Rating 9.8/10

Features
Ease of Use
Effectiveness
Customer Support

Top Choice

1. Shield Deluxe 2009

Introduction

Shield Deluxe 2009 provides impressive anti virus AND anti spyware protection against the numerous security threats you are exposed to on the web.

Shield Deluxe 2009 is equipped with some of the latest defenses including:

Anti Virus Protection Spyware Protection Email Virus Protection Instant Messaging Enryption and virus protection Phishing (identity theft) protection Real time protection and monitoring Hourly Automaitc Updates

 

File-Antivirus

Shield Deluxe 2009 safeguards your system from the unauthorized intrusion of viruses. The File-Antivirus option meticulously scans the file system of your computer. The software allows you to only certain parts of your system to scan or you can easily scan the entire system allowing you the flexibility to scan only what you want which can greatly decrease the amount of time a scan takes.. 

For example, you can protect the removable (external) and network drives attached to the system.

 

Mail-Antivirus

Most of viruses and Trojans generally infect your system through te-mails, usually containing some unknown or false attachments.

 Mail-Antivirus thoroughly scans your e-mails to detect Trojans, viruses, worms you to scan both emails you receive and those you send out. The scanning time can be adjusted as per your convenience as some emails take longer time to open.  

The Attachment Filter checks the attachments of your mail (the primary method of infection) to greatly reduce the chance of infecting your system.
 

Web-Antivirus

Shield Deluxe 2009 also protects your system from the viruses and Trojans floating around on the internet.

The Web-Antivirus component comprehensively scans all web traffic to check for infections of your system from any dangerous program, file, or web site.

For those looking for more control of your web surfing, you can customize the security level through various options allowing you to speed up web surfing using less restrictive options (though opening you up to more possible threats while avoiding possibly annoying warning messages for sites you visit frequently) to super restrictive options that provide more protection but may interfere with your web surfing experience through more warning messages and possibly blocking access to some sites.
 

Proactive Defense

Like most anti virus software these days, Shield Deluxe 2009 , provides real time protection of your system by detecting and blocking infections before they happen.  This is done by comparing incoming and outgoing traffic to the database of threats built into the software and by flagging files that seem to behave (this is called Heuristics)  like a virus or spyware before they have a chance to install themselves on your PC.

 

Virus Scan

The final and most common method of virus protection is to scan your files, folders and hard drives for virus infection that are already on your system.

The software will scan the key areas of your system such as system memory, My Computer, Start up objects and other common areas of your system

We found that the software is equipped with some of the advanced scan options such as ?i-Checker? and ?i-Swift?, to assure an effective protection of your system. The user can also vary the scan-time and file-size in accordance with his computing needs. The software consists of a detected report tab that shows the infected files/programs on its list.
 

User Friendliness

The software has a very user friendly interface making it easy to scan and update the software, create backups of your files and system, and remove threats with ease without having to know how all the advanced features work. 

Effectiveness

The software though effective under regular conditions was a little slow in overall performance.

The software also was relatively slow in scanning large files as compared to other antivirus solutions. 

On the brighter side the software was efficient in scanning emails and displayed a great degree of success in spotting income threats. It is also effective in safeguarding the registry and feel the software is functional for professional purposes as it substantially secures the areas of your system most prone to infection.

Customer Support

We have checked both the telephone and web support of the software and we got a relatively speedy response.

When we checked out the email support received a reply from their technical team within a day which is nearly the average for most vendors (except Norton which is rather prompt). The chat support was also up to the mark. We did not have a long wait on telephone and troubleshooting was provided in an simple, eat to follow manner.

Plus, not having to pay per incident is a huge plus over some other companies that charge a fee each time you call them.  
 

Conclusion

Shield Deluxe 2009, provides anti virus protection on par and in some areas surpassing that of some of the biggest names in the anti virus market.

That coupled with free phone support (other companies charge a fee each time you call) and the fact you can get it for about half the price of other anti virus solutions makes Shield Deluxe 2009 our top recommendation.

