BitDefender 2008 is an outstanding product with a user–friendly interface that will scan all existing files on your computer, all incoming and outgoing emails, IM transfers and all other network traffic.

This latest version of BitDefender has a new Gamer Mode feature that minimizes impact on gaming performance by removing any popups or warnings during game play while still protecting your computer. The software still has all of the reliable features for which Bitdefender is known such as “Privacy Protection” for outgoing personal information, “Web Scanning” while you’re using the Internet and “Rootkit Detection and Removal,” which detects then removes hidden virus programs.

BitDefender has also improved their existing B–HAVE feature that runs pieces of software on a virtual computer to detect code that could be an unknown virus. In addition, a setup wizard makes it easy to customize security settings.

Ease of Use:

Softwin has covered all of the bases with BitDefender. This comprehensive product has an attractive, easy–to–use design that is consistent throughout the software and the manufacturer’s website. Because it is simple to use and updates itself automatically, you can install it on your system, then practically forget it’s there—an ideal solution for any user.

BitDefender has an option to display a small window called the “File Zone” on your desktop that indicates how many files the program has scanned in the past few minutes. You can also drag and drop files into the File Zone for an immediate scan. The program prepares a report of each completed scan so you know exactly what your files do or do not contain and you can instruct BitDefender to disinfect or remove any infected files or messages.

You can also customize BitDefender’s security settings for features such as AntiVirus, Antispam, Antispyware and Parental Control.

Effectiveness:

BitDefender’s customizable settings make the program effective for a variety of users. For example, if you receive legitimate commercial email, you can set BitDefender’s spam filters to allow specific or all emails.

Virus Bulletin rated BitDefender a VB100%, the highest honor for anti–virus software.

The VB 100% logo is awarded to anti–virus products that detect all current “in the wild” viruses during both on–demand and on–access scanning in Virus Bulletin’s comparative tests.

Additionally, BitDefender passed the ICSA 2007—a similar test that certifies the software can detect viruses, prevent virus replication, and doesn’t generate false positives.

Updates:

The live update feature checks for product and virus definition updates at either a user–defined interval, manually or default (every hour). When you do a manual check for updates, you can decide which updates to install. When the software automatically checks for updates, it can update the files immediately or at a specified time that you can determine during setup.

Feature Set:

BitDefender creates a summary log of events that shows the last definitions updates, details on any virus the software encounters, the last time you ran a scan, definitions number and more. And new in 2008, Bitdefender has added a Gamer Feature so it won't interrupt you during intense gaming.

BitDefender’s startup guard will tell you if a program is trying to load itself upon start up so you can choose to allow it or not. This software suite also comes with adware and spyware detectors. Though we recommend using an antispyware scanner, as they are designed specifically for this purpose, it is nice to have two programs working towards a common goal, to keep your computer clean.

Ease of Installation:

Installation of BitDefender is a snap. Uninstalling BitDefender was easy as well. We did find some leftover registry entries and directories after the uninstall completed though.

Help/Support:

When you purchase BitDefender you also receive one year of virus signature and scan engine updates. The manufacturer offers qualified technical support live via the Internet and telephone.

There is also an online database with answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) and they have an email address–they answered our email within 6 hours. An online forum is also available on the BitDefender support site.

Summary:

BitDefender is easy to use, simple to install, has a great feature set and at $24.95, it won’t break your bank account. Anyone who spends time on the Internet knows the importance of anti–virus software; BitDefender will keep your computer virus–free and running smoothly.

2.

Kaspersky Reviewer's Comment:

Kaspersky Antivirus is a top of the line program that offers all the protection you will need. With low scan times and high detection rates, as well as an interface that can't be beat.

Ease of Use:

In the past, Kaspersky had issues with their interface and the ease of use associated with it. They have listened to their customers over the years and changed the interface to rival others on the market. Now, simplicity is key within Kaspersky Antivirus. Kaspersky's main menu screen is split into different sections depending on what you would like to accomplish. Protection, Scan, Update, Reports and Data Files, and Support are listed on the left side of the screen with the options pertaining to each in a sub menu or on the right-hand side of the screen. There are also advanced options available through a settings option at the bottom of the screen.

Effectiveness:

Kaspersky Antivirus is one of the most advanced products on the market for virus scanning. Its on-access scanner is extremely fast and doesn't cause any noticeable slowdown of the computer while performing regular tasks such as browsing the web or writing documents or even higher end tasks such as transferring and moving files. The on-demand scanner within Kaspersky Antivirus is very fast as well. Another plus with Kaspersky is its light footprint on your system resources. Memory usage is minimal during the on access scanning times as well as on demand scanning. During a system scan, we noticed about 55MB of memory usage on average with up to 30% CPU usage.

