AntiVirus Reviews

“I have the latest antivirus and anti spyware updates done, but my PC still runs slow. There must be something else wrong with my computer”; you might have heard this too many times to count, and might have said it yourselves. Yes, there is a chance that the security software must have missed something, but there is also a chance that there might have been some defragmenting and of course, that is always a very good chance that the culprit might be the security software itself. Finally, we have a high performance antivirus + antispyware that does not slow down your PC and the surveys show that the biggest frustration with the existing antivirus solutions is bloat and high resource usage.

SunBelt’s latest Vipre  Antivirus + Antispyware security software runs seamlessly without any significant impairment to your PC performance, and it is also designed for an much improved user experience, while restricting the notification pop ups and warnings to a very minimum. The Home site license will cover every computer in your home. This particular Antivirus + Antispyware software is designed to be a high performance product, without compromising on detection and cleaning of viruses, Trojans, worms and spyware. Despite being relatively new in the competitive field of antivirus software, this new security software comes out swing this year as one of the best and lightest running antivirus software for the year 2010. And, it is not a typo, Vipre stands for Virus Intrusion Prevention Remediation Engine.

Secret of success:

The best way to get success with the security software is to just balance the act with antivirus and anti spyware is by managing to be light running while still offering with the PC protection. And, this is exactly the area in which the Vipre delivers the promise than any of its competitors. Vipre is one of the best performing software in most tests. In fact we can even confidently say that even some of the older and better known antivirus programs like the McAfee and Norton did not do nearly as well as this software.  When compared to these renowned rivals, Vipre’s light resource usage, strong anti-virus and anti-spyware protection in addition to excellent and consistent customer service has pushed it to the front in the market. From head to toe, the performance is very impressive. Installation is nothing more than just a snap and the user interface is clean and easy to use. The Vipre 2010 has Email protection that is reliable and solid. Overall, the virus, spyware, and malware protection is equal to or better than we have seen in most any antivirus software; especially from software that is a relative newcomer compared to the household names like McAfee, Norton, and Kaspersky. We are to see such a strong competitor like Vipre Antivirus + Antispyware enter the field with such solid antivirus software.

Antivirus Installation:

The installation of Vipre Antivirus 2010 is very simple and straight forward. It is a  fairly in-depth installation process, but  is not  overwhelming. Just download and run the initial installer that sets up the files that you need for installation. Just reboot your PC at this point. Once the installation is done, a wizard will run to configure the initial options like definition update frequency, internet access settings and registration options. Once the wizard ends, you will find a link that will launch a video that describes the entire software and even some basics of usage. This is a very nice touch, and yes, we really loved it. Even if you are one of those seasoned computer professional, you will be well served watching this video. It is done excellently and it might as well introduce you to some features on the Vipre that you might be not aware of. A full install took us about 16 minutes and 1 restart. The installation and setup from Vipre took longer than any of the competitors, but is not hard by any means.

The unique “home site license” allows you to install the software on as many computers as you have at home (a valuable solution for many home users). There is also single user and three user license available for a much lower cost. Decide if you want to join in the ThreatNet Community, this is voluntary and will not affect how Vipre runs so the choice is yours.

During setup Vipre shows integration with Windows’ existing security, it is best to go with the default selections so nothing conflicts.

Finally enter in the activation code if you have one or choose the 15 day free trial and register your email address.

Un-installation:

For some reason, if you will have to uninstall the Vipre, you will be able to take it much easily. And the software has also made it easy to reinstall in future in case you just change your mind. They have managed to do this by offering you with the option to leave behind some data files that would make things much easier, which is yet another great touch. Do the un-installation as usual from the control panel and just select if you want to keep or remove the reinstalled data files and then, reboot.

After the reboot is done, there are no registry traces with no left over files that will be able to interfere with the other programs or system performance. The easy un-installation with no traces left behind, and this is exactly what everybody looks for in un-installation. In short, it simply delivers on the promise we as consumers expect manufacturers to make to us when we remove a program from our PC. Then it just goes a step further by offering to leave the data files behind if you wish to.

User Interface:

The user interface of the Vipre Antivirus + Antispyware 2010 security software is quite good looking with some easy to use navigation. The alerts are given in the usual red and green when they require attention, just making it easy to see what is important and the background colour is just muted. It is good news that Vipre has got it right with a very simple and single page management screen that gives you quick access to all the other categories. This makes the entire process of finding what you need very quick without the hassle of open, close, search, and dig through multiple windows and pop-ups as some competitors do. Each category has clearly labelled tab from which you will be able to access each of the features or settings you would like to.

Appropriate settings are marked on default by Vipre to aid the novice users, but for the geeks, there is the ‘Advanced’ link that allows you to adjust some of the much detailed settings. However, the default settings should be adequate for most users. Each of the tabs in the main page has a help icon that opens to the appropriate page in the help file where you will find a complete, indexed help section. Yet another nice touch is the links the Vipre has added within each of the help section that allow you to further explore any topic. And, of course you will also find a link to Vipre antivirus support at the bottom of every page in the help section. The easily accessible support link just shows Sunbelt Software’s seriousness about standing behind their software and helping users of Vipre Antivirus + Antispyware 2010.

Configuring automatic updates is straight forward.  Check the box to allow Vipre access to the Internet and choose how often it checks for updates.  You can also check for updates manually.

One of the coolest features on the overview screen is being able to quickly view the risk threats cleaned or blocked by Vipre.  Also, shown is the Vipre Active Space where their research center provides live information on the current threat levels on the Internet.

In the Always Allowed list, we have added a handful of programs that we want Vipre to ignore if they run.  To add a program, click on Add, use the Browse selection to find your file, then add it to the list.  As an option, you may also add an entire folder versus a single file.  This proves handy if you have a program with different executable files that may or may not trigger Vipre’s defences when they run.  Adding the whole folder covers all the files within it.

The Quarantine section holds any item placed into the Quarantine as the result of a quick, deep, or custom scan.  Here you can look over a list of programs and files caught in its net.  You can view a more through description of any of the threats here by selecting one then clicking on Risk Details.  You may also release these items using the Restore from Quarantine button, if you think one was mis-labelled.

Protection:

Sunbelt software’s Vipre Antivirus + Antispyware 2010 does not just protect from viruses and spyware, but also covers the rootkits, Trojans, worms, keyloggers, dialers, adware, malicious scripts, and a number of other malware threats. The big push from Vipre to keep your computer protected from viruses that may not be on traditional signature databases yet. The proactive protection is made possible by incorporating advanced heuristic detection, including the MX-Virtualisation. This technology allows Vipre to run files in a sterile Windows-like emulator and observe how it behaves. Combine this with real time kernel level antivirus security, and Vipre is well equipped to guard your PC from threats from different angles. The software has received the checkmark certification from West Coast Labs as an effective antivirus software.