 

Click Here to Download Shield Deluxe 2009

(Click here to visit Shield Deluxe 2009)

Rating 8.9/10

Features
Ease of Use
Effectiveness
Customer Support

 

 

 

 

2. Norton AntiVirus

 

Introduction:

Norton Antivirus 2008(NAV 2008) is the latest answer for all your security fears, a remarkable product coming out from the kitty of this illustrious antivirus solution specialist. It comes across a pervasive solution that effectively provides superior system protection against all new and emerging threats. It combines the cutting edge sophistication of an advanced security tool with a neat user interface that is effortless to use.  This latest version boasts of a range of features that can quite capable of protecting you against dangerous viruss and unwanted adwares intrusions. 

This software also provides holistic protection against the disguised Internet attacks and other unknown threats that take advantage of various vulnerabilities  of present in internet browsers  Besides, it has now been optimized for providing greater system performance, improved one-click maintenance solution for users, and  an elegant user interface which is neat and easy to get along with. T

Feature Set:

NAV 2008 definitely has a set of strong fundamental features which every other antivirus software routinely possess such as to sense and stop attacks from viruses, worms and trojans alike. However it truly scores is in presenting features that other products do not normally carry with them. It is also armed to the teeth with some superior features to effectively combat the latest kinds of unknown threat parameters; some of whom we have listed below
 

Internet Worm Protection:

NAV 2008 Internet worm protection safeguards your system against security threats that Internet worms present. With worms becoming increasing potent as demonstrated by "MyDoom" worm, we decided to check out the detailed features that Norton provides to keep such threats at bay. 

To begin with Norton gives you the choice to configure the utility to your liking. So if you like to trust your local networks you can do so. You can specifically monitor a defined signature by configuring your choice. It even gives you option to allow certain programs access while blocking the rest. For example you can go ahead and allow unhindered default windows files sharing while blocking inbound NetBios.
 

virus Protection:

The virus protection feature of NAV 2008 guards against all virus and adware related security risks playing a pivotal in securing personal information and privacy. These malicious programs are programmed to track your keystrokes, browsing history, or cookies; detain your email and instant messaging traffic; or to steal sensitive personal information such as credit card numbers, login IDs, or passwords. These programs can then send your compromised data to other people. This feature is fully customizable and can be set to auto-block recurring Internet attacks and disturbances. 
 

Phishing Protection:

NAV 2008 also provides protection against Phishing, Pharming and similar dodging tricks, and accordingly keeps your identity out of harm's way by protecting against online leakage of your confidential data while carrying out online transactions. This solution enables users to control sharing of personal information with other websites and makes transacting online safer.
 

Inbound firewall:

NAV 2008 offers an inbound personal firewall technology which acts as a first line of defense for your system, inspects network traffic passing through it. This curtails all harmful unauthorized traffic inflows within the network.
 

Network Security Map:

Another security feature added by Symantec is the Network Security Map. This dialog box provides a graphical representation of the devices on the network to which your computer is connected. It helps users view, configure and monitor the details, connection status or the security status of present ports in the network. Thus enhancing your network security.
 

Security history:

Security History feature of NAV 2008, provides an elaborative database in a centralized location from where one can view your alert history, results of scans that have run on your computer system. Using it one can also manage quarantined items smartly. In addition, all received alerts can be reviewed at any time in Security History.

Instant messenger protection:

With the soaring popularity of chat programs, virus writers are increasing targeting these tools as a means of compromising your system. NAV allows the user to protect specific messengers and also check for newly installed programs.
 

Automatic LiveUpdate:

The Automatic LiveUpdate element of NAV 2008 automatically checks for the latest virus definitions, protection and program updates when it is connected to the Internet. Updates can also be configured to be manually updated from the Internet though it is recommended to set LiveUpdate to download and install protection updates automatically. 

 

User Friendliness:

The Norton antivirus software 2008 has succeeded to advance in the era of competition and offered a software that is very easy to use. What we liked most about it was the main information screen of Norton Protection Center which accurately displays the status of security on your system. This display menu consists of two main options, Home and Norton Antivirus, located at the top part of the dialog box. 

