me.  I also find it somewhat interesting the idea of having what is effectively a USB flash drive that is designed to be plugged into infected computers, you know, computers that may be infected with malware that copies itself onto removable media devices.  Sure it could be read only but they also claim that it updates itself so there surely must be some way to write to the device!

[DaveLembke]

You should borrow it from your bud and have a looksee at what files are on it...

Likely a bunch of freeware tools readily available along with a boot time scanner.

Thats a good idea.  Gonna hit him up next time I see him to see if he is willing to let me check it out. Then run it on a system I dont care about as for just like Cameron stated, if it can take updates, I bet it could have a tag along brought to the next computer.

Like 22 years ago I got hit with a virus and i didnt know I had a virus at first. My floppy disk wasnt reading correctly and when I did a DIR it showed unicode in the filenames and file sizes that exceeded the 1.44MB capacity of the disk. I popped that disk out and popped in another disk and ran DIR and saw this same unicode like mix and was able to make out some of the file names but once again the sizes were showing wrong.

I thought the floppy drive was messed and so I swapped out the floppy drive, popped in another disk and once again same issue.

Now I then spread the fire not knowing I had a virus. I popped the disk that read wrong into a what was a clean system and infected that. Ran DIR and had the same issue as the other computer. Ok set these floppys to the side, grab another floppy that wasnt inserted into the first computer and insert it to the 2nd computer and it had the same issue as the other system.

I then realized OH CRAP. And got an antivirus. Ran antivirus and the virus was caught on both systems. Ran the disks that were infected and cleaned them up but there was data loss. I then took my stacks of floppies and ran them one by one through the virus scanner and the Wolfenstein 3D that I got from a friend had the virus on it and thats how I got nailed before the internet when I was sharing floppy disks with friends and games etc. 

When CD Burners became available, I was SOOO Happy to have Read-Only media. As long as that CD wasnt burned with a virus on it, it was immune from spreading infection to other systems. I then took my almost 200 floppies and copied all their data to hard drive and then burned all that data to a single 650MB CD-R which was so awesome to have 1 CD with my data from 1987 to 1999 when i got my CD Burner. I then drilled holes through stacks of floppies and threw away a trash bag full of them and kept about 30 of them which were DOS, Windows 3.11, and some games, as well as 5 blanks in case I needed to do a BIOS flash via Floppy Disk etc. These days I only have a USB floppy drive and havent used it in about 2 years, and a single container of 1.44MB floppies that are likely about 16 years old or older.

[patio]

Hope he says yes...i'd be really interested to see what's all on there...

[patio]

And i can't afford the 60 cents it's worth...

[DaveLembke]

And i can't afford the 60 cents it's worth...

LOL ...shhhh .... someone is going to post here asking where they can download a LEGAL free copy to avoid paying for it. 

[Salmon Trout]

LOL ...shhhh .... someone is going to post here asking where they can download a LEGAL free copy to avoid paying for it. 

Or a keygen...

[patio]

I'd look at it on your Linux rig if you have one...who knows what loader it uses to power down/power up Win systems...

[strollin]

I think you guys are missing the point of the thing.  The target demographic for this thing is not geeks who hang out on computer forums.  It's "joe user" who has no idea how to remove a virus.  $60 does seem like a steep price to pay though for simply being an ignorant user.

[Salmon Trout]

The problem is that Joe User is quite likely to pay $60 and still have a hosed system after using the magic stick.

[DaveLembke]

Talked him into bringing it in for me to test out...

Question i have now is... is there a good source to intentionally infect a spare system of mine and then see how this software handles it? Its not every day that someone wants to infect their spare computer, but just curious if there is a website out there where you can download safely as a zip some nasties and then unzip them onto the spare system to intentionally infect and run a script that tells them all to wake up and do their magic on that spare computer, and then hit them with this and see how good or bad it does.

Thinking its to dangerous to have a website linked here with destination to get tools to infect a system intentionally, so it would be best for a link to be provided via PM to me so that we dont have anyone accidentally infecting their computer and then making claim that CH provided a link that cause their computer to get infected etc. 