Updates:

Kaspersky Antivirus checks for updates every hour by default. There are other programs out there that also do this but Kaspersky takes it to a new level because of the speed that they respond to outbreaks and release updates. If there is a major outbreak, Kaspersky Labs has an average update release time of less than 2 hours. This is the fastest of any antivirus company at this time.

Feature Set:

Features included with Kaspersky Antivirus are some of the most complete in the market. Beyond protecting your files and email from viruses, Kaspersky Labs took this a step further. They included a scanner that will check all the web pages you visit for viruses as well. This feature is especially useful for people that use Internet Explorer as their web browser due to the history of security holes related to viruses in the Internet cache your computer stores.

Kaspersky Antivirus also includes a registry protector called Registry Guard. This will prevent any unwanted changes to your computer registry.

We were especially impressed with the reporting features included with Kaspersky Antivirus. There are reports available for each scan that is done as well as "live" reports that are generated on the fly for several portions of the program that are scanning all the time.

Ease of Installation:

The installation of Kaspersky Antivirus is extremely simple and posed no problems for us. A single reboot was required to complete the installation.

Help/Support:

Kaspersky Labs offers several support options to help keep your system in top shape. Direct email support, support forums, phone support as well as an impressive FAQ are all available.

Summary:
Antivirus programs are a dime a dozen. Kaspersky makes nearly all of them look like a futile attempt at hanging with the big dogs. Many times Kaspersky has been awarded certification from top organizations such as ICSA and WCL, as well as receiving the TopTenREVIEWS Silver award multiple times. What this all comes down to is that the hard work Kaspersky puts into their products provides us with some of the most elite protection available. Whether you are just a novice or are dining with the digital elite, Kaspersky Antivirus is a great choice to protect your computer from the dark side of the Internet.



3.



Ease of Use:

ESET NOD32 Antivirus is a changed product. The base features are extremely simple and easy to use while still being effective. The redesigned interface includes a menu on the left with sub options on the right. Several options exist in the sub options to assist in "drilling down" to what you wish to do.

There is little or no base configuration needed to get the NOD32 Antivirus working after install. If you do require custom configurations though, you have a simple advanced configuration menu that gives you all the options needed to customize NOD32 to your specific needs.

Effectiveness:

ESET NOD32 Antivirus is very effective in detecting and cleaning viruses from your computer. The on-demand scanner is fast and effective while still allowing you to do other things on your computer during the scan. The on-access scanner is almost behind the scenes compared to many other options out there. The only time you will notice what it is doing is when it detects a threat.

Updates:

The standard update cycle for ESET NOD32 Antivirus is once a day if needed. They have the ability to "push" updates if there is a significant threat though.

Their response times for new threats are very fast ranging from 1 to 4 hours depending on the threat.

Feature Set:

Included with ESET NOD32 Antivirus are several layers of protection. Antivirus scanning includes integrated real time email protection, web access protection as well as a rootkit scanner and a spyware scanner. All of these features are included and integrated into the on demand scanner. The email protection included with NOD32 integrates directly with MS Outlook and any standard POP3 email client. It surprisingly doesn't include IMAP scanning. This shouldn't be an issue for most people though since POP3 is by far the most used email protocol in use today for local email clients.

Also included to make this version of NOD32 Antivirus much more effective is the ThreatSense engine. ThreatSense is a system developed by ESET to help identify new and evolving threats and provide faster responses to those threats. Through a service called ThreatSense.Net, ESET is able to give you feedback on how to protect yourself from any threats that may just be propegating themselves on the net.

Ease of Installation:

Installing NOD32 Antivirus is very simple and posed no problems for us. The install took less than 5 minutes and required a quick restart of the testing computer.

Help/Support:

NOD32 Antivirus includes several support options included with your subscription. Included with these options are email support, a well stocked knowledge base and FAQ, as well as phone support available from 6AM-6PM Pacific time.

Summary:
In years past, ESET NOD32 Antivirus has always been praised on the detection ability it brought to the table. Regardless of its abilities to keep your computer safe, it was considered by some to be difficult to use. The new 3.0 version has changed the way customers interact with ESET NOD32 Antivirus. The menu's have all been streamlined to make common functions more easily accessible while keeping the same efficiency that was associated with the older versions.

4.

AVG Antivirus has been an up and coming virus scanner for many years. Its free version is one of the most downloaded files on the Internet in the Computer Security sector. The new interface is clean and intuitive while still remaining useful.

AVG went through a rewrite of their virus scanning engine and included two of their stand alone products with AVG Antivirus as well. AVG Antispyware and AVG Antirootkit were both integrated with the virus scanner. Also revamped was the way AVG Antivirus uses the hardware within your computer. It was changed to make better use of the multiple cores which are common in todays computers. This should speed up scanning as well as reduce slowdowns.

Ease of Use:

Though AVG Antivirus is mostly a hands off program, there may be some instances when you may need to configure some advanced options. For 99% of the population though, the default options will be more than sufficient.