One feature that helps keep Vipre on top of protection is the advanced heuristic technologies, Genscan and Cobra. These advanced features help Vipre dynamically locate malware before it even has the chance to cause any problems on your PC. In addition to antivirus and antispyware protection, Vipre features other useful tools such as a secure file eraser that writes 1s and 0s over deleted files, a history cleaner that goes beyond just what is in your Internet browser cache, and something called PC Explorer, which reveals processes and services running that are suspect or known to be malicious. Many of these tools are also featured within Sunbelt Software’s standalone antispyware product, CounterSpy v2. Missing from Vipre is firewall protection, which is available in some antivirus software.

Much of what we like about Vipre is beneath the hood; which is where it should be. The scanning engines are fast and accurate. What we like most about Vipre, however, is that it packs a lot of extras; extras that other antivirus products should have but often do not.

Real Time Protection:

Coming to the part of real time protection, Vipre Antivirus + Antispyware 2010 security software was able to detect ninety percent of the viruses and other malware. This is a pretty good score, taking into consideration the fact that no software can ever be cent percent perfect. The only set of files that Vipre did not manage to identify initially were all quickly captured and removed when the viruses actually tried to run. Thus, effectively making the virus and malware useless and once the virus tries to do anything nasty, even though Vipre is not able to detect it initially, its real time engine kicks in and stops the intruding virus.

As we mentioned in the introduction, Vipre is known for its fast scanning and response time, all while keeping a low resource footprint. So, when the real-time protection is enabled, only about approx 65MB of memory is consumed by the security software. The overall real time protection offered by Vipre Antivirus + Antispyware 2010 security software is very pleasing. Most antivirus software have a hard time combining power with efficiency, but Vipre has managed to do both of them with solid, reliable real-time protection.

Manual Scan:

The full system manual scan is one thing that proves to be the most effective in most of the security software we tested. The Vipre Anti-virus, Antispyware 2010 was able to detect, delete or quarantine more than 85% of viruses, spyware and other malware. This security software relies heavily on real-time protection which has a far better capture rate than a one-time manual scan. While this may seem counter-intuitive at first glance, it actually makes sense. The reason is that, many of the viruses, especially new ones that have not been identified yet, do everything they can to hide themselves and avoid detection. Hence, an occasional manual scan might not always capture dormant viruses and spyware; and this is exactly why having robust real-time antivirus protection is critical.

The Real-time protection seeks for bad behaviour from processes running on your computer, and as such, Vipre is able to catch many of these types of viruses, worms, trojans, and other malware as soon as they try doing something to your computer. Hence, it is best to keep Vipre running. Fortunately, since Vipre antivirus is so light-running and non-intrusive, having it running all the time will not drag your computer down. The manual antivirus scan only took about 15 minutes.

Resource Usage:

Now, let us move on to the highlight selling point of the Antivirus + Antispyware 2010 security software, the resource usage. The real time resource usage of the Vipre antivirus seems to be the lowest, using just 0.5% of memory. A full system manual scan, occasionally peaks to 50% or 60% CPU usage, and then it dips back down as it moves to different parts of the antivirus scan. Only 60MB of memory is used during the manual scan. This figure is excellent, especially when compared to some of the fierce rivals of Vipre. No other security software even comes close to this figure of Vipre. McAfee Antivirus 2010 is the next best one you can find in the market which uses only 3% followed by BitDefender and Panda. In CPU usage of the manual scan, Trend Micro stands head on with Vipre, followed by Panda.

AntiSpyware:

Vipre Antivirus + Antispyware 2010 was able to capture 70% of spyware. This is not as good as we would like to have, but it is not bad too. The 70% too is still comprises of the majority of the known spyware. We recommend you to run a full manual scan every week, so Vipre will be able to catch any of the deeply hidden spyware that might be lurking on your PC. The software came up with an 80% success rate for spyware removal after a manual scan.

Vipre on a pre-infected PC:

Consider the case that your PC is already infected and then installed the Vipre Antivirus + Antispyware 2010, let us see how it responds now. As Vipre does not initiate a pre-scan during installation, you will have to run a full system scan if you suspect that your system has been infected. Vipre was able to remove up to 90% of the infected files after running a full system manual scan on the pre infected PC. Some of the sneakier torjans that were not detected initially are picked up by the real time engine when they attempt to go active. Hence, the overall protection is quite good.

Email Protection:

The email protection offered by Vipre is one of the easiest and best that we have tested so far. It is just straightforward and easiest of the lot. It is just straightforward and you will not have to do much for the feature to be fully effective. Hence, that is just one less thing that you have to worry about. For Outlook and Outlook Express, IMAP and SMTP are supported, but with other email clients, you will only be able to use POP3. It is disappointing to see that they are not supporting IMAP in Thunderbird and other popular mail clients, but this is not likely to be a big set-back for most users. To scan all the incoming and outgoing emails, all you have to do is, just box during installation or later in the settings panel telling it which email client you are using.

There is no toolbar or no deciding what to scan or not scan; just set it and forget it. Full email protection is dependent on having real-time protection enabled. All emails and attachments will be scanned just as they would for regular computer usage. There is no noticeable slowdown of the system and overall, it is nice and easy-to-use email protection.

Instant Messaging Protection:

The instant messaging protection is as simple as the email protection that we just saw. Being dependent on the Vipre real time antivirus engine, it simply works well. Even though there are no settings available to configure the IM protection, it is left on by default and any of the incoming files that try to access your PC through the Instant Messenger will be scanned just like any other file. Just make sure that your real time protection is enabled for IM protection to be completely effective; this has to be kept on, no matter which antivirus you use.

Antivirus Definition:

The antivirus Definition updates in Vipre are available every two hours by default. You can set it to be as often as every hour or as infrequent as 24 hours if you would like. We recommended every antivirus software should have current definition updates available for download at least every couple of hours. More importantly, Vipre utilizes a security network that enables them to deliver updates to your PC immediately as the need should arise. Vipre handles the whole thing with ease.

Vipre has all the essentials, but we would have liked to see an integrated silent ‘gamer’ mode, password protected settings, and auto USB detection.

Customer Support:

Sunbelt Vipre antivirus + antispyware 2010 is very well known for its dedication to customer service and technical support. All the services, Email, live chat, and phone support are all 100% free. Phone and chat support hours are 9am 9pm EST, and email support is available anytime you need it. Users say that any of the technical support issue that they have come across had been handled within just 48 hours and sometimes in just minutes. There are customers saying that even the most complicated issues were solved with ease and satisfaction. The company goes to great lengths to help its consumers. All the help options including phone numbers, email and chat can be easily found on Sunbelt’s site or through the help pages. This is done only to let you know that they want to help and are not trying to hide from you like we have seen in some of the lesser antivirus software.

