Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 Review
Kaspersky Lab computer security is one of the leading internet security companies in the world founded in the year 1997. 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 takes in anonymous info from its user base to generate a behavioural engine in order to fortify 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 trustworthy 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 further than its rivals, but keep in mind that one licence can be used on up to 3 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 provides a custom method for the sophisticated users to configure the particular components to be installed, which includes parental control, the virtual keyboard and a variety of antivirus engines. You will also be provided with an choice to not set up the anonymous data gathering that Kaspersky’s behavioural engine and Urgent Detection System will rely on and if you opt not to install it, there is nothing to worry as you are not any less protected and it is just that you will not be providing your data to the system. If you do decide to provide data, you will be offered with a statement for data collection such that you are aware of legal proceedings, which we think majority of users might treat like yet another legalese EULA, ignoring the same.
Customisable:
The program also requests the consumer if they desire to immobilize the firewall if it is active and also provides a secured installation process so that, your system still secure. You will be allowed to set off the program via experiment time or by buying it immediately and you can also choose to toggle the programs reaction to user input. 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 a single user. The final configuration window under the advanced user settings will request you for the type 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 1st window that you will be seeing is a virus definition caution that your local virus definition database needs an update. Just by clicking on the link will do, it will open the main Kaspersky window and commence to update the program. You will have to restart for the most existing updates to be done. Our advise, only the power users should opt for the longer and complex 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 clashes with the previously installed security software AntiVir and after uninstalling the suite, we found just two negligible traces of the software program in the Registry. Un-installation using the available Repair, Modify, or Remove tool gives the users chance to keep some 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 few of the features, it was possible to have up to five seperate windows open the same time. There are also a lot of other antivirus suites that bring together choices and settings to be more efficient at helping you in configuration of the antivirus setting when needed. We found that few of the links led to identical screens as other links, which makes them quite redundant and confusing too.
Virtual Keyboard:
As most of the antivirus suites, the Kaspersky AntiVirus 2010 comes with an auto-run disable feature and a virtual keyboard, so in theory, you will be able to enter passwords without having to worry about a keylogger. But the fact still remains and it is the opinion of the security experts that onscreen keyboards don’t really lessen the peril of password thefts and we guess users may find it unnecessary, either way. 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 licence 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 competing and whole range of security options and the latest features in the 2010 suite comprise the aforesaid behavioural based detection system known as the Urgent Detection System. The UDS makes use of anonymous data of ten million Kasperkey’s clients who opt to take part in offering their system scans to the company’s central servers for the sake of analysis. This feature also red flags mistrustful behaviour if any and hence, even if a program used to be secure, it will be able to shut down any newly activated nasty content. This is actually a very smart move by Kaspersky to take advantage of its enormous consumer base for safety purposes and it is all good as long as the data is 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 ability to modify the time taken to pass a judgement on a fresh program and each user configuration of the regulations that govern the behaviour of program.
Anti-Virus Protection:
Though a program seems to be having deep penetration, the minute it starts behaving poorly, Kaspersky blocks it. If it is an unknown program, then Kasperkey will treat is sceptically by observing and confining the program till 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 probable security dangers as they lack any of the fresh updates. This can be extremely useful for those programs that may not caution you to be having a awaiting 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. The suite offers protection against Phishing, Spam, firewall control, banner ads along with a network monitor that keeps tracks of network activities for users who are keen on probing deep down into their PC’s behaviour. You will also find a Parental Control filter with choices to totally block kids from meticulous sites or even the mere log events. By default, the Parental Control feature is off and when the feature is activated, it allocates all the other users on the computer the Child status unless directed otherwise. There is also an adolescent status available for the sake of extra coarse control restrictions.
My Update Centre:
The My Update Centre tab offers you with easy update scheduler that is incorporated into the main interface. To change the schedule, click on the run mode and this is not amazing but to let you know that only the definition file update offers an update such as this. 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 definition file updates and scans were done empirically as usual and the Quick Scan took less than three minutes and the vulnerability scan also takes 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 cease 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. Majority of the antivirus software reviewed by us had the capability of reverting or “rolling back” to a backup database, if there is an issue caused by a most recent update; and Kaspersky was not exception to this feature and is fairly simple to be found and deployed. Simply go the ‘Update Center’ tab on the dashboard and find the tool. So, if you PC does completely crash, you might thanks yourself for creating the rescue boot disk from Security+ tab. This disk is easy to burn and contains a disc image, which runs on re-boot and helps reviving a dead PC.
Protection:
Spyware or Adware Protection:
Anti-Virus Software of Kaspersky 2010 was fantastic in removing adware and spyware. In our tests, hundred percent of spyware had been sensed. It needs a restart for it to wholly get rid of the software, which was very slow. Kaspersky suite also does a tiny scan before the 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 samples was not entirely isolated on the first reboot. But kaspersky sensed them again and it and eventually removed it after a couple of restarts.
Virus removal:
When we tested Kaspersky’s virus removal on an already machine, the suite responded well. It managed to find and remove 90% of the threats that previously entrenched the PC. But a complete update of current virus and malware definitions is required 1st for highest effectiveness which is standard during installation. We found that there is only one spyware application that prohibited Kaspersky from being installed. Overall, Kaspersky’s performance was quite good.
E-mail Protection:
For the most part of spyware, virus, and other malware were effectively detected and prohibited from being downloaded via email while the real-time protection was active. The good news is that no noteworthy resource usage was noticed.
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. 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 vanish 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 superior precision 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 firewall, that is two-way, safe run virtual sandbox, parental and privacy control, whitelisting and application control, anti-spam protection and banner ad blocking.
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 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 being relatively faster in Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 as against Kaspersky Anti-virus 2010 by say around 9 seconds. Both the suites seem to be having identical engines, but the antivirus software comes with lesser 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 concealed fees or charges or special charges. The support offered by Kaspersky looks very straightforward and organised. You will be able to launch the “Fast Track” support webpage from Kaspersky control panel and this webpage will respond most of your general questions. 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 cent percent free support for Antivirus 2010 and Internet Security 2010 as well.
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. Without any doubts, the Kaspersky antivirus 2010 is an efficient one, but it is the additional 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 enclosure of the behavioural engine bodes very well for the prospect. 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 |
| 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. |
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