Home tab is the hub of the Norton Antivirus software platform and shows the protection status of the vulnerabilities of your system to viruses, worms, trojans and other threats. From here you can easily enable or disable the various protection services. Just next to the home tab is Antivirus settings window supplementing the wishes of advance users, who want to have better control over the security features. From here you can run a full or custom system scan, and can also configure basic and advance software settings. 

This apart the control panels are rather easy to navigate with minimum effort being needed on the part of the user. 
 

Effectiveness:

NAV 2008 is quite effective in sniffing virus attacks that are trying to sidestep your security defenses. It strongly fences your system against all such invaders who are trying to crack through it and in a look out to destroy your important files, data, applications, or else to make your system slack up. 

It can skillfully restore an infected computer system to its original condition. It removes wide varieties of malwares, hacking tools, rootkits, RATs, backdoors, and other such ills. It has an effective real-time protection capability that can automatically block all intrusion attempts on your computer. We tested it with With32.FunLove virus and NAV was very efficient in detecting and deleting it. 

We checked it to scan browsers it able to detect tracking cookies and other minor threats may potentially risk your privacy.  We checked a variety of files with program and in most cases it look lesser time than other comparative tools to scan the files. It was particularly impressive in scanning zipped files and large media files. 

Overall it comes through with flying colors much of it can be attributed to its efficient engine which Norton has suitably advanced over the years.
 

Support:

Norton offers numerous ways to help it users solve their product related problems. The software is built in with useful help pages to diagnose and resolve common issues. The inbuilt help booklet provides a comprehensive guide to all of the product features and tasks, and one can easily locate the information he is looking for.

The Norton?s newly launched products are also loaded with an interactive online support solution, which provides step-by-step optimized assistance for troubleshooting.

Product support is available in all options through phone, email or via live chat. We contacted their email support and received their reply within 5 hours which was relatively quite prompt. Live chat support is also available for free though the responses are at times slightly delayed.
 

Other Details:

Equipped with Auto-Protection element the software provides real-time continuous defense mechanism against all viruses and security risks. When set on, it automatically detects and cleans known viruses. It also allows you to engage in manual scanning whereby you scan select a particular file for scan. Options for running a variety of scanning options are present that one make use of. For example you can choose the Quick Scan feature that is provided to perform an express check and it only verifies the running processes and system files for infections. 

Norton?s antivirus products now are all also equipped with SONAR (Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response) technology. It?s an attempt by Norton to battle zero-days exploits who are still unconquerable.

Conclusion:

Overall, Norton Anti Virus is a great anti virus solution but just a notch below our top recommendation, Shield Deluxe 2009, also pushing it down a notch is that at the time of this review it costs almost twice as much as Shield Deluxe 2009.

 

Click Here to Visit Norton Antivirus

(Click here to visit Norton Antivirus)

Rating 8.3/10

Features
Ease of Use
Effectiveness
Customer Support

3. McAfee Virus Scan

Introduction

With VirusScan 2008, McAfee has made a bold attempt to provide a holistic system security for home users and small businesses. This antivirus software can be credited with combining pioneering antivirus, anti-virus and firewall technologies to make a consummate security solution.

McAfee VirusScan's advanced detection and protection services assuredly defend your computer from the latest security threats. Protection extends beyond the files and folders on your desktop, targeting threats from different points of entry - including e-mail, instant messages, and the Web. The software lets you to configure the scanning module as per the user's requirements. We performed a comparative study of this software on various parameters and it came out with flying colors in most aspects.

Feature Set

In addition to the elementary features of antivirus software, this antivirus package also boasts of a bag of tricks that could endow advanced protection against fallacious scripts, privacy-invasive viruss, and potentially harmful e-mail and instant message attachments. We have notes some of features that really appealed to us

Script scanning

The Script scanning protection of this virus scanner potentially detects harmful scripts and prevents them from running on the computer. The software actively monitors your system for suspicious scripting activities and alerts before any apparent damage takes place. What we really liked about this tool was its capability to protect us when visiting unreliable websites.

virus protection

virus protection facilitates a systematic detection and prevention of viruss, adwares, and other potentially unwanted programs (PUPs). By preventing these entities from intrusion one can surf, search, and download files online in a much assured manner.

