ThunderBYTE Anti-Virus (TBAV) was an early

antivirus software Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the nam ...

product. It was created by Dutchman Frans Veldman in 1988, and published by his company, ESaSS B.V. It was mainly designed for

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicatio ...

, but there were also versions supporting

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. TBAV was known for its fast scan speed, heuristics-based scanner, and Anti-Vir.Dat files tracking known-good file information. Originally ThunderBYTE used a dedicated ISA card to provide protection before the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

was even loaded. Later, a software-only product was released, which soon displaced the hardware offering. It was distributed as

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...

. In 1998, TBAV was sold to

Norman ASA Norman Safeground AS develops and sells data security software such as anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-spyware and backup with local support. The company headquarters is in Oslo, Norway. Norman Safeground has a global partner-network, and the main ...

, which discontinued ThunderBYTE as a product.

References

* * * * Antivirus software {{security-software-stub