Process Explorer, the popular tool from Microsoft Sysinternals, that picks up where Task Manager leaves off, now offers integration with VirusTotal malware scanning service.
Process Explorer gets VirusTotal integration
Process Explorer has now entered into a collaboration with VirusTotal, that will allow the tool to integrate checking of any process with VirusTotal.com, simply by right-clicking on the process and selecting Check VirusTotal.
When this feature is enabled, Process Explorer sends the hashes of images and files shown in the process and DLL views to VirusTotal and if they have been previously scanned, reports how many antivirus engines identified them as possibly malicious. Hyperlinked results take you to VirusTotal.com report pages and you can even submit files for scanning.
Must say that this is a pretty useful new feature that has been introduced in Process Explorer.
For those who are not familiar with this tool, Process Explorer is an advanced process management utility that will show you detailed information about a process including its icon, command-line, full image path, memory statistics, user account, security attributes, and more.
With this integration, now if you doubt if any process that is running is benign or malicious, you can send the hash of a process to VirusTotal and the interface will show if any of the anti-virus software detect it as malware.
To enable this feature, open Options > VirusTotal.com > Check VirusTotal.com. You can also upload files to VirusTotal via this interface, if you check the option to Submit Unknown executables.
Among the several free online malware scanners available, the most popular among them have been Jotti and VirusTotal. It was in September 2012 that Google acquired VirusTotal.
If you are looking for more, then these Task Manager alternative software are sure to interest you.
