Downloading files from the websites is one of the top tasks carried out by the internet users. As the browser downloads files from a remote computer, you won’t know what it contains until you extract or install it.
If a reputed company has provided the file, you can access its content or use it. But if you download the file from an untrusted source, you might be in trouble.
The file may execute malicious code when you open it. Thereby infecting other files. To make sure that the files you download are free of viruses, OPSWAT has introduced a new Chrome extension called Meta Defender.
The extension size is 460 kilobytes. It ensures that files you download with the Chrome browser are safe.
How to use MetaDefender extension for Chrome?
Download the free extension from the Chrome Webstore and activate it. Google Chrome will now open a new web page that contains your API key.
Copy the key to the system clipboard. Now, click on the browser extension and enter the API Key in the text box.
The extension will now be functional. To test it, open any website of your choice and download a file from it.
Once the Chrome browser begins to download the file, Opswat will open a new page that displays the download progress.
After the download completes, OPSWAT MetaDefender will scan it with 40 different online antivirus engines.
Once it finishes scanning, the extension will show the result of the scan operation on the OPSWAT MetaDefender website.
MetaDefender scans the file with 42 top antivirus applications. If the file is clean, you’ll see a large circle with a green border on the scan results page. If it has malicious code, you’ll see a circle with red color border.
The page where the extension displays scan results boast the following information of the file:
- File upload date.
- Scan date.
- File type, size and its MD5, SHA1, and SHA256 checksums.
Below the above-mentioned details, the page shows the list of antiviruses used for scanning the file.
The MetaDefender extension for Chrome scans files having a size up to 140 megabytes. It allows users to rescan files.
The extension adds a new entry to the browser’s context menu to let you scan web pages for malware or virus infections.
To scan a website for infection, enter its name in the address bar and hit the enter key. Once the browser displays search result page, select the website’s name with the mouse and right-click on it.
Now, choose the scan with Metadefender option.
Conclusion: Metadefender for Chrome is a powerful extension that allows you to scan downloaded files. The extension runs on Chrome browser. You can use it on Apple MAC, Linux, and Windows operating systems.