I use to get all sorts of nasties to play with when I use to run a honeypot on the DMZ as a means to get copies of tools and nasty programs when hackers hit my honeypot unaware that its a honeypot and they are wasting their time on it, but leaving nasties behind for me to play with in sandboxed environment offline. Thinking there is a better method to self infect a system other than just putting a system online with intentional vulnerabilities waiting for someone to bite at it and infect it.

[patio]

I think you guys are missing the point of the thing.  The target demographic for this thing is not geeks who hang out on computer forums.  It's "joe user" who has no idea how to remove a virus.  $60 does seem like a steep price to pay though for simply being an ignorant user.

Wasn't lost on me at all...

[patio]

Talked him into bringing it in for me to test out...

Try Eicar...remember it from back in the day...

[Salmon Trout]

Try Eicar...remember it from back in the day...

I sent him a PM about this.

[Salmon Trout]

One possibility is well-known false positives such as the Nirsoft password revealer, which many anti-malware apps flag up, or compiled Autoit scripts, which trigger many alerts because they use the UPX packager.

[patio]

He could always update to Win 10...that'll bring up tons of flags....

[Geek-9pm]

One critical review found on Amazon

ByQueen Estheron November 4, 2014
I recently began to see warnings that Malwarebytes and Norton internet security were blocking malware on my computer from contacting malicious websites. Although the activity was blocked neither were detecting the malware in scans. Also multiple com surrogate processes were running on my machine and using most of the resources. After some research I learned of Fixmestick and purchased it from amazon. I ran a scan and it told me it had removed and quarantined 13 trojans. Upon rebooting my computer, however, the same malware warnings and com surrogate processes began to appear again. I called Fixmestick and they told me that 13 browser hijacker Trojans had been removed but that changes they had made to the internet browsers needed to be corrected manually. They sent me instructions for making the corrections. I attempted to make the corrections to the browsers but the instructions did not match some of the features of the browsers so I could not. In the meantime the warnings and com surrogates began to appear again. I called Fixmestick support and they hooked up remotely to my computer. To my surprise after making a few tweaks to the browsers and removing a couple of bloatware programs that had been on the machine for 3 years before these problems developed, They then ran a 30 day free trial version of a third part malware scanner to look for what Fixmestick missed. It found nothing. No manual virus removal methods were used (e.g. looking for and fixing problems in the registry) nor were any specialized in-house tools used. I didn’t see much expertise in malware removal. With respect to the 13 trojans removed by fixmestick; I looked in the quarantine file and none were identified as trojans. 10 of the 13 were Norton setup and download manager files. I asked fixmestick to explain that and they said that the Trojans don’t show up in the quarantine folder named as such but what I as seeing was infected files. I suspect these were false detections. Every other malware detection I have employed has identified the malware by name. Also, some of the “infected” files were downloads of Norton virus removal tools that I had downloaded to address the problems I was experiencing and could not have been the source of the problem. I was pleased with the friendliness and availability of Fixmestick support but that was the only amazing aspect of it. The methods employed and outcome were disappointing. I still have the trojan, multiple com surrogate processes, and an almost useless computer. I have returned this for a refund and would not recommend it to anyone.
Read more

https://www.amazon.com/FixMeStick-Virus-Removal-Device-Unlimited/product-reviews/B006ZCHVM2?pageNumber=4

I found that PC Mag gave a rather positive review.
I should stop reading that rag. 

There is a lot of free stuff that is better.
Anvi Rescue Disk. © Anvisoft Corporation. ...
AVG Rescue CD. © AVG Technologies. ...
Avira Rescue System. © Avira Operations GmbH & Co. ...
Bitdefender Rescue CD. © Bitdefender. ...
Comodo Rescue Disk. ...
Dr.Web LiveDisk. ...
F-Secure Rescue CD. ...
Kaspersky Rescue Disk

https://www.lifewire.com/free-bootable-antivirus-tools-2625785