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I use Chrome reguarly, but I have used Firefox and IE in the past, and they both scan all downloads automatically.

I searched around at one point a few months ago for an add-in or a feature that I could turn on to get this functionality, but only found 1-2 that were either outdated or not safe.

Does anyone know of an add-on that's reputable? I'd be curious as to why Chrome did not add this function in (I suppose it comes at a small performance hit, but still).

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Actually, I never understand why we need virus scanning for all downloaded file, since all virus scanners hook onto file access anyway and will scan anything that pass onto the disk... – bubu Jun 12 '11 at 19:07
@bubu Can you elaborate more on that as an answer? – jonsca Jun 15 '11 at 6:17
it's a rant.. :) – bubu Jun 15 '11 at 7:15
@bubu LOL, but I'm curious about that, as if it so happens that the file doesn't get scanned before I run it to install it, is there a chance that the virus could get out of the gate faster than the on-demand scanner suppresses it? – jonsca Jun 15 '11 at 8:52
if the antivirus would allow you to run a program without scanning it you better change to another. in related news, short sell the stock of the company before announcing the finding maybe a better choice. – bubu Jun 15 '11 at 11:12

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up vote 6 down vote accepted

They probably didn't consider it a necessary feature as most virus scanners are configured to constantly scan files as they are accessed in the background.

There is already a bug report open here.

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Yes, I suppose that's true. As someone brought up in that bug report, I don't really want to rely on that, though. – jonsca Jun 8 '11 at 10:44
Also, Chrome is being written for Chrome OS, which won't have/need anti-virus software. – pattern86 Jun 11 '11 at 14:45
@pattern86 I hadn't heard that. What's the rationale for not needing? (just very basically, I can look up the rest and spare you all the typing) – jonsca Jun 12 '11 at 4:23
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@jonsca: @pattern86 is referring to chrome as being developed for chrome OS, in that case, if you are not going to need any executable other than heavily jailed javascipt appication, there is very little need for virus detection. – bubu Jun 12 '11 at 19:06
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+50

Have you looked at the VTchromizer extension, with which one is supposedly able to right-click on any download link and scan the target with VirusTotal ?

See the description in Virus Scan Any Link With VirusTotal In Chrome With VTchromizer.

If this extension still works, then you can scan the file before the download and even using multiple anti-virus engines for greater security. Unfortunately, I cannot test it.

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That looks somewhat promising. I think it needs some work, but it's doable. Thank you! – jonsca Jun 17 '11 at 4:29
chrome can not download any extensions because of the same situation, so probably you can't give it a try. – Mücahit Yılmaz Mar 31 at 11:38

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