SoftWin BitDefender Review

Product: BitDefender AntiVirus 10 Price: $29.95 Vendor: BitDefender Editor Rating: 4 stars Download Now!

Pros

+ Fast scan time
+ Frequent updates
+ Antispyware capabilities
+ Recent certification by all major testing labs

Cons

- No custom scheduling (automatically scans in real time and at 2am each morning)

Review

BitDefender AntiVirus 10 is a powerful antivirus solution that provides effective coverage and frequent updates. A well designed interface and smart heuristics make this an excellent "start it and forget it" solution for both home and office users.

Usability

Installation of BitDefender AntiVirus was fast and easy. The program assists with installation through a helpful setup wizard. Setup took less than 10 minutes to complete.

Installation is simple and proceeds quickly with the helpful installation wizard.

Effectiveness

BitDefender has recently passed certification tests by the antivirus major testing labs (ICSA, Virus Bulletin, and Checkmark Level 2). To pass these tests, an antivirus program must successfully detect and disinfect all known viruses, without generating any false positives. BitDefender has passed all tests since April 2004 giving it a long track record. (Editor's Note: AntiVirus tests should be performed by specialized testing labs to ensure that dangerous viruses are not released onto the internet.)

Ease of Use

BitDefender has an attractive and easy-to-use interface that is quite simple to use. It automatically scans all files as they are accessed and performs real-time scanning as needed, so you will hardly ever need to pay attention to the program after you install it.

BitDefender Main Screen. Most users will only need to know where the "Scan Now" link is.

The program adds a small area to the desktop called a "File Zone". This is a moving chart that indicates how many files have been scanned in the past few minutes. You can also drop files directly onto this portion of the desktop to trigger an on-demand scan.

BitDefender creates a useful "file zone" area. Dragging-and-dropping files to this area triggers an immediate scan.

BitDefender AntiVirus prepares a report for each completed scan so that you can determine very easily what your files do or do not contain. You can also access helpful statistics such as last definition update time, details on any detected viruses, number of definitions, and more.

You can of course tell BitDefender to automatically disinfect or quarantine any infected files.

Updates

The program automatically checks for updates once an hour, although you can download updates manually as well.

Other Options

BitDefender has a number of other features that can come in handy at times, but does not overwhelm the user with too many esoteric choices. These features include the ability to scan removable flash drives, memory, and rootkits as well as some limited antispyware protection. While we strongly recommend that you use a dedicated antispyware program in conjunction with BitDefender, it is good to have two programs working towards the same purpose.

Perhaps the only complaint that we have with BitDefender is that it is not possible to schedule a scan during off hours. The program is automatically configured to perform a full scan each morning at 2am, but we could not find any way to change this setting.

Customer Support

BitDefender provides a "no-questions asked" refund policy. Should you run into any technicaly issues, they also provide a variety of support options including telephone, live chat, email, and knowledge base.

Summary

BitDefender is a highly effective and inexpensive antivirus product and we can strongly recommend this as a good buy to our readers.

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