We really cannot get why some antivirus software makers have trouble in providing easy and free technical support. Time and again we have seen consumers having trouble providing free and easy phone support. Sooner or later most people may need some tech or customer support. Why should you have to pay for it or go through a hassle getting good support? It is good news that Sunbelt’s support is all based in the United States, so the support you get is from someone right in the same offices as the software’s developers.

Verdict:

If you are in search for solid, stand alone security software this year, Vipre is probably the best choice; especially if you want minimal resource usage. It is really a very powerful antivirus and antispyware combo. The real time antivirus protection is quite good, taking into consideration that Vipre is a newcomer and its light footprint is simply impressive. While spyware protection could have been better, but the software was still able to capture some of the more dangerous and annoying spyware and adware and this counts a lot. The email antivirus protection is a snap to use, and is just as good and or in some cases, even better than some of its competitors. And, though the Instant Messaging protection is not a documented one, Vipre has taken it seriously and scans all files that try to come through your IM conversations.

The verdict is that, the Vipre Antivirus + Antispyware 2010 is the best choice for the consumers and businesses who wish to have a solid straightforward antivirus and antispyware protection. If you are looking for additional protection, Sunbelt now offers all the power of Vipre antivirus combined with equally powerful firewall protection in their latest product; the Vipre Antivirus Premium.

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Vipre Antivirus + Antispyware 2010 - Specification Details

Lab	Sunbelt
Software name	Vipre Antivirus + Antispyware 2010
Suite type	Antivirus + Antispyware
License type	Complete package
License Validation period	One year
License quantity	Single user, three user and multi user
Package type	Retail
Minimal System requirements	Compatible with Windows 7, (and also compatible with XP mode in W7), Windows Vista+ (All flavors) 32 and 64-bit, Windows Server 2003 (32/64-bit), Windows XP SP1, SP2, SP3 (Home, Pro, Media Center, Tablet) 32 and 64-bit and Windows 2000 SP4 RollUp 1 Installation of Vipre is not supported on Windows 95, 98, NT, or ME, Macintosh or Linux
System Memory RAM	512 MB
Supported browsers	Internet Explorer 6 or higher, Firefox 3 or higher, Chrome, Safari for Windows, Opera and AOL
Anti-Virus	Yes
FireWall	No
Anti-Spyware	Yes
Anti-Phishing	Yes
Anti-Spam	Yes
Data Backup	No
Email server requirements	Outlook 2000+, Outlook Express 5.0+, Windows Mail on Vista and SMTP and POP3 (Thunderbird, IncrediMail, Eudora, etc. SSL supported only in Outlook and Outlook Express.)
New features	Secure file eraser History cleaner PC Explorer
Key features	High-performance threat protection with low impact on system resources, Scans email for malware threats, Cutting-edge Proactive Protection guards your PC 24/7, Advanced anti-rootkit technologies and Small, regular definition updates greatly reduce update downloading time
Support	Email, live chat, and phone support are all 100% free

McAfee’s new 2010 product line has introduced a new vertical look that is so drastically different from any of the major security programs that are currently on the market. Most of the features in its products like McAfee AntiVirus Plus, McAfee Internet Security and McAfee Total Security are all not that new, but the presentation is so radical that the presentations are likely to be glossed over. In the following review, we will see in detail about the McAfee Total Protection 2010 which offers you and your family the ultimate PC and online security with accelerated performance. The previous suite was criticised badly and this time, McAfee has made a real effort and shown improvement in all the areas.

McAfee packs more goodies into their suite than most of the competition, which has in the past made for a busy, crowded interface. The 2010 suite sports a completely new interface and fine-tuned through focus groups and user studies to present features and status information the way users want to see it. The suite is now available with the revolutionary Active Protection Technology that enables the fastest updates and highest levels of detection against malicious threats; the suite also offers all of the other major features including anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam, anti-phishing, two-way firewalling addition to parental controls, identity protection, and a powerful website safety advisor.  The older users of McAfee should note that VirusScan Plus has been renamed as AntiVirus Plus. The suite comes very close to everybody’s choice, Norton Internet Security 2010.

Installation:

The installation of McAfee Total Protection 2010 runs smoothly without any hassle. We did not encounter any issues with installation, but while looking around on the Web for other user opinions, we did discover multiple instances of installation issues where the program would not install at all or did not run correctly after installation was complete. The download itself is a tiny stub installer that grabs the installation files over the internet when you run it. McAfee uses what is called a stub installer. The file that you download is small, barely a couple of megabytes. When you run it, it connects to McAfee’s servers to download and install the full program. The scanning performance of McAfee has been improved greatly by indexing files and only scanning those that are new or have changed. When the installation is done, it asks you to perform a preliminary scan that could take a long time but will speed up the later scans. You will be able to decline a scan at installation, but keep in mind that whenever your first scan is initiated, it will take much longer than the subsequent scans. After the scan, you can pick and choose what components of Total Protection 2010 to install.

Uninstallation of the McAfee Total Protection 2010 suite still requires going through either the Windows uninstaller or a third party uninstaller, as McAfee does not provide a tool for removing the program. With smaller programs, that is not such a big deal, but in sprawling suites that have deep hooks into your registry; it is simply inconsiderate to not offer one. If you are switching to McAfee from another security vendor, note that it does not play nicely with the other already installed security apps and will demand that you remove those, before completing its own installation. Very possessive! And, somewhat ironically, it even offers links it its online uninstallation instructions.

User Interface:

The new user interface hopes to give Total Protection Suite 2010 a new, refreshed look and the removal of a few less-used features and a few tweaks here and there, really give this security suite a push in the right direction. As we had mentioned previously, the previous versions of McAfee’s security software had a really clunky and crowded user interface that made us just want to forget even attempting to use it. However, the latest 2010 version of Total Protection has a new interface that looks like night and day compared to the old interface.

As in the case of virtually all of the modern security suites, McAfee Total Protection 2010’s main screen features an overall status indicator that is coloured green when everything is secure. And, based on the focus group input, McAfee adds a reassuring “No Action Required” note to the all secure banner. The top banner provides you with access to scans and updates, along with some firewall and subscription information. There is also a rotating message that reports stats on number of threats removed by the latest scan. By clicking on the features area below, it launches the commonly used actions. There is a separate Navigation Centre Window offers a simple directory style access to all of the features, common and otherwise. The features menu gives you quick access to virus or spyware protection, Web protection, data backup, parental controls, and PC optimisation.

