Software Protection

The first program I researched was the Bitdefender 9 Standard, which won an award for being the best anti-virus program. There were many features I researched that were appealing. You can drag and drop the individual file to have it scanned immediately, instead of having to perform a full system scan. It is very simple to use and has a nice interface, and updates itself automatically. It has peer to peer application protection, and protects against viruses via instant messenger and file sharing. Bitfender also offers full e-mail protection, as well as keeping systems safe from unknown viruses.

After reading multiple reviews, this anti-virus program seems to be the most effective.

“Very well layed out program. Relatively fast scanning,very stable,modest system resource usage and you can tell very well written. Additionally Bitdefender is rated very high in all anti-virus tests. This software would rate five stars except for the fact that Bitdefender says that there is no real time protection.”

“I recommend this program due to it's easy of use and effectiveness. It can be scheduled to update on it's own and does so with out a hitch. It's lean with a sleek GUI that makes it easy to work with and set up.”



The next product I reviewed was Kaspersky. The new Kaspersky has a completely redesigned interface that is easy to use. This software also has e-mail protection, and has new updates every hour. It detects files in over 1200 compressed formats, and cures them. It also has mobile user support.



I also read some great reviews of this anti-virus program. The major con I feel is the price, because Bitdefender has the same great features but at half the price.

"I got the trial of this program, and when that ran out I bought it. This is the first and only antivirus program I have ever bought after trying (which is saying something :P). Here are some features that I like and I bet you will too if you try it! 1.) Live protection - In my experience and opinion, live protection is really more important than actual virus scans. When you get something bad on your computer, kaspersky will IMMEDIATELY prompt you to delete it, don't do anything to it, or even sometimes just keep it out! With this kind of live protection, it will be rare that you get viruses.
2.) Updates - Updates are obviously crucial to having a good antivirus program. Most people don't like to spend an hour tediously getting updates and then restarting their computer for them to work (see norton :P). With Kaspersky, you just click a little blue link looking thing that says "Update Now" and everything is done for you in seconds. So far I haven't had to restart at all. 3.) Scanning - I'll admit, scanning with kaspersky can sometimes take awhile, but it's worth it. If anything happens to get past live protection, I can almost 100% guarantee you a thorough scan will catch it and automatically delete or quarantine it. You can also choose to just scan certain files, or folders instead of scanning entire drives (which is how it should be). 4.) Size - According to my "add or remove programs", kaspersky A.V. takes up only 10.56 mb on your hard drive. That's a fraction of what some (see norton :P) takes up.
5.) Good programmers? Me thinks so. Kris Kaspersky himself wrote a book called Hacker Disassembling Uncovered. I have a feeling you should trust him :) 6.) Easy to use - infact.. the easiest. No complicated interfaces. Just click a few clearly labeled buttons, and everything is done for you. excellent excellent product kaspersky.”

“It is one of the best solutions on the market, a real good investment.”



The last anti-virus program I researched was Norman Virus Control. You can choose to get your updates automatically with this program, however there is no time estimation when a scan is complete. Attachments can be blocked based on file name or extension. This program offers e-mail protection as well as postings from newsgroups. It has an on-demand scanner and automatic updates as well.

However, I found this program isn't as user friendly as the other two programs. It can be a little complicated at times and does not have as easy of an interface. I also found this program does not completely uninstall. This program can falsely report viruses and has stability issues.

“I cannot uninstall this ***** shit. I have almost all antiviruses but this is the worst.” "It is my best after CA e trust antivirus 2005, but Norman dont fully protect because when I uninstalled my PC still said * your computer might be in danger* because Norman does not monitor Windows Virus protection. so it made me ask my self why i have to uninstall it? so i don't understand for which user it was designed.”


According to a neutral test of some large anti-virus software programs:

Kaspersky Personal Pro version 5.0.20 found 99.28%,
McAfee version 9.0.10 found 89.75% of the viruses,
Avast version 4.6.623 found 79.65% of the viruses
and AVG version 7.0.308 found 54.07% of the viruses.