E-mail protection

Its E-mail protection feature diagnoses and treats the suspicious files and activities in the e-mail messages and their attachments. This feature restricts the entry of viruses and worms through e-mails and keeps your system impervious from the unauthorized invasions of other such threats. We tried this feature and found that it worked quite well with email client that we were using. At times some antivirus solutions can unwittingly block the passage of emails from the email client which thankfully was not the case with Mcafee.

Instant messaging (IM) protection

When we checked its Instant messaging protection feature, we found that this software significantly detects the potential security threats in received instant message attachments. It also secures your identity from being stolen, i.e., the software effectively shields sharing of personal information, from instant messaging programs such as Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger.

Personal Firewall

McAfee's Personal Firewall imparts advanced protection for your system and your personal information by protecting against all network based intrusions. Personal Firewall functions as a barrier between your system and the Internet. It comprehensively examines the incoming and outgoing internet traffic for unwanted intrusion and suspicious actions. You can select the level of security you require by setting the appropriate level from the options presented.

QuickClean Utility

QuickClean option helps you in the optimization of your computer's performance by deleting undesirable files/folders. It will facilitate the user to remove the drive-clogging "Internet build-up" (e.g., temporary files, cached files, website remnants, ActiveX codes), defunct programs and other unnecessary objects to free some of your disc space.

McAfee Shredder

While checking the software, we discovered a notable feature called McAfee Shredder, which permanently deletes the items from your computer's hard drive. The deleted item cannot be restored back again. This innovative tool secures the privacy of your data by permanently removing those files that may contain important personal information such as passwords, names etc.

Network Manager

The Network Manager option presents a well illustrated block diagrammatic picture of the connected systems and modules in the home network. It remotely scrutinizes the security status of each system connected in the network, and fixes potential security threats on them.

HackerWatch

One of the prime features of McAfee Security Center is HackerWatch, which efficiently keeps your system free from hacking attempts and other unauthorized intrusions. HackerWatch matches the data set with universally defined patterns of attacks and hacking attempts thereby lessening the probability of your system from being attacked.

SystemGuards

SystemGuards monitors the unauthorized modifications carried out in the Windows registry or the significant files of your system. This protects your system against the severe harm and reduces the susceptibility of some important files from being intruded. It keeps tracking the registry changes along with ActiveX installations, browser add-ons etc.

Traffic Monitor

This utility is designed to portray an elaborate graphical analysis internet traffic (both incoming and out going). It successfully presents a schematic view of internet traffic by accurately plotting the current traffic transfer volumes.

User Friendliness

McAfee Antivirus 2008 effectively uses a central window known as SecurityCenter, which encompasses various security service components of McAfee at one place. The layout of this control panel is very well-defined and functional, which aids users to access the required settings in a jiffy.

The SecurityCenter window facilitates you to review your PC's security status in a single glance. One can also easily modify myriad settings, check for updates, or fix potential security issues by using it. The software was able to accurately detect the viruses present on the system (we tested it with WiN32.Funlove) and was also quick in completing its scans. It also displayed a great potential of neutralizing online threats that one may encounter.

Effectiveness

McAfee VirusScan can effectively neutralize or eliminate malware hazards by examining (scanning) electronic files that look virus-infected or by noticing suspicious behaviors shown by certain programs which might indicate infection.

Manual scanning process of this software is extremely simple and smooth. The right side of window panel shows the locations that you can select to scan. The scanning options are given next to the location part and it will enable you to opt a suitable scanning option.

The scanning process is very basic and does not illustrate much information about the current files being scanned in process. The scan process is not much demanding and thus does not prove to be taxing on your system resources.