Firewall:

By default, as “Outgoing Access” security level, McAfee Total Protection 2010’s firewall allows outgoing access to all of the programs. In case an unknown program attempts to receive incoming network traffic, McAffee leaves the choice to its users. On a higher level of “Monitored Access”, McAfee’s firewall asks you when an unknown program attempts any sort of access to the internet for the first time. McAfee says, the “Stealth” level also hides the PC from detection. The firewall feature does a great job that it stood up to port scans and other web-based tests even at its default level, all the ports were stealthed. Everybody would agree to the fact that personal firewalls need to balance security against aggravation as the old-school firewalls that popped up endless queries just did nothing but train the users to always click “Allow”. But, McAfee’s default setting seems to sacrifice some protection by allowing all outgoing access; even for the unknown programs.

A spyware program that is not recognised by the anti-malware component could theoretically send your personal information to its home base with impunity, as long as it did not try to listen for new instructions. Though this kind of setup means that there are more pop up queries, we would recommend the users of this suite to crank up the firewall security level a notch from the default. When the security level is set to “Monitored Access”, the suite detects several leak test utilities, such as the programs that attempt to evade program control using techniques found in actual malware. Some of the other leak test utilities are blocked as “potentially unwanted programs” or as malware. When the real time malware scanning is turned off, a few of the leak test utilities manage to connect, but with all the other defenses active none got through. McAfee has included the “Attack Detection” for the handful of the very well known exploits and other attacks; just ten of them in total. Still, when we attacked the system with different exploits that are generated by the Core IMPACT penetration tool, none of them managed to crack the security system. In few cases the suite reported blocking a malicious script or removing a Trojan and quite a few other attacks simply failed silently. We prefer the much more informative protection offered by Norton Internet Security 2010 and Avast Internet Security 5.0, among others. For instance, when a website attacks our system, we would like to know about it; even when the exploit fails.

We tried to disable the firewall by changing settings in the Registry. This is something a malicious program could do, and it is a technique that worked against one of the previous versions of McAfee’s Total Security suite. And this time around, we were really pleased to see that, this time, we were pleased to see an “Access denied” message, meaning that our attack failed. The same thing happened when we tried to kill McAfee’s protective processes using Task Manager. On the other hand, we really had no trouble turning off the suite’s essential services. But McAfee did pop up a warning saying security was at risk, but a warning is not much of a help if the user is not nearby. We would actually like to see this McAfee Total Protection to thoroughly protect its processes and services the way Norton, Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, and others do.

Overall, we are very pleased with the great deal of improvements made over that of the previous edition that failed to completely stealth all ports, did not block all of the exploits and even missed all of the leak tests. However, we think it could still use a little more hardening against attacks.

Network Map:

The McAfee Total Protection 2010 license allows you to install the suite on three computes, which are very likely to be on the same network. You can see all the computers and devices on the “My Network” map and the ones equipped with this suite or the McAfee AntiVirus is identified with a McAfee icon. To establish a mutual relationship between two systems, mark any of the McAfee equipped computers as trusted and enter the same password on both systems. This way, either of them can view the other’s security status and either can fix any of the issues on the other too. Though you will not be notified when the security status of the other system changes, you will be allowed to configure the network map to notify you any time the system comes online. Norton’s suite on the other hand, while it does notify you of a remote problem, it does not let you fix it remotely. The Trend Micro Internet Security Pro Version 3 offers you with the full blown remote control as it allows you to trigger a scan or update, view logs, turn features on and off and much more.

With McAfee’s suite, you can mark any of your computer or device in McAfee’s network map as an intruder. By this way, all network access from the intruder to your system will be blocked, and McAfee will notify you anytime an intruder connects to the network

Anti-Spam:

Not many are concerned about Spam filtering, but for those who do, will find that McAfee offers more choices than most. It integrates with Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Eudora and Thunderbird, for starters. And, while most suites handle only POP3 mail, McAfee can filter POP3, IMAP and Exchange mail. The best part is McAfee can even filter some Web-based e-mail accounts. McAfee Total Protection 2010 3 User suite allows you to set five levels of spam protection from Minimal to Restricted. At the ‘Balanced’ level, you can white list the sender of any message in your e-mail client or import your correspondents from many different address book types. While, the ‘Restricted’ level blocks all mail that is not from a white listed sender. To be clear, the spam filter can be customised with rules based on the sender, subject line and body. This can be used to allow all emails from a particular email list if there is a common phrase.

When downloading thousand messages with the spam filter on, it takes about sixty percent longer than with the spam inactive. However, this minor slowdown will not even be noticeable. The McAfee suite did not block any of the newsletters or other valid bulk mail and misfiled just 0.3 percent of valid personal mail as spam. Though ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2010, Kaspersky, Norton and BitDefender Total Security 2010 blocked absolutely no valid personal mail, but McAfee’s 0.3 percent is still awfully close to zero. McAfee also has great success filtering out undeniable spam, only 2.4 percent got through to the Inbox. The only suite that’s done better on that measure is AVG Internet Security 9.0, with 1.9 percent. The new McAfee suite offers great spam protection and as you can see, we are happy with it.

Site Advisor:

McAfee Total Protection 2010 comes with SiteAdvisor Plus, which is a browser tool bar that aids you in avoiding the dangerous websites out there. In the beginning, that is, in the earlier years, SiteAdvisor relied solely relied on web crawlers that actively analysed all the websites. In this system, though the results were quite accurate and detailed, they were usually weeks out of date. Now, though, McAfee’s SiteAdvisor works hand in hand with the company’s “Global Threat Intelligence”. It still makes use of crawlers for detailed site analysis, but if any McAfee user encounters a site that has “gone over to the dark side” or been hacked, SiteAdvisor learns about it right away.

Phishing Protection:

Detecting the Phishing or fraudulent sites was notoriously tough for SiteAdvisor in the past, though McAfee has previously added features that are specifically aimed at detecting this kind of ephemeral threat. With its new intelligence, SiteAdvisor succeeded brilliantly at detecting phishing sites. Most products we test are not even as effective as Internet Explorer alone, and very few come close to the accuracy of the anti-phishing champ Norton. SiteAdvisor was just one percent behind Norton and 43 percent ahead of Internet Explorer. Job Well done!

SiteAdvisor also managed to flag web sites that it deems to be dangerous, both when you visit then and in the results page of the popular search engines. When we tested SiteAdvisor by trying to download some of the malware sites that we know, we were pleased with its effectiveness. If the suite did not block the URL immediately, it halts the malware download in midway. The best part is that, it even warned about the now defunct sites that had been dangerously when active. The ‘Plus’ part in the Site Advisor Plus that distinguishes it from the free for all edition is the ‘Protected Mode’. When the Protected Mode is enabled, it actively prevents access to any sites that are not rated as completely safe, which even disables the links in search results. Just enter the protected mode password that you chose upon enabling the feature.

The private data protection feature that was available in the previous edition has been removed and the feature did the only job of blocking the transmission of user specified private data in Web forms. And since it did not encrypt its store of user-specified data it was more of a security risk than a benefit. McAfee thought that the suite’s Active Protection and Site Advisor’s does the job and we agree too. The Password Vault feature was also dropped which was just a simple non-interactive encrypted list of passwords.

