[jamez46]

It just seems to me that no matter where you download an interesting program you would like to try out or use, the downloads can contain other things you would rather not have in your system, like trojans, worms, viruses and who knows what else. I've been using a program to alert me of any potential problems with the download program before opening it called Virus Total, if you feel that the mention of Virus Total was improper, then don't post this, My question is this,,,, is anyone aware of a program that can strip a download of its possible infections before its installed and still have the download usable. In other words, remove the bugs but still has the program intact.

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Hello Jamez46
Such a program would be very useful if it existed but unfortunately it doesn't and it can't be.
There are some antivirus programs that can 'fix' a file, meaning removing the nasty part, but that usually is possible only if the malware was a file infector (like virut). Even in this situation, only some variants of the same nasty can be 'fixed' because each file infector infects a file using its own way which is different from other kind of malware or even other kind of variants of the same malware. So a program that can 'fix' any file infected by any infection can't exist because someone must program it how to remove the malicious code of each infector separately, for every infector that exists. (which are a lot )

An alternative to what you are asking is to run a program you are unsure about in a sandbox, meaning a safe environment that will not allow the program to harm the computer if it's malicious. Sandboxie is good at this job, but as you should already know, there isn't any solution that is 100% foolproof: (taken from the FAQ of sandboxie's site.)

How safe would I be, by using Sandboxie?

You would be quite safe using Sandboxie. It should be noted that, from time to time, people are able to find some vulnerability in Sandboxie, an open hole through which malicious software can still infiltrate the system.

This happens once every few months, on average, and is quickly resolved by closing the hole that is the attack vector.

Thus it's a good idea to have more traditional anti-malware software. This is is the subject of the following question.

Even though, it's a great safety measure and I'm using it for a lot of time without any problems

[michaelg9]

Hello Jamez46
Such a program would be very useful if it existed but unfortunately it doesn't and it can't be.
There are some antivirus programs that can 'fix' a file, meaning removing the nasty part, but that usually is possible only if the malware was a file infector (like virut). Even in this situation, only some variants of the same nasty can be 'fixed' because each file infector infects a file using its own way which is different from other kind of malware or even other kind of variants of the same malware. So a program that can 'fix' any file infected by any infection can't exist because someone must program it how to remove the malicious code of each infector separately, for every infector that exists. (which are a lot )

An alternative to what you are asking is to run a program you are unsure about in a sandbox, meaning a safe environment that will not allow the program to harm the computer if it's malicious. Sandboxie is good at this job, but as you should already know, there isn't any solution that is 100% foolproof: (taken from the FAQ of sandboxie's site.)

How safe would I be, by using Sandboxie?

You would be quite safe using Sandboxie. It should be noted that, from time to time, people are able to find some vulnerability in Sandboxie, an open hole through which malicious software can still infiltrate the system.

This happens once every few months, on average, and is quickly resolved by closing the hole that is the attack vector.

Thus it's a good idea to have more traditional anti-malware software. This is is the subject of the following question.

Even though, it's a great safety measure and I'm using it for a lot of time without any problems