The menu's within AVG Antivirus are very simple and offer all the options and information needed to keep your system safe from Internet threats.

Effectiveness:

AVG Antivirus is one of the most complete programs we have found to date. It includes many new options to make it one of the most effective virus scanners on the market. It is still plagued by horrible slowdowns at times. Even things so simple as just typing an IM can be stopped for several seconds for some reason. If you can get past the occasional slowdowns of your computer, the scanning functionality of AVG Antivirus 8 is top of the line. With the rewrite of the scanning engine, AVG included multi processor support. That dual core processor you bought is actually going to start getting a workout now. AVG also included support for Windows Vista and the 64 bit versions of Windows XP and Vista.

Updates:

AVG Checks for updates every 4 hours by default. You can change this to any interval you wish. The updates section of AVG Antivirus also shows you which virus database version you have as well as when the last update was. It also tells you when the next update is scheduled. All of this information is also displayed on the main menu screen so that you always have the information at your fingertips.

Feature Set:

AVG Technologies, formerly Grisoft, has gone above and beyond with the new release of AVG Antivirus. Included with the virus scanner are a rootkit scanner, spyware scanner, an on-access scanner called Resident Shield, email scanner and a link scanning browser plugin. There is also a portion of AVG Antivirus called Web Shield. Web Shield is a chopped down firewall application that scans standard web ports for any threats encountered while browsing the web. It also includes protection for MSN Messenger and ICQ.

Ease of Installation:

Installing AVG Antivirus 8 was easy and only took about 10 minutes including downloading the additional updates required after installation finished. We had no issues or errors during the install.

Help/Support:

With the name change from Grisoft to AVG Technologies, the support site was updated and saw many improvements over the old design. Support offerings included with AVG Antivirus 8 are a FAQ, email support, phone based technical support as well as including a support section within the program itself.

Summary:

Version 8 of AVG Antivirus is a definite improvement over version 7.5. The scanning features have been sped up and the new interface is a clean and modern take on a time tested product.

Including a link scanner and integrating AVG Antispyware and AVG AntiRootkit provides an even more effective product. An unfortunate problem that has plagued AVG products for quite some time has not been eliminated even though AVG did a complete rewrite of the virus scanning engine. The on access scanner still tends to slow down computers to the point where they are not usable at times. This isn't a constant factor and has been improved significantly, but you will notice it when it happens. Beyond the slowdown issue, AVG Antivirus 8 is a complete product that will help keep your computer clean and safe.

5.

F-Secure Antivirus is a great product that offers many of the standard functions associated with antivirus software, but also goes above and beyond the bar set by others with efforts by F-Secure to educate the people that use F-Secure Antivirus on general security practices as well as specific threats.

Ease of Use:

F-Secure Antivirus is very easy to use and comes preconfigured with the most effective options for your computers security. The menu's within F-Secure Antivirus are simple and quick to display the options under each of them.

Effectiveness:

F-Secure Antivirus is one of the most effective antivirus programs on the market. Its heuristic scanner is considered by many to be one of the fastest and most complete on the market.

We did have some problems with its on-access scanner though. The test system we used is a pretty fast system. Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz with 1GB of RAM. The on-access scanner would sometimes bring this system to a halt when opening programs or moving files.

Updates:

F-Secure Antivirus checks for updates every two hours. This is fine for most people and shouldn't cause any problems. One issue that we did notice is that one of the updates that was receive required a reboot of the test system. While we had a choice in the reboot, it was odd that it should require a reboot to apply new virus signatures or even minor program updates.

Feature Set:

F-Secure Antivirus comes with the standard protection you would expect from any modern antivirus suite. Both on-access and on-demand scanners are included as well as a spyware scanner that runs with both. An email scanner is also included for those of us using local mail clients like Outlook or Thunderbird.

One feature we especially liked about F-Secure Antivirus was the integrated news on the home menu. The Security News section is full of useful information about which new security threats are out and whether you are protected from each threat.

Ease of Installation:

Installation of F-Secure Antivirus is fast and easy. It took less than 5 minutes to initially install, but required a very long update upon completion of the install. The install itself required a single reboot as well as the update that was download after the install finished.

Help/Support:

F-Secure offers several options for support. They have a "How to" section with several FAQ's included as well as offering a product manual from within the program itself. Also available are phone support and email support. You may find that support for F-Secure Antivirus is difficult to obtain once you get past the self help options. The site is somewhat convoluted and could use a redesign to make it easier and faster to use. To be fair, most people will not need to contact customer support directly if they use the self help options that are available on the support site.

Summary:

With one of the most thorough antivirus engines available, F-Secure Antivirus provides elite protection against viruses, spyware and many other security threats. The added benefit of the support and education portion of their website adds to the overall feeling of protection while using this product. While it isn't perfect, and does have issues with significant slowdowns while the on-access scanner is working, the overall product is effective.