Malware Protection:

The malware protection of McAfee Total Protection 2010 is exactly same as that in McAfee AntiVirus Plus. The technology employed by McAfee worked well in the tests, but cannot be said as the best. The on-demand scan of the suite is slightly slower than the average time for the very first time it is run, but remember that the subsequent scans are much quicker. When we challenged the system to clean a malware infested systems, the McAfee Malware Protection does a very good job, but it is also worth mentioning that some of the other suites managed to do a much better job. The suite was more effective in preventing malware attack on an already clean system.

System Impact:

When McAfee first launched the mega suite several years back, it was extremely slow, unwieldy and too hard to steer. The successive versions had cut down its impact on the system performance one step at a time. Fortunately, the current version has taken a big leap from the slow rate and the latest suite is much less of a drag. The suite just adds a 4 percent time to a lengthy series of zip and unzip, tying with eScan Internet Security Suite 10 and Panda Internet Security 2010 for least impact on performance. McAfee adds just 6 percent to the operation of copy and paste; though a lot of suites do a much better job than this, 6% is still good. The suited added about 28% to install and uninstall of large applications using Windows Installer Script, which is little more of an increase, but this is nothing compared to ZoneAlarm and Kaspersky that added over 75%.

The browser test measures how long it takes to visit 100 Web sites and completely load the home page of each. In the previous version of the suite, McAfee more than doubled the time required for this operation. This time around, the suite adds just 29%, which is a very impressive improvement. Finally, coming to the boot time, again the suite took about twice the time last year, and this time, McAfee had put up charts detailing that there has been some significant improvements, and we did find a little improvement; the suite added about 63% to the boot time. Said that, it is nowhere near the low K7 TotalSecurity Version 10.0 with 7% or eScan with just 19%, however, it is just acceptable.  As there are heaps of suites that more than double the time. The McAfee Total Protection 2010 is much less of a drag than its predecessors, and in one test it had the least impact of all the recent suites. There is still room for fine-tuning, but overall it is quite good.

Parental Control:

The parental controls of McAfee Total Protection 2010 offers per-user configuration that is based on Windows user accounts. Fortunately, the current McAfee suite is no longer restricted to Limited accounts unlike the previous version. And this feature is especially important to Windows XP users as they need to give kids Administrator accounts. As in the previous version, you choose an age range to configure the content filtering component, but now you can fine tune the filtering categories for each user. The ineffective filter that tried to analyse images and block the “naughty pictures” has been removed; a very sensible move. The parental control system can force Safe Search “on” in Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Its weekly scheduler for defining when each user is allowed on the Internet is clear and easy to use.

That was all good news, but coming to the bad news part; McAfee can only filter content in specific supported browsers including IE, Firefox, Netscape, Safari, Chrome, Opera and Flock. This means, all that your kid needs is an off brand browser In order to completely bypass all of the parental controls. So, gotta smart kid? This one is not for you. In addition to this, if your kid has a non-Limited Windows account, the time-schedule feature can be bollixed by changing the system time. Since the Parental Control feature in the previous edition of McAfee Total Protection was abysmal, so it could not go anywhere but up. But there is still heaps of room for improvement.

Online Backup:

The Home Grown backup system that was seen in the previous version has been removed completely and is replaced by a partnership with the very popular MozyHome Online Backup. While anybody can get 2 GB of online backup for free from this site, McAfee subscription gets you 2GB each for up to 3 PCs. Now, that is a kind of bonus that you do not get with BitDefender’s partnership with SOS Online Backup or ZoneAlarm’s partnership with iDrive. The online backup can be upgraded to unlimited storage for an extra £40 a year. You will have to configure the backup system before it starts working, but if you choose to accept its default settings, it will backup your documents, favorites, e-mail, and contacts. As expected, you will be able to back up additional locations or file types; overall, it is very flexible. There is also an indicator that lets you know how much of the allotted 2 GB you have used.

While the initial backup can take hours or even days, but, once that is complete, only changed files get backed up and only the actual changes are uploaded. You can also throttle down the bandwidth used for backup if necessary, though McAfee recommends giving it a little extra until the initial backup finishes. The backup system saves all versions of a file for 30 days, and the space used to store these versions does not count against your 2 GB. You can restore a file or an earlier version from within the backup system or treat the online backup as if it were a local drive and use drag/drop to manipulate files. This backup system will not handle a bare-metal restore, but when used properly it will protect your essential data.

McAfee Tools:

McAfee offers a wide range of tools that are designed to clear out the clutter and let your PC run faster. The optimising tool, Quick Clean, is a little limited for its title. It removes unwanted files but it does not do much that is not done by the Disk Cleanup wizard built into Windows. Quick Clean, the main clean up tool, seeks and deletes file system junk such as temporary files, items in the Recycle Bin, orphaned shortcuts and lost file fragments. It can also be configured to clean up unnecessary and erroneous items in the Registry. But the Registry Cleanup feature worries us a bit. Like that of the Trend Micro’s Registry cleaner, QuickClean does not show you what it is going to delete beforehand and also does not report what it deleted afterward. In case the clean up causes any problem, you have no way to recover or even investigate. Though a full preview offered by ZoneAlarm and BitDefender’s Registry cleaners may not be necessary, we would at least like the ability to undo the most recent cleanup.

QuickClean can also clean up browsing traces from Internet Explorer and empty the deleted items or sent items folder in Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows Mail. The first time you use it, you must review and choose which items to clean. It was disconcerting to find no way of changing that configuration; turns out you click an unlabeled icon to re-open the configuration settings. It is hard to consider the defragmenter as a McAfee Tool, since all it does it launch the built-in Windows defragmenter, but the Shredder is a significant piece of equipment. It wipes out sensitive files by overwriting them anywhere from 1 to 10 times before deletion, thus foiling even high-end forensic recovery tools. You can configure it to always shred the contents of a specified location or to ask you every time unlike BitDefender, McAfee does not put a Shred option in Windows Explorer’s right-click menu.

Support:

McAfee offers a wide range of support options which include tutorials, FAQs, and customer service support by phone, online chat, and even e-mail. A subscription to Total Protection Service includes access to 24/7 Gold Technical Support from McAfee.

Verdict:

The McAfee Total Protection 2010 suite is loaded with scores of features and the new interface makes it much easier to understand. The 2010 suite has had some serious improvements in many areas that had long needed a boost. McAfee Malware is still better at blocking malware than cleaning up existing problems, and installing it in on an infested system can be difficult. However, McAfee Total Protection 2010 is a represents a huge improvement over last year’s version and it can be taken as a serious consideration if at all you are looking for total protection.

Check Latest Antivirus Reviews, Comparison in this website.

