CA was and is (edit, in deference to Rorschach112 below: "or not") a great antivirus app, but has moved out of my price range (not free ). They used to offer the very best antivirus app out there for free.
I Just tried the online scanner, using powershadow, sandboxie. I spent about an hour, only to find out at the end that it doesn't remove threats. May be meant for pros, who know how to manually remove threats.
I absolutely hate the scan for free, find threats, and then ask you to pay marketing ploy. Why don't they tell you up front what it doesn't do, and save you wasting time.
What it achieves is to scare the life out of less experienced internet users, who will probably think the only solution is to pay for the product. I think it's a devious way to elicit business.
Also login I think that it's a bit overpriced when you consider if you don't take up the offer you have to remove some of it yourself!!
A couple of years ago it used to be a good av, the only reason I gave up on it was it's constant intrusions onto my computer to try and get me to buy it when my year's free time was coming to an end.
Well, OK, w/ what Rorschach112 says, CA is maybe not so great. Used to be tho, I tested the heck out of it in the last millenium. And it was free. They underwent some corporate juggling along about 2005, 2006, maybe that changed things.
edit: I agree, DennisD, it marked 2 temporary cookies and the eicar file as dangerous but missed a couple of other baddies that I have on here more or less permanently. Didn't scare me "I ain't skeered, the kid says, whistling in the dark..." but would have maybe scared some newbie.
Anyway, maybe this post will save someone some time.
There are many of these "free" scans which in the end do absolutely nothing except try to scare folk into buying the product, and a thread like this brings that fact to the attention of a lot of people who aren't aware of it.