Best Antivirus Software, 2011
Antivirus vendors have included “2011″ in their product names since the summer of 2010. Now that the year 2011 has actually arrived it’s time for a new look at the whole collection. Several of the latest additions attempt to crank up protection by running two different antivirus engines, and some actually succeed. This batch also brings a new Editors’ Choice for free antivirus and a new shared Editors’ Choice for commercial antivirus.
As always, when I say “antivirus” I mean a utility that protects against all kinds of malicious software, not just viruses. Trojans, spyware, rootkits, keyloggers, adware, scareware – a proper antivirus must handle all of these.
Standalone or Suite?
Many of this year’s products blur the line between standalone antivirus and security suite. In the past the presence of a personal firewall has been one defining suite element; not any more. There’s a fully-functional firewall inside Panda Antivirus Pro 2011. eScan Anti-Virus 11 and McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2011 also offer firewall protection. Norton AntiVirus 2011 doesn’t include a complete firewall, but its intrusion prevention feature is more effective against exploits than most full-blown suites.
Spam filtering is another component typically found in a suite. The spam filter built into BullGuard Antivirus 10 is reasonably accurate and unusually helpful at setup time. eScan also offers a spam filter, but it’s not something you’d want to inflict on your Inbox.
StopSign Internet Security 1.0 includes an optional firewall with spam filtering built in. None of the independent labs have tested it, though, and its performance in my own malware blocking and removal tests was so poor that I didn’t bother evaluating those optional features.
BitDefender Antivirus Pro 2011 offers full remote management of other BitDefender installations across the network. McAfee can monitor other installations remotely and fix problems. Panda and Norton can at least let you know when another installation has problems, though they won’t fix those problems remotely.
BitDefender includes a very effective phishing prevention tool, as does G Data AntiVirus 2011. The LinkScanner component in AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 also works to block phishing sites, as does McAfee’s SiteAdvisor. AVG and Norton both scan the links on your Facebook pages to protect you from Facebook scams and viruses. BitDefender and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 both check your system for security vulnerabilities, though BitDefender takes the concept a bit farther.
Outpost Antivirus Pro 7.0 and BitDefender can block transmission of user-defined private data, a feature usually found only in suites. Ad-Aware Pro Internet Security 9.0, AVG, Kaspersky, and McAfee will tune system performance and wipe out traces of computer and Internet use. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that the product is “only” an antivirus, not a full suite.
The true standalone antivirus isn’t dead, however. For example, F-Secure Anti-Virus 2011 sticks to the business of virus protection