McAfee Total Protection 2010 3 User Suite - Specification Details

Lab	McAfee
Software name	McAfee Total Protection 2010
Suite type	All-in-one
License type	Complete package
License Validation period	One year
License quantity	Three users
Package type	Retail
Minimal System requirements	Windows XP SP2, Vista, Windows 7 800MHz processor RAM: 512 MB (Windows XP) 1 GB (Windows Vista and Windows 7) 450 MB available hard disk space Internet Explorer 6
Recommended system requirements	Windows XP SP2, Vista, Windows 7 Intel CORE Duo (1.66 GHz) or equivalent processor RAM:< 1GB (Windows XP and Windows 7) 1.5 GB (Windows Vista) 600 MB available hard disk space Internet Explorer 7
Supported browsers	IE, Firefox, Netscape, Safari, Chrome, Opera and Flock
Anti-Virus	Yes
FireWall	Yes
Anti-Spyware	Yes
Anti-Phishing	Yes
Anti-Spam	Yes
Data Backup	Yes
Email server requirements	Microsoft Exchange 2000, Microsoft Exchange 2000 SMB, 2003 Server or Advanced Server, Lotus Domino 5+, 6+ to current 6.5, No mailbox limits
New features	Active Protection Quickscan Faster performance Enterprise-class anti-spam Power optimization Network monitoring Age-appropriate searching Parental controls support for Google Chrome
Key features	Award-winning PC Online security Detects, blocks, and removes viruses, spyware, and adware Identity protection helps you to shop, bank, and trade online safely Parental controls allow your children to go online safely Advanced home network protection with network monitoring
Support	Assistance with common issues built directly into the product Free technical support for the entire duration of the product license

Kaspersky Lab computer security is one of the leading internet security companies in the world founded in the year 1997. In 2008, IDC ranked Kaspersky Lab as the fourth largest global antivirus vendor and the Kaspersky lab was also included in Software Top 100’s in 2009 edition of world’s software company rankings. Kaspersky has certainly been a favourite antivirus solution among the techies. Kaspersky’s performance has been top rated in the past couple of years and let us see if the 2010 antivirus edition of the company will maintain the trends and retain its throne as the best AntiVirus Software.

What is in Kaspersky AntiVirus 2010?

Kaspersky has brought in new and improved antivirus software to the table this year. This new version promises complete PC protection with ease of use for the end users. The 2010 Kaspersky antivirus software offers protection against threads including Viruses, Spyware, Torjans, Bots and Worms. Kaspersky claims that the updates are done every hour and has also included two new technologies in this software, namely, iSwift and iChecker. While iSwift is designed to adjust the scanning process according to the activities of the user and hence preserving the performance, the iChecker feature makes note of the files that are safe after scanning and will scan them again only if modified, leading to quicker scanning periods. Some of the other new additions included in the 2010 Kaspersky are Whitelisting and Application control which determines the application security and a Kasperkey URL Advisor which will keep the users safe from the dangerous links.

A very big disappointment is that like some of the other antivirus suites, the Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 also lacks a personal firewall which has been included in the much more expensive Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 Suite. Like its robust internet security sibling, the Antivirus software leverages anonymous data from its customer base to create a behavioural engine in order to further strengthen the security safeguards and other than this there is nothing much that really differentiates this antivirus suite from its fierce freeware competitors, some of them who actually score better in the efficiency tests. As in the case of the previous versions, the Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 is a powerful and dependable antivirus and anti spyware application. Keep reading for the more detailed look at each of those features.

Compatibility:

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 is compatible with all the latest Windows OS from XP, Vista to 7 and it can work in 32 bit as well as 64 bit systems. This suite costs a wee-bit more than its competitors, but keep in mind that one licence can be used on up to three computers. The plug-in works with your browser (Firefox and/or IE) and provides integrated warnings and advanced protection while you surf.

Installation:

Installation of the suite is pretty simple and it offers a custom method for the advanced users to configure the particular components to be installed, which includes parental control, the virtual keyboard and the various antivirus engines. You will also be provided with an option to not install the anonymous data collection that Kaspersky’s behavioural engine and Urgent Detection System relies on and if you choose not to install it, there is nothing to worry as you are not any less secure and it is just that you will not be contributing your data to the system. If you do decide to provide data, you will be offered with the data collection statement so that you are sure on what is going on legally which we suspect that most users will treat it like any other legalese EULA and just ignore it.

Customisable:
The program also requests you if you want to disable your firewall if it is active and also offers a protected installation process so that, your system is no less safe. You will be allowed to activate the program via trial period or by purchasing it immediately and you can also choose to toggle the programs sensitivity to user input by choosing the less intrusive “Trust Kaspersky” option or the much more customisable “Ask for user input” when the suite detects a threat. The definition file updates can be configured to be Automatic, which is the recommended option or scheduled or manual. The users will also be allowed to password protect the settings of Kaspersky and this is certainly a very smart feature for systems that have more than one user. The final configuration window under the advanced user settings will request you for the kind of malware you would want the KAV 2010 to detect.

Viola ! No reboot:
The best part about Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 installation is that, it does not require a re-boot as it had to in the previous models, but the un-installation process does need one. The very first window that you will be seeing is a virus definition warning that your local virus definition database requires an update. Just by clicking on the link will do, it will open the main Kaspersky window and begin to update the program. You will need to reboot for the most current updates to take effect. Our advise, only the power users should choose the longer and advanced installation process but we must also say that the entire installation process is flawless on the Windows Seven OS. Some of the commendable points are that, the suite had no conflicts with the already installed security software AntiVir and after uninstalling the suite, we found just two minor traces of the software program in the Registry. Un-installation using the available Modify, Repair or Remove tool gives the users opportunity to keep certain program data on the system and after reboot, Kaspersky AV reactivated the Windows Defender Firewall. Overall, it was a very clean and easy installation.

User Interface:

The Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010’s interface is just easy to use but not very intuitive as some of the other suites that we had tested. The screens are just informative without being overwhelming.  While changing the settings of some of the features, it was possible to have up to five individual windows open at a time. We found other antivirus programs that consolidate options and settings better to be more effective at aiding us in configuring the antivirus settings as required. We found that some of the links led to the same screens as other links making them redundant and bit confusing. The icons and graphics that were used on the control panel seemed to be excessive and these made the user interface seem over-crowded with more controls that it really had. We are not trying to say that it is a bad interface, but it could be improved.

Virtual Keyboard:
As most of the antivirus suites, the Kaspersky AntiVirus 2010 comes with an auto-run disable feature and a virtual keyboard and so, in theory, you will be able to enter passwords without having to worry about a keylogger. But the fact is that, security experts have warned that onscreen keyboards do not decrease the risks of password theft and either way, we think most users will find it superfluous. However, it is not the same case with the new gamer mode which basically keeps the suite functioning as and when you play games but also bans the interrupting pop-ups and reduces the memory usage to its minimum.

