Trend Micro AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware is a stripped-down security option, offering only the most basic of protection. That's not a bad thing, but except for the Smart Protection Network, which leverages anonymous data from customers to block malicious threats that are manifesting on users' computers, we're not sure how this differs from its freeware competitors. There is strong customer service, of course, and the user account-style lockdown to prevent unauthorized changes to programs. However, the program lacks consistent performance, and a lack of recent independent testing numbers on Trend Micro has made it equally hard to determine how effective it is. Unless you're a die-hard fan of Trend Micro, we'd advise staying away from the bare-bones AntiVirus and AntiSpyware version this year.
Publisher's description
Trend Micro AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware is an essential security you need to safeguard all your data and files. With automatic scans, updates, and outbreak alerts, you can rest easy knowing you have systematic, ongoing protection against the latest malicious viruses, worms, Trojan horse programs, and spyware. This product is powered by the PC-cillin Internet security engine, proven technology that protects your computer from unforeseen intrusions. Key features include: prevent unauthorized changes, enhanced software history cleaner, improved Web browser cookie management, customizable security warnings, security activity report, fully compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista install trend, protection against viruses, protection against spyware, computer scans, real-time protection, quarantined file recovery rather than immediately deleting potential or uncleanable threats, Trend, automatic updates and outbreak alerts. Version 17.50 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes. What's new in this version: Version 17.50 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes. Download Now (81.17MB)
Trend Micro AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware is a stripped-down security option, offering only the most basic of protection. That’s not a bad thing, but except for the Smart Protection Network, which leverages anonymous data from customers to block malicious threats that are manifesting on users’ computers, we’re not sure how this differs from its freeware competitors. There is strong customer service, of course, and the user account-style lockdown to prevent unauthorized changes to programs. However, the program lacks consistent performance, and a lack of recent independent testing numbers on Trend Micro has made it equally hard to determine how effective it is. Unless you’re a die-hard fan of Trend Micro, we’d advise staying away from the bare-bones AntiVirus and AntiSpyware version this year.
Publisher’s description
Trend Micro AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware is an essential security you need to safeguard all your data and files. With automatic scans, updates, and outbreak alerts, you can rest easy knowing you have systematic, ongoing protection against the latest malicious viruses, worms, Trojan horse programs, and spyware. This product is powered by the PC-cillin Internet security engine, proven technology that protects your computer from unforeseen intrusions. Key features include: prevent unauthorized changes, enhanced software history cleaner, improved Web browser cookie management, customizable security warnings, security activity report, fully compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista install trend, protection against viruses, protection against spyware, computer scans, real-time protection, quarantined file recovery rather than immediately deleting potential or uncleanable threats, Trend, automatic updates and outbreak alerts. Version 17.50 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes. What’s new in this version: Version 17.50 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes. Download Now (81.17MB)
Panda Cloud Antivirus is notable as a free security solution for two reasons: Panda is a reputable security vendor making its first foray into the realm of freeware security, and the program’s goal of freeing up system resources by putting much of the program’s heavy lifting in the cloud is definitely attained. When you open Cloud Antivirus, the main window lets you know whether you’re safe or not with a big red or green icon. Cloud Antivirus works as other antivirus solutions do, offering a Quick Scan and a Custom scan for specific folder, files, and drives, but its ancillary features are exceptionally light. You can opt out of contributing anonymous data to the cloud, but that also opts you out of automatic threat management. There’s a network connection proxy option should you need it, and a reporting feature that will show you what kind of threats have been detected and removed from your computer. You can filter the report by All, Last 24 hours, Last Week, or Last Month, and there’s a Recycle Bin pane from which you can recover a false positive, should you need it. Unfortunately, the Recycle Bin is hidden behind an obnoxious “flipping” screen that cheesily rotates when you need to access it. Despite lacking some of the customization heft that even other free antivirus solutions have, most glaringly a scheduler, the program is not necessarily a bad choice for a stripped-down antivirus. It runs at less than 10MB of RAM when idle, and around 60MB when scanning, which should appeal to resource-conscious Netbook users. Keeping in mind its limited feature set, and that we don’t have efficacy numbers at the time of reviewing, Panda Cloud Antivirus makes a decent, reasonable security choice.
