mks_vir (formerly: MkS_Vir) is a Polish antivirus program, created by Marek Sell in 1987.
The original reason for creation of this software was that the solutions existing on the market these times did not satisfy the author's needs.[4] The first versions for DOS were distributed on floppy disks by Apexim, the company in which Marek Sell worked. The updates were issued monthly and sent by mail. Initially, the software delivered to the users was personalized – the main screen contained the serial number and the data of the license owner. Despite that, the program was often used without license and its popularity can be confirmed by appearing Trojan horses, impersonating program updates, which were not issued yet.[c] Later, together with the full version of the software, demo versions were issued, which allowed to use the program for a week.[5] For educational reasons, the program contained descriptions of operation of some viruses (including demonstrations of their graphical and sound effects) and, from the 3.99 version, a lexicon of the viruses popular in Poland. In 1996, it became the winner of the third edition of the Teraz Polska contest.[6]
In 1996, the MKS company, founded by Marek Sell, became the developer of the program. A website of the program and a BBS were created. The company continued the development of the program after the death of the author in 2004. Versions for Microsoft Windows and Unix were created. An online scanner, based on the ActiveX technology, became available on the software website.[7]
After the bankruptcy of the MKS company,[8] in 2011, the property receiver sold[9] the rights to the mks_vir trademark to the ArcaBit company, set up a few years earlier by the former MKS employees.[10][11] It reactivated the mks_vir product as a free antivirus application.[12]
Officially, the ArcaBit company resigned from the distribution and the support for the software on 2014, March 1. Although they released a brand new version during May 2018.
