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Dr Solomon's Antivirus

Antivirus software

Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit (often marketed simply as Dr Solomon's) was an antivirus software suite developed by the British company S&S International for MS-DOS, early versions of Microsoft Windows, Novell NetWare, SCO Unix, Sun Solaris and OS/2. It was created by computer scientist Alan Solomon in the late 1980s in response to the growing problem of personal computer viruses.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

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Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit (often marketed simply as Dr Solomon's) was an antivirus software suite developed by the British company S&S International for MS-DOS, early versions of Microsoft Windows, Novell NetWare, SCO Unix, Sun Solaris and OS/2. It was created by computer scientist Alan Solomon in the late 1980s in response to the growing problem of personal computer viruses.2

The story

Solomon began developing what became Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit in 1988 while running S&S International, initially as part of his work on data recovery and virus analysis. The product was launched commercially in 1991 as a suite of tools for detecting, removing and preventing PC viruses and competed with other contemporary antivirus products such as Symantec's Norton AntiVirus and McAfee VirusScan.

Dr Solomon's Antivirus received favourable reviews and recommendations in technology publications during the early 1990s, including coverage in Byte and InfoWorld, which highlighted its detection rates. In 1993 the product received the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement, by which time S&S International had begun trading its antivirus products under the "Dr Solomon's" brand.

In June 1998 Network Associates Inc. (which later reverted to the McAfee name) announced a deal to acquire Dr Solomon's Group plc for more than US$640 million in stock, describing the purchase as a way to strengthen its position in the European antivirus market.

From Wikipedia’s article on Dr Solomon's Antivirus, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Sources

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