After every successful scan process a popup window showing summary of scan results is observed. This alert window also directs us to the more detailed scan results

Support

One of few sour points in otherwise impressive package is its support. McAfee's technical telephonic help is available for a whooping $2.95 a minute or $39.95 per incidence. This leaves the help manual provided along with the software is comprehensive enough to troubleshoot all preliminary problems.

This apart the email customer support is pretty decent with a typical response time. That said Mcafee does disappoint with its support since it places virus removal support in a separate category and the costs are too high as compared to support offerings from rival companies.

Other Details

McAfee also has a bunch of well thought out features that serve various purposed. Among them the Advanced Reporting & Log features stand out due to their detailed coverage of information.

However McAfee surely lacks is in placing these features in an accessible manner. Unlike its equally illustrious rival Norton, it does not display urgency in streamlining its interface. Hence we get a very impressive product whose many benefits remain unnoticed unless the user makes a conscious effort to utilize them.

 

Click Here to Visit McAfee Virus Scan

(Click here to visit McAfee Virus Scan)

Rating 7.8/10

Features
Ease of Use
Effectiveness
Customer Support

4. Trend Micro

Introduction

Trend Micro Anti-Virus plus Anti-virus software is a trustworthy name among the noted class of antivirus softwares available in the market. The software displays adequate potential for detecting and removing the hazardous agents from your system. The software is extremely easy to operate and is appropriately presented to suite the requirements of the users. It is designed to efficiently combat a wide range of computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, phishing attacks, virus and other malware. It is fully compatible with all the latest versions of Mircosoft Operating Systems.

The software includes advanced security options which keep your system immune against myriad security attacks. The software has a free flowing user interface which makes its operation a child's play. We checked the software on various parameters and its performance and services did find favor with us to a great extent. The software presents a full array of solutions for households and small and medium sized enterprises. It is equipped with some of the latest techniques to counter the unauthorized access to your system. However what went against it favor was its draw on resources. Further the fact that it hanged up on us quite a few times also pulled its score down.

Feature Set

The feature set of Trend Micro Antivirus reflects an image of a potent software which is capable enough to defend your system against the eminent threats. We examined its different features comparatively and the study is presented in the following section.

Virus and virus Control

The software is programmed to provide real time protection against all system security fears at ease with no fuss. Just click on to the Virus and virus control tab and you can easily access the corresponding scanning and protection options enumerated in the dialogue box. The security settings can be accessed from the main console and it sets the software to automatically check for viruses in the system on every instance of opening, saving, copying, or moving any file. This also examines every program that launches for signs of virus. On detection it promptly repairs the affected area by taking the most appropriate action. Further the scanner can be made to switch to the background mode, which consumes lesser CPU resources and facilitates you to engage yourself in other significant tasks.

It also scans all Internet traffic flows in real time and tries to block viruses before they are actually saved to disk. It can monitor the running processes and system file changes, and also warns the users about all suspicious modified activities.

Trend Micro Antivirus software provides a one click scanning vehicle which scans your hard drive for all latest known perils of viruses and worms; and provides a complete information report after every trial, listing out the potential threats, their risk levels and action taken on them.

The software provides you the option of scheduling your scan in accordance with the user's computing habits. The scan can also be customized to counter some specific threats. This helps you to figure out and eliminate the potential threats from suspicious files/folders. The software provides you the opportunity to perform the necessary elimination manually under the customized scan option.

Monitoring the Unauthorized Changes

The software has a sophisticated monitoring system tool which finds and blocks unauthorized changes to your computer's operating system and applications. The software also have the remarkable feature of Software history cleaner, which protect your privacy as it can wipe out the histories maintained by various installed programs.

Back-up File Support

An notable feature included in this software is Backup File Support, i.e., it creates a backup file of the possibly infected file just to safeguards your important data as an infected file may suffer damage during the removal of a virus.

Quarantine

The Quarantine option lets you to isolate the suspicious files from the system and facilitate you to retain them without deleting them. You can manage separate quarantines for virus affected and virus affected files.

