Metadefender is an extension for Google Chrome that looks for malware in the files that you want to download before they happen to occupy space in your hard disk. It is a preventive analysis that scans what we tell you by passing it through more than 40 antivirus engines and different malware detection according to your own information.
In this sense it works like Virustotal , although it adds a couple of extras to the process: the maximum size of the files that can be analyzed is of 140 MB (in VirusTotal stays in 128 MB), and if it is a compressed file extracts all contents and lists. In addition, in this case, you will scan each file individually to display results for each one when the process is completed.
What Metadefender wants to do is that the whole process of scanning a file before running it is simpler and more comfortable . To scan any file, just right click on its link and choose Scan with Metadefender before downloading option . So you will not have to download the file, upload it to VirusTotal and wait for the process to complete.
Now, it has a catch: it only works with directly linked files . If a web uses JavaScript or other means to avoid hotlinking, then the scanner will give you some error, so you will have no choice but to use the traditional method.
This is how Metadefender works
When you install the extension, you will automatically see a new tab for the application developer. Do not close it , as it contains the public API key to be added to the extension. It does it automatically, but at least you have to wait to see this window fully loaded for the key to be copied.
Now, to test it, go to any link to a downloadable file, whatever. Click on it and select the option we discussed before. When you do , the Metadefender website will open in a new tab (if you do not, Chrome will notify you of the error), it will download the file to your servers, upload it to the database and start performing the opoertunas detections.
The results are the same as if you manually upload a file to this service ( you can too ). You should see something like this when you’re done.
Otherwise, the extension adds an icon to the Chrome toolbar that you can use to open your detections history . This opens a page on the halffender web that lists all the scans you have made using the extension.