Omega CE Beta

Omega CE helps get rid of files from malware infections that might hide or protect themselves from normal deletion. In the hands of an expert the tool could prove useful, but it may not be of much help to non-gurus.

Omega CE, currently in a free but feature-limited beta, doesn't run from within Windows. Instead, you burn it to a CD and then boot the infected PC from that CD. Omega then sifts through all the files on the hard drive(s) and displays them in an Explorer-like interface. You have the option of searching for and disabling known malware files among what it finds.

To search for a file, you'd have to know its name ahead of time. Alternatively, you can manually click through the displayed files and folders to find what you're after. The Omega CE's creator says it can work with any files stored in an NTFS file system (commonly used by Windows), regardless of the Windows version installed.

Omega CE requires a PS2 keyboard and mouse, and won't work with USB varieties. Also, the current beta is limited to only showing 160,000 files or directories and disabling 10 per session. When Omega CE leaves beta, it will be a for-pay program.

--Erik Larkin