User Friendliness

The user interface of this software has been put up in an intuitive manner, making it easy to navigate through all its features. It has been designed in such a style that users of all expertise, whether novice or expert, can comfortably operate it. The default settings provided are ample for the basic users to gain the full benefits of the program. Furthermore, the deep tabular menu offers complete user controllable configurations for the ace users.

Click the options on the left side of the window to reveal more controls related to these features. Each feature provides number of user configurable options that allow the user to control this application as per requirement.

Effectiveness

Apart from some of the crucial limitations, we found the software is pretty competent on majority of defined parameters. Scan process was able to detect a host of virus application running on our system in a very short span of time. However, a complete system scan is very time consuming. We have tested the software with Win32.FunLove virus which the software successfully detected and eliminated without a hitch.

The software also takes a considerable amount of time in scanning the e-mail attachments as compared to Norton Antivirus. There is no provision for stopping the scan process once it is initiated, however it can be minimized to background in order to continue the other operations on your computer.

The software does a thorough scanning of your compressed files and archives as it provides layer wise scan options to its users. Further it has good set of advanced options which a learned user can use to his benefit.

Support

Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antivirus 2008 is equipped with pretty satisfactory contextual help, with detailed descriptions given on each configuration screen, as well as advanced trouble-shooting help can be viewed by just clicking Help button provided on that page. Trend Micro also provides free and propitious telephone, email and Internet chat support for its products. We have checked the web support of this software and found it really instrumental in troubleshooting the miscellaneous predicaments.

The only consideration felt being absence of elaborative user manual in the initial package.

Other Details

Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 offers valuable protection for your home or small office computer systems by combining Anti-Virus, Anti-virus, and Anti-Rootkit scans into single engine. It effectively guards against nearly all present security threats as well as emerging threats.

There are certain value-added features which we came across while checking this software. To begin with the ingrained Anti-virus tool is an added help for combating against viruss, data miners, dailers and other malicious softwares without any call for purchasing a standalone anti-virus product. The only thing missing to make it an invincible antivirus solution is an incorporated personal firewall which is a need of the hour.

Not only it excels at the primary task of preventing virus attacks but also puts forward very well structured thorough information of the possible threats and security dodging issues for the commanding users.

There is absolutely no hassle in getting your software updated periodically. The software has the option of singe click updation which makes its functioning fairly smooth. The Log option in the Other Settings window helps you to track record of various scans performed by the software in the recent past.

 

Click Here to Visit Trend Micro Antivirus

(Click here to visit Trend Micro Antivirus)

Rating 7/10

Features
Ease of Use
Effectiveness
Customer Support

5. CA Anti Virus

Introduction

The CA Anti-Virus 2008 is an effective and easy to handle antivirus software that proves to be functional enough to protect your computer against the most conventional system threats. We found this software program well-suited to the computer rookies as no real technical hassles are involved in its installation and usage. This software will surely find a fair application in protecting households owing to the fact that a single purchase comes with three licenses. The scanning rate of the software is pretty decent and it is quite low on the system resources. However, the software has a conventional mechanism of detection and doesn't meet the contemporary requirement of system defense. The software doesn't exude the potential to combat against the more advanced computer threats owing to its absence of holistic features for online defense.

Safety wares such as personal firewall, anti-virus, etc. which are the need of the hour are missing from this offering of CA. Our experience suggests that an intense and need-oriented up gradation of this software is desired to align itself to the most dynamic and highly competing antivirus market.

Feature Set

CA's Anti-Virus software is equipped with almost all the fundamental features you would be looking for in an AntiVirus Software. It can efficiently detect, compete and clean all known and emerging forms of viruses, worms, and Trojan horse programs. But it does not offer any additional features which the other antivirus utilities are inclusively built with, such as, supplementary firewall, virus protection, network traffic monitoring, etc.

Real-time Scanning

The Real-time scanning feature is the basic detection mechanism which automatically scans your computer to figure out the malicious attachments of your email and remove the malware programs that attempt to get install or run on your system. This specific tool will perform the function of scanning every time the file is accessed in any manner. You can also skip the scanning of some of the files/folders of your system by doing the required modifications in the exclusion list of Real-time scanner.