Publisher’s description
Panda Cloud Antivirus is the first free cloud-based antivirus thin-client. It consists of a lightweight antivirus agent that is connected in real-time to PandaLabs’ Collective Intelligence servers to protect faster against the newest malware variants while barely impacting PC performance. Thanks to Panda Security’s Collective Intelligence malware and goodware online database, Panda Cloud Antivirus detects more malware than traditional signature-based solutions which take longer to detect the most recent, and therefore most dangerous, variants. Panda Cloud Antivirus protects you while you browse, play or work and you won’t even notice it. It is extremely light as all the work is done in the cloud. Panda Cloud Antivirus provides you with the fastest protection against the newest viruses thanks to its cloud-scanning from PandaLabs’ servers. Panda Cloud Antivirus is truly install and forget. Don’t worry about updates, configuration or complicated decisions ever again.
What’s new in this version: Final version 1.0 release includes bug fixes for all issues found during beta testing. Download Now (21.98MB)
AVG’s most popular product is its free antivirus, but the company also makes two enhanced security suites that are geared for users who don’t mind paying for additional protection–as long as it’s worthwhile. AVG Anti-Virus 9 introduces a few new features, claiming faster scan times, faster boot times, and other under-the-hood improvements. Users who’ve used AVG 8 will find the interface nearly identical, and generally it’s easy to use. From the main window, though, you must double-click to get further information on any feature, whether virus scanning, firewall protection, or updating. We’d like to see this streamlined, since there’s no reason to click on any of them without wanting more details; it is a spare interface, otherwise. You’ll find a full-blown scheduling utility for automating tasks and checking for new definitions as often as you’d like. Other perks include technical support and the ability to run on multiple operating systems. Should a virus create serious system problems, AVG creates a rescue disk to scan your computer in MS-DOS mode. The program doesn’t obviously tax your system when scanning or when running in the background. There’s also a new identity-theft assistance service, available for free and provided by a third party. In empirical testing, scan times were slower than expected, and the new firewall database proved to have autoapproval problems with some well-known programs. It also detected some image files as threats, when two other scans decided they weren’t–we decided these were false positives. AVG might not be the fastest or the most effective available security option, but it still gets the job done and you’re better off with it. AVG Internet Security 9.0 is faster, safer and easier to use. This is a complete solution for all the things you do online. Multiple layers of protection mean you don’t have to worry about identity theft, spam or viruses. AVG Internet Security 9.0 gives you two vital extra layers of protection: With AVG LinkScanner whenever you’re on the web, the moment you go to click on a link, LinkScanner analyzes the page behind that link to tell you whether there’s something nasty hiding there. For added peace of mind, you also get safety ratings for your Google, Yahoo! and Bing/MSN search results. Identity Protection makes sure your passwords, credit card information, bank account details, and other valuable data are safe from even the newest and most sophisticated threats. It’s constantly on guard, watching to make sure no program on your PC is doing something it shouldn’t. CNET Editor’s Note: The Download Now link will download a small installer file to your desktop. Remain online and double-click the installer to proceed with the actual download. To learn more about AVG products and to ask questions and receive answers from AVG company representatives, please visit CNET’s dedicated AVG Forum. What’s new in this version:
In this new edition, the combined anti-virus/anti-spyware scanner in AVG Internet Security 9.0 runs up to 50% faster than earlier versions.
New in AVG Internet Security 9.0 is the integration between the Resident Shield, firewall, and identity protection modules. This enables the modules to share malware information with each other providing better real time protection.
AVG Internet Security 9.0 also delivers new anti-phishing detection techniques, which can quickly an… see all new features
Avira Premium Security Suite protects you in a very comprehensive way against the dangers of the Internet. It offers you numerous additional features over the virus protection offered in the AntiVir Premium Edition. In addition to AntiVir Premium, the Suite includes an integrated firewall that wards off attacks such as DoS attacks (Denial of Service attacks) or port scans, spam filtering to help you manage the complex attacks on your mail box and a backup function to ensure the safety of your data. Version 9 adds a new Parental Controls Module, which blocks websites unsuitable for children and adolescents. What’s new in this version: Version 9 adds a new Parental Controls Module, which blocks websites unsuitable for children and adolescents. Download Now (36.81MB)