Annoying trial version notification:
The very annoying yellow bar that announces that your system security is at risk as you are running the trial version can be toggled under the Report Link at the top right of the main window. We are really not happy with the wording of the message as it appears in the program that falsely equates your computer’s security with the status of your license when the Kaspersky Lab itself offers the trial as fully featured.

Features:

The basic protection features of Kaspersky Antivirus 2010 software include File Anti-virus, Mail, Web, IM, Proactive Defence and Anti-Phishing. The Extra Tools and Features in KAV 2010 are available in its Security+ Window which allows you to use tools like Virtual Keyboard, Rescue Disk, Browser Tune-up, Privacy Cleaner, Windows Settings Troubleshooting Utility, Special Game Mode and Browser Helper Object.

Urgent Detection System:
The fully featured Kaspersky AntiVirus 2010 suite provides you with a complete and competitive range of security options and the new features in the 2010 suite include the aforementioned behavioural based detection system known as the Urgent Detection System. The UDS makes use of anonymous data of 10 million Kasperkey’s customers who choose to participate in offering their system scans to the company’s central servers for the sake of analysis. This feature also red flags suspicious behaviour if any and hence, even if a program used to be safe, it will be able to shut down any newly activated malicious content.  This is actually a very smart move by Kaspersky to take advantage of its huge consumer base for security purposes and it is all good as long as the data remains to be anonymous. And many other security suites are also incorporating the behavioural detection engines, so this is a feature that users have to participate in and get used to if they are not doing it now. Among the heaps of User Detection System features, some of the best sub-features include the capability to customise the time taken to pass a judgement on a new program and per-user configuration of the rules that govern the behaviour of program.

Anti-Virus Protection:
Kaspersky’s real time antivirus protection works fast and efficiently. The suspicious files are quarantined as soon as they reach your PC. However, real time protection does not remove malicious files from Zip files by default and you will have to adjust this setting. Even if a program seems to be having deep penetration, the minute it starts behaving badly, Kaspersky blocks it. If it is an unknown program, then Kasperkey will treat is sceptically by monitoring and restricting the program until it has been proven to be safe. Under the scan tab, you will find the Vulnerability Scan Option that utilises technology from Secunia in order to determine those programs that are of potential security risks as they lack any of the recent updates or patches. This can be extremely useful for those programs that may not warn you to be having a pending security update like Adobe Flash.

My Protection:
The tools that Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 has under the My Protection Tab are very robust. Anti-virus protection is offered for emails, files, instant messaging and HTTP traffic. When it comes to Application control, the Urgent Detection System includes options for customisation in case you need to force access for a specific program that Kaspersky is identifying as a threat. The suite offers protection against Spam, Phishing, firewall control, banner ads and a network monitor in order to track the network activities for people who like to drill deep into their system’s behaviour. You will also find a Parental Control filter with options to outright block children from particular sites or even the mere log events. By default, the Parental Control feature is off and when the feature is activated, it assigns all the other users on the computer the Child status until directed otherwise. There is also a teenager status available for the sake of more granular control restrictions.

My Update Centre:
The My Update Centre tab offers you with smooth update scheduler that is integrated into the main interface. To change the schedule, click on the run mode and this is not remarkable except to let you know that only the definition file update offers an update such as this. In order to schedule any other regular scan, you have to click over Settings options at the top right of the main Kaspersky window and choose the feature that you wish to schedule from the list. The list will be in the left if it was not open in the main window when you hit settings and then click on Settings from within the window that opens and then finally click on the Run Mode tab on yet one final pop-up window. The whole process is quite tedious and could be streamlined to a great extent, but it is sad that it just unnecessarily makes one of the very basic features of the security program hard to reach.

Scan My Computer:
The scans and definition file updates were performed empirically as expected and the Quick Scan took less than 3 minutes and the vulnerability scan also took less than four minutes. The complete scan which is always slow in most of the Anti-Virus suites also took just less than an hour to complete and the only concern that we had was that, once 80% of the scan was complete, it began to oscillate informing that it would finish in one and two minutes, which in fact took another eight minutes to complete.

Virus Activity Review:

Yet another nice feature in the KAV 2010 is the Virus Activity Review. This is a streamlined virus watch report that displays a number of interesting statistics and analysis on the current layout of viruses and other malware. With graphs and charts, it is easy to get a glimpse into the world virus threat level and see how Kaspersky is staying up to date. Several of the antivirus software we reviewed includes the capability to revert or “rollback” to a previously working database if the most recent update caused any problems. Kaspersky has this feature, and it is easy to find and deploy. Simply go the ‘Update Center’ tab on the dashboard and find the tool. And if your computer completely crashes, you will be glad you created a rescue boot disk from the Security+ tab. The rescue disk can easily be burned, and will contain a disk image that can run on boot up and help you revive a dead PC.

Protection:

Spyware or Adware Protection:
Anti-Virus Software of Kaspersky 2010 was fantastic in removing adware and spyware. In our tests, 100% of spyware was detected. Even the spyware that was recognised as spyware or adware, but deemed dangerous was removed anyway just to be safe. A reboot is required for it to completely remove the software, which was very slow. Kaspersky also does a mini scan prior to rebooting just to be on the safer side. Once the reboot is done, the spyware or adware will be removed completely. Note that one of the Spyware test samples was not completely removed on the first reboot. But kaspersky re-detected it and ultimately removed it after a few reboots. There were a few other instances of this kind, but the result is complete spyware and adware removal.

Virus removal:
When we tested Kaspersky’s virus removal on a pre-infected machine, the suite responded well. It managed to find and remove 90% of the threats that previously entrenched the PC. But a full update of current virus and malware definitions is required first for maximum efficiency which is a normal process during installation. We found that there was only one spyware application that prevented Kaspersky from being installed. Overall, Kaspersky performed much better than expected on our pre-infected PC.

E-mail Protection:
Most of virus, spyware and other malware were successfully detected and prevented from being downloaded via email while the real-time protection was active. The good news is that no significant resource usage drain was detected and there was only one brief CPU usage spike around 60% during our testing and it quickly returned to normal.

Instant Messaging Protection:
The Instant Messaging protection of Kaspersky protection was very effective. Any of the files that tried to transfer through Instant Messaging was instantly scanned by the suite and alerts you if any dangerous files are detected. As soon as the file is known to be dangerous, the suite will simply deal with the file accordingly before it ever gets into your system.

AntiVirus Definition Updates:
The core antivirus and anti spyware features scored quite high in our tests and we found that there is only one area that needs some serious attention. During our testing, the latest virus and spyware definitions were available approximately two hours even though we could not find any documentation on how often the updates are schedule. Though we would like to see faster updates, 1 to 2 hours is just about average for most antivirus software applications. Kaspersky scored a 90% removal rate or viruses and spyware that was blocked and captured during our real-time protection testing. The Kaspersky AntiVirus 2010 managed to detect more than 98.4 percent of malware on demand and the 98.3 percent of spyware on demand with a below average rate of false positives. Other malware were equally identified, blocked and quarantined.

