The term “micro housecalls” basically refers to the process of scanning your computer for viruses, using the online scanning tool named ‘housecall’. The tool is designed and developed by TrendMicro, a reputed name in the computer security business. As such, you can rest assured that housecall will quite effectively identify and remove all types of malicious software codes from your computer. Since, the tool also identifies security vulnerabilities present in your computer and tells you how to fix those, you will easily be able to ensure that your computer remains protected in the long term as well.

Using housecall is quite easy because all you basically need is a broadband Internet connection. Housecalls also works fine with dial-up connections, but since the whole process then takes a lot more time, I would recommend that you avoid using dial-up connections while using Trendmicro’s housecall. For using housecall, you just have to visit housecall.trendmicro.com and click on the “scan now” button. After this, you can just sit back and relax while housecall downloads the required files and scans your computer for viruses, Trojans, worms, spywares, and present security vulnerabilities.

When the scanning is over, housecall will prompt you to take appropriate action such as ignore or remove the identified viruses. If you are not all that sure about what exactly has been detected, I will recommend that you always select the remove options. Ignore option should be used only when you are sure that the detected item is not a virus and that it will not harm your computer.

The good thing about housecall is that it saves all the downloaded files in your C drive. As such you don’t have to download the files every time you use housecall. Updates if any will be downloaded automatically so as to ensure that your computer remains protected from all types of emerging threats and vulnerabilities.

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Housecall.com basically refers to the link housecall.trendmicro.com, which offers users one of the most effective online scanning tools, named “Housecall”. This online scanning tool checks your computer for all types of malicious software codes such as viruses, Trojans, worms, and spywares. It effectively identifies them and removes them from your computer. The tool also identifies other loopholes that can easily be used by malicious programs and hackers to gain unauthorized entry to your computer. It also explains the problem and suggests remedial measures that can be used for resolving the issue.

You can bet that Housecall.com works quite effectively because it has been designed and developed by Trendmicro, a reputed name in the computer security business. The best part is that it works well even with a slow dial-up connection, although the whole process then takes a lot more time. I tested Housecall.com myself and found out that it was quite effective in identifying and removing viruses and spywares.

Using Housecall is also quite easy because all you need to do is visit housecall.trendmicro.com and click on the “Scan Now” button. When you do this, you will see a new window in which you just have to click on the “Launch House Call” button. Housecall will then automatically download the necessary files and start scanning your computer soon after. The time it takes to scan will depend on the type of files you have on your computer and also on the storage capacity of your hard drive.

After the scanning is over, Housecall.com will prompt you to take appropriate action such as “Ignore” or “Delete”. In case of detected vulnerabilities, Housecall will provide you links that might have more information on how to fix those issues.

Housecall.com may not be a replacement for a fully functional antivirus security program, but since it is quite good at providing basic level protection, you can always rely on it. By the way, don’t forget that it is complete safe and completely free.

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It’s rare for a large company like TrendMicro to offer freebie software which could potentially harm its own sales. But in House Call, they’ve released an anti-Virus utility which is almost as effective as their much heralded PC-cillin suite.

The utility is free to download, and TrendMicro has surely released it as an incentive for users to eventually upgrade to the PC-cillin package. The only trouble is, they’re giving a lot away for free. So much, in fact, those users might be tempted to stick with what they know works.

House Call is extremely efficient at what it does. Sitting on the user’s operating system, it acts as a barrier between the local hard drive and harmful viruses which a user might encounter on the web. Not only does it protect from online dangers, but it has scanning facilities to detect and destroy Trojans and worms that are already in place on the system.

The first thing you’ll notice about House Call - after the quick download - is the intuitive interface. It’s very simple to navigate between the various settings and even novice users will find the information that they need. House Call looks to break away from the complexities that can arise with some of the more comprehensive anti-Virus suites on the market. It keeps things simple and makes no effort to be more than it is.

When you install HouseCall for the first time, you’ll be asked to download a plug-in for your web browser. The plug-in allows the software to scan your system’s memory and it will also search for harmful files in any storage disks that you have attached. One of the features which distinguish House Call over its premium rivals is the support for virus definitions.

House Call keeps an online virus database which the software connects to and automatically transfers every time there are new additions. The benefits of this are obvious. When you purchase packages like Norton, or indeed PC-cillin, you have to make a constant effort to stay on top of new sophisticated threats. This means connecting your application and manually searching for new fixes. While the software is usually better equipped to tackle such viruses, how many of us actually check for new updates every day?

You don’t need to worry about manually updating House Call. It looks after itself. You can carry on browsing the Internet, and the software will quietly make upgrades as new definitions become available. If you encounter a virus or a file without the required certificate, House Call will pop up and offer you options for how to deal with the file.

Of course, there’s a reason why House Call is free and PC-cillin isn’t. While HouseCall is more than capable of dealing with the most basic threats, it will openly let you know if it detects a virus which it doesn’t have a fix for. On top of that, you’ll be referred to PC-cillin. So it’s clear to see how TrendMicro are hoping to make their money, but to be fair, we found that most of the viruses you’d expect to encounter are dealt with efficiently by this free utility. Trojans and worms can be eliminated, along with spyware and bundled adware which we could all do without.

House Call offers a helpful “Auto Clean” feature which will automatically filter through the files on a webpage – or your local system if stated – and get rid of threats. It’s particularly good at detecting security issues in embedded code.

Sometimes the software can be a little over-protective in denying access to pages which are poorly coded rather than designed with malicious intent. But this is easily fixable can be toggled on and off as you please.

Better yet, the utility will offer step by step advice for eliminating threats which the software isn’t fit to deal with on its own. This is a nice addition and with the database of virus definitions being constantly updated, you can usually get a solution for most security issues.

Of course, many experienced users will opt for the widely praised PC-cillin as their anti-virus package of choice. And if you have the money, we certainly wouldn’t deem that unwise. But if you’re interested in anti-Virus protection – and you probably should be – House Call provides a brilliantly effective freeware solution. Head over to the Trend Micro website for more information, and a link to the download mirror.

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