Review: Bitdefender AntiVirus 2008 software
Inevitably, with the explosion of malicious code that can damage our data and ruin our day, the software grew along with it and most titles now are bloated behemoths that sap the very life force from our machines.
Like many advanced users, I make do without AV software, though I take various other precautions to avoid infection, and, so far, (touch wood), Ive never had a virus I didnt knowingly import.
While I like the idea of real-time virus protection most AV software offers, (where files are scanned every time we use them), I dont like the performance hit that goes with it. Much of todays AV software is just too clumsy and inefficient to be useful.
Developers forget that ordinary users have ordinary machines, not like the quad-core monsters they design their software on.
If your machine is powerful enough, you might not notice the extra baggage.
Its a bit like encasing your car in a solid block of concrete, leaving only a hole to climb in and a slit to see out of.
Sure, its the safest car on the planet but it just doesnt work that well.
So, ideally we want an anti-virus package that protects our machines without turning them into sloths.
When we mention anti-virus software, we dont usually think Eastern Europe; most of us think Norton or McAfee. The truth is that much of the current AV software hails from what was once %26lsquo;behind the iron curtain.
AVG and Avast are from the Czech Republic, Kaspersky is from Russia, Nod32 from Slovakia and my subject for today, Bitdefender, is from Romania.
Bitdefender AntiVirus 2008 is priced at $49 and the box states it %26ldquo;Protects up to 3 PCs%26rdquo;. There is a fully-functional demo version available to download from their site so you can try before you buy, and if you like it you can purchase online via their site or grab a boxed version at your usual software outlet.
My test rig is an average machine by todays standards and I am running Vista Business edition. To keep things scientific, I wore a white coat for all the tests.
Now, I could bore you to tears with facts and figures, and believe me, I will, but to me they matter less than the overall %26lsquo;feel of my computer after installing the software. Does it feel slower? Is there lots of hard drive thrashing or is it me thrashing the hard drive yelling %26ldquo;come on you b%26amp;^%$!!?%26rdquo; I have decided to ask and answer three questions; is it good value? Would I use it and would I recommend it to you, my loyal readers? Lets find out.
Installation was easy; insert the disk, follow the prompts. A nice touch was the setup file looking online for a newer version and offering to download it, which I accepted. After a few minutes the install carried on. The next step is updating the software with the latest data. This was a surprisingly large download (9mb) considering I had already downloaded the latest installation file during the setup. No problem though.
Once installation is completed, a reboot is required. After restart, as Vista booted, I got a Bitdefender service crash dialogue, which asked me if I wanted to send an error report. I did; if it helps them make a better product then Im happy to help. The service that crashed was automatically restarted and I had no further issues during the time the software was installed. Not an auspicious start though.
Bitdefender also loaded a floating graph thingy above the system clock. This semi-transparent widget can be set anywhere on-screen and sits in front of other windows displaying current file scanning activity. Cute, and a novelty, but this is the kind of useless, resource-hogging %26lsquo;feature that just isnt needed. It is more %26lsquo;bling than a useful tool. If you like it, fine, if not, at least it can be turned off in the programme options.
Using a process viewer, I could see four Bitdefender processes running and was pleasantly surprised at how few resources these core services use. More importantly, my machine doesnt feel slower, except when opening start menu items where I now notice a slight delay before the menu populates, but I could live with this. Opening other programs takes no longer than usual. As I write this I am scanning my %26lsquo;D drive in the background. I would expect my machine to slug down with a scan in progress but in this case I dont even notice it. Excellent.
This is where I got confused (not an uncommon occurrence, I assure you). My %26lsquo;Identity Control requires attention. I fossicked around for the manual that came with the software %26ndash; nothing about it in there. I hit the Bitdefender website, no further explanation there either. What does it do? I still dont know. Clicking the big red %26lsquo;Fix This Issue button opens a dialogue requiring me to enter personal information like credit card data and so-on; whether this is some kind of filter or core-level protection Im not sure, but after 10 minutes of trying to find out about it I gave up; it shouldnt be that hard. I felt perhaps there could be some example data in there to illustrate what is required.
The settings dialogues are all clear and easy to understand; out-of-the-box Bitdefender is ready to protect you with minimal input. That said, when I looked around trying to find a way to do a full scan on selected areas %26ndash; a handy feature if you want to scan a particular drive or a few folders %26ndash; I couldnt find anything, though there is a %26lsquo;right-click context menu that allows you to scan a drive or folder, so maybe they just rely on this feature for that particular task.
Email protection, one of the most important parts of any AV software, was automatically configured and required zero input from me. I use Operas M2 for email, a relatively unusual mail client, and I sometimes see issues with other AV software. Not Bitdefender; checking for mail was seamless and there was no delay %26lsquo;waiting for the scanner to %26lsquo;kick in. A simple dialog shows both incoming and outgoing mail being scanned in real time
I used a test virus to put Bitdefender through its paces; it isnt actually a virus but is good fun to play with. Trying to open it or even download it from the web was impossible %26ndash; Bitdefender wouldnt allow me to have any kind of access to it at all; very good.
Bitdefender also has an option (called %26lsquo;Aggressive) to monitor traffic when web surfing. I turned this on and went looking for trouble. I found it on East 51st street, and her name was, oh, wait, sorry, thats my novel. No, I went to a known site that prompts people to download %26lsquo;funnies, which of course contain a virus. While I could surf the page, trying to download the %26lsquo;funny was impossible. Excellent.
To be honest, I wanted to dislike this product. I thought it would be just another fat and lethargic scanner; another worthless title the unsuspecting public would be sucked into buying by clever misinformation marketing and paranoia mongering.
But it isnt. I like it. It is surprisingly lightweight and very easy to use. All the bases are covered, and thats important; the software does exactly what it promises to do.
I know there are free AV titles out there, including one from Bitdefender, so why should we buy one? Most free software is feature limited, though not crippled, and I still recommend it, but if you are one of those people who cant equate %26lsquo;free with %26lsquo;good, and you simply have to buy something, you couldnt do much better than Bitdefender Antivirus 2008 for features and value for money.
I rate it 8 out of 10, and if you know me, you would know that this isnt hollow praise (and no, I dont get free software or trips to the Riviera for saying so %26ndash; hint hint, Bitdefender).
So is it good value? Yes it is. Would I use it? Yes I would. Would I recommend it to you? Yes, if you must buy AV software, this would be a good one to go for.
Oh, I promised you some figures. My 500GB secondary drive has 465GB of data on it, which is made up of 284,473 files in 37,016 folders.
This includes 74,628 compressed archives (zip files) which are historically difficult for AV scanners to negotiate. A complete scan on this drive took 5 hours, 11 minutes. Bitdefender found several hundred suspicious items, (figure 7) which means Im going to be stuck here for hours sorting this out. Darnit! Now I remember why I dont use AV software…