On-demand Scanning

Sometimes your system requires an urgent scan to operate further. This out of schedule scanning is remarkably handled by the On-demand tool of the software. Its On-demand scanning process lets you to have an immediate scan of your computer to diagnose and disinfect the affected entities. It can also be scheduled to run on-demand scans at specific intervals of time.

Advanced Heuristic Scanning

The virus authors are periodically infusing the advanced and more destructive viruses into our computers. These new threats pose a real challenge for the antivirus software. Advanced Heuristic Scanning mechanism detects these new threats even before virus protection updates are created. This rigorous scanning finds out those viruses that are created by modification of the old viruses, as soon as your system reflects their presence.

Snooze Anti-Virus Protection

One can stop real-time virus protection for a specified period. Real-time virus protection can be snoozed by right-clicking the CA Security system tray icon and then by selecting "Snooze Anti-Virus Protection" from the popup menu. The Real-time virus scanning is suspended for that specified period.

Automatic protection updates

CA Antivirus can be configured to automatically update your virus definitions at set predefined time. The update process is automatic and hardly takes any time to complete. The update schedule can be manipulated as per the comforts of the user.

User Friendliness

The CA Security Center window gives you sound information about the different security agents installed in your system. There is a comprehensive list of the products from CA that are essential for an effective safeguarding of your system against the potential threats. It provides an overview of your computer's security. On running it, it opens a panel showing status information for the product modules, whether or not the products are installed, and lets you easily access and use all the component products of CA. From here one can access the basic functions of the installed component products. It can also be used to launch installed component products to access their advanced options.

An elegant toolbar has been placed at the top of the panel which allows quick access to the common functions, update and help.

The control menu of Anti-Virus component is casual and frank yet covers all essentialities. One can easily scrutinize the functions of its components using the vertically arranged task buttons placed on the left hand side of the window. This window displays the summary of various defense provisions of the antivirus component along with information of latest security threats and prevailing viruses given on the right hand side. The large buttons given are overview, quarantine, options and reports. They all serve as passage to individual modules.

The interface so provided is suitable for the beginners, but with not many customization options it is not expected to appease the advanced users.

Effectiveness

Factors like fast scanning process, user friendliness, low resource usage, and stable operation may rank it high above the tail but still it lacks on certain essential parameters to do an efficient scanning.

Detection rates shown by it are commendable and has a robust cleaning ability to keep your system clean. The features provided such as real-time protection, automatic e-mail protection, automatic updates, virus isolation, and advanced heuristic scanning are regular and do not stand out in the competition.

The archive file scanning is limited and the software does not demonstrate optimal performance in automatically removing viruses within compressed files such as zip or cab files. This service remains restricted and it only scans when you extract the contents.

Help & Support

CA's Antivirus software offers a partial technical support. The built-in help file is lacking on details. There is no troubleshooting manual packed inside. Although there is a good effort in making the help window interactive and informative and the support services are matching the market standards. In testing times you can save your day by making a telephone call to support professionals which is billed at $19.95 per incident.

The email support was one amongst the slowest among the software we reviewed. We would rather recommend you trying out its chat support for a quicker resolution.

Custom scan

You can perform a custom scan to check for viruses on specified areas of your computer. This option facilitates you to do a customized scan of various entities of your system. We found this feature really instrumental in carrying out the targeted scan of malicious files/folders.

Quarantine

It displays the number of likely virus infected files that have been quarantined during the scan. From here one can either restore or permanently delete the probable harmful files. This feature enables you to retain the suspicious files in your system for a considerable period of time.

Reports

CA antivirus prepares detailed informative logs of the system activities. The records are classified into 3 different logs- On demand scanner log, Real time scanner log, Email scanner log. The log records maintained by this software are very basic, much similar to MS Notepad log, storing facts about previous scans carried out. These logs keep you abreast with the previous actions of the scanners mentioned in the dialogue box.

 

Click Here to Visit CA Antivirus

(Click here to visit CA Antivirus)