Anti Phishing:
The anti-phishing feature seem to be less than impressive especially when it comes to Kaspersky and our tests revealed some poor results in this area. The anti-phishing feature did not detect even a single phishing URL while testing the component. We even tried some of the known phishing sites that were just two to ten hours old and no phishing attempts were detected by Kaspersky. The phishing sites tend to disappear after 24 hours and so we went back to retest and we just ended up conforming the results. KAV gave no alerts even after visiting these known phishing sites again. To add to the embarrassment, the Internet Explorer and Google Chrome detected more phishing URLs with better accuracy than what Kaspersky managed to do. This is a very bad record for Kaspersky’s anti-phishing feature.

Apart from the weak anti-Phishing feature, Kaspersky’s Antivirus 2010 is a stellar product. In fact, Kaspersky’s removal rate was higher than most other software we tested. With a fast acting response time and 90% removal rate during our tests, the suite did quite well with real-time PC Protection. When it comes to advanced antivirus and antispyware protection, you cannot go wrong with Kaspersky and they have continued to prove it year after year.

Manual Scan:
KAV 2010 detected and removed up to 90% of all viruses, spyware, torjans, adware and other malicious installers during a full-system manual scan. We did not detect any of the re-installation attempts and no reboot was required to purge the computer. It has 90% success rate which is pretty good and also keep in mind that no antivirus can be 100% accurate as new malwares arise everyday and 90% is an excellent testing result. The total, in-depth manual scan took just about 16 minutes altogether.

Though the Kaspersky Antivirus 2010 has the same engines and features as Kaspersky Internet Security, it lacks a lot of features including the personal two way firewall, parental and privacy control, safe run virtual sandbox, white listing and application control, banner ad blocking and anti-spam protection.

Effect on system:

Coming to the part of the suite’s effect on the system performance, our benchmark tests revealed a slightly different side to KAV. Resource usage for Kaspersky antivirus 2010 was just 4% of the total memory during real-time activity. Only about 87% of the CPU was used during a full system scan, which is not bad for industrial strength antivirus software like Kaspersky.

Kaspersky Antivirus 2010 has boot time that is couple of seconds higher than the average and the suite also slowed down the shut down time by a second and a half. We found that the scan times were actually faster on the Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 than the Kaspersky Anti-virus 2010 by 10 seconds. Both the suites seem to be having identical engines, but the antivirus software has fewer ancillary features. The performance of both the suites were identical during the Microsoft Office and iTunes decoding tests, but when it came to media multitasking, antivirus suite was faster than the KIS 2010 by 64 seconds. Even in Cinebench test, the Internet Suite was worst when compared with the standards and KAV.
The overall effect on the system was quite average and was nothing much to worry about.

Support:

Kaspersky offers 100% free customer and technical support. At the time of writing this review, we have not found any hidden fees or charges or special charges. The support offered by Kaspersky looks very organised and straightforward. You will be able to launch the “Fast Track” support webpage from Kaspersky control panel and this webpage will answer most of your common questions. When you click the support link at the bottom of the main window brings up a new window with options to directly submit a ticket, browse the knowledge base and even visit the user forums. You will also find a link to the Help database that appears on pop-ups and the main window. While Kaspersky’s support number is a Boston Area code which is not a toll free number, you still get 100% free support for Antivirus 2010 and Internet Security 2010 as well. Overall, a good effort by Kaspersky to provide you with free customer and technical support.

Verdict:

Kaspersky AntiVirus 2010 remains to be a strong and reliable antivirus protection option for this year. There were lot of positive results in our testing and Kaspersky is keeping up the good work this year with good antivirus and antispyware protection. As we had mentioned in the review, Kaspersky is a bit pricier when compared to the other Antivirus suites in the market and we hope they reduce their price in the near future. There is no doubt that the Kaspersky antivirus 2010 is an effective one, but it is the extra features in the Kaspersky Internet Security that makes it worth paying for and unfortunately Kaspersky antivirus lacks them.

We just hope that they will fix their anti-phishing issues with a much more robust and reliable anti-phishing feature. As it stands now, poor anti-phishing is still a concern. On a positive note, the tests showed great results of IM scanning, email protection and resource usage. There were a few issues with the interface and we thought that the performance could have been stronger; however, the inclusion of the behavioural engine bodes very well for the future. We are very happy with Kaspersky’s continued attention to its core suite of virus detection capabilities. Overall, we feel that Kaspersky Anti-virus 2010 is adequate for an average consumer, but the power users might even find it a bit too lightweight for what it costs.

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Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 Package - Technical Specifications

Lab	Kaspersky
Software name	Kaspersky AntiVirus Software 2010
Suite type	AntiVirus
License type	Complete package
License Validation period	One year
License quantity	Three users
Package type	Retail
Minimal System requirements	Windows XP SP2, Vista, Windows 7 300MHz processor RAM: 256 MB (Windows XP) 1 GB (Windows Vista and Windows 7) 375 MB available hard disk space Internet Explorer 6
Recommended system requirements	Windows XP SP2, Vista, Windows 7 Intel CORE Duo (1.66 GHz) or equivalent processor RAM: 1GB (Windows XP and Windows 7) 1.5 GB (Windows Vista) 600 MB available hard disk space Internet Explorer 7
Email	All POP3, SMTP, IMAP, MAPI and NNTP supported clients Microsoft Outlook 2002 or later Microsoft Outlook Express 6 or later Windows Mail (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and other webmail not supported)
Instant Messaging	Yahoo! Messenger MSN Messenger Trillian AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) ICQ Jabber Google Talk
Supported browsers	Internet Explorer and Firefox
Anti-Virus	Yes
FireWall	No
Anti-Spyware	Yes
Anti-Phishing	Yes
Anti-Spam	Yes
Special Operating Modes	Game Mode which reduces system load and postpones scans Laptop mode that prolongs battery life
Tune up	Removes unnecessary files & registry entries, for optimised performance
Data Backup	No
Main Feature	Improved Complete PC Protection Kaspersky iSwift and iChecker Scanning Automated Hourly Updating Kaspersky Virtual Keyboard Kaspersky Security Network Improved Kaspersky Whitelisting and Application Control New Kaspersky URL Advisor
Other Key features	Game Mode Kaspersky Toolbar Basic Identity Theft Protection Urgent Detection System Color-coding of links to unsafe websites
Support	Free technical support (Phone, Live Char, Email, Knowledge Base), Phone support is U.S.- based and available Monday - Friday from 8 am - 9am ET.