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Bitdefender Internet Security 2012 (£39.99 on three PCs for a year) captured the highest rating in our malware detection, blocking, and removal tests compared to its rivals. Those fantastic results, combined with the software's excellent interface, make it a great product.
The Bitdefender suite found and blocked 96% of samples in our real-world malware tests (which help to show how well antivirus software can stop brand-new malware), and it spotted 99.96% of known malware samples. Both of those results are very good - the latter was the third-best result in that particular test that we saw this year. False positives were almost nonexistent, as the suite misidentified only one safe file as being malicious. And the Bitdefender software was the best of the test group in cleanup, too: It detected and disabled all active sample infections, and removed every last trace of malware 90% of the time.
Bitdefender’s revamped interface is better than its rivals and vastly improved. The previous version of the suite had three different modes tailored to beginners, intermediate users, and experts. We found that this setup overcomplicated matters, since the basic mode was a little too simplistic, but the advanced mode was an overwhelming mix of tabs and toggles.
Its new design, though, should be easy for beginners to understand, but it still maintains plenty of flexibility for advanced users. Screens are laid out nicely, and at no point did I feel overwhelmed by the settings panes. At the top of the main window is a status indicator that lets you know whether you're protected; below that is a side-scrolling panel that allows you to turn various suite components on or off, or to drill down deeper to toggle more settings.
The individual settings panes have lots of controls, but they're arranged nicely. Clicking the help button in each one (denoted with a question mark) produces pop-up messages that describe what the settings do. And the program’s new “Auto Pilot” mode puts protection levels at their recommended settings; you can toggle it with a simple on/off switch located on the main control panel.
Bitdefender could stand to improve its suite's impact on overall PC performance, though. The Bitdefender package slowed startup times more than any other suite we looked at, adding over 10 seconds to our test PC's boot time as compared to a fresh install of Windows. It also dragged our PC down significantly when we copied files over a network, completing that test in 5 minutes, 37 seconds. (By comparison, our test machine finished the copying operation in 60 seconds without antivirus software installed.)
Its scan speeds are respectable: Bitdefender's on-demand (manual) scanner checked 4.5GB of data for malware in 1 minute, 56 seconds, placing around the middle of the pack in tests with other security products. The on-access scanner (which runs whenever you open or save a file) completed its check of 4.5GB in 4 minutes, 25 seconds; although that's a slightly better-than-average result, it still ranked seventh among the 14 suites we looked at.
If you can tolerate such system performance issues, Bitdefender Internet Security 2012 is an excellent suite for novice and advanced users alike.
Source Techworld
A solid choice for keeping you safe, Avast Internet Security 6 (£29.99 for one PC for a year) is easy to use, and in general it will protect your PC quite capably.
Avast's suite blocked 96.2% of malware in our real-world tests, which help determine how well security products can stop brand-new malware. With that result, it placed near the top of the pack; even so, the very best performers in our test group were able to stop all attacks. The Avast suite also managed to stop 99.75% of known malware samples, which is an excellent showing, but again, not the absolute best we've seen (our top performer detected over 99.99% of samples in this test). It achieved a perfect score in our false-positives test, flagging not a single safe file as being potentially malicious.
Regrettably, although the Avast software proved adept at identifying and neutralizing all infections on our test PC, it left more malware remnants behind than many of its competitors did.
System slowdowns shouldn’t be a serious issue with the Avast suite, though overall it wound up near the middle of the pack in that respect. It added barely any time to file downloads as compared to our test system without antivirus software installed. Its scan speeds were faster than the average of the 2012 products we tested: It completed our on-demand scan test (in which we scan 4.5GB of data using the manual scanner) in 1 minute, 21 seconds - one of the fastest performances we saw this year - and its on-access scanner (which runs when the user opens or saves a file) completed its check of 4.5GB in 4 minutes, 1 second, a slightly better time than average.
In my hands-on testing of Avast Internet Security, I found it generally easy to use and navigate. Its installation process was fairly straightforward, asking me to click though only three screens before it was complete, though it did require me to restart my PC. Once installed, the Avast software does an initial scan of your system. The main interface is little changed from last year's suite, which isn't necessarily a bad thing - it's clean, attractive, and easy to navigate. Along the left side are tabs that let you access settings for the suite's main features. The settings are fractured to some extent, since the software doesn't have a unified 'Settings' panel; instead, it breaks up settings by function. If you want to change the firewall settings, for instance, you have to look under the Firewall tab. Admittedly, this arrangement does make settings less intimidating to beginners.
The interface is visually appealing, with lots of graphs and charts. The look makes the suite friendlier for less advanced users, but it might be a little distracting for some people. I also found that the Avast software popped up notifications in the lower-right corner a little more often than I would have liked.
Avast Internet Security 6 isn’t the most feature-rich suite - it lacks some common functions found elsewhere, such as parental controls - but what it does provide, along with its strong protection against malware, should suffice for most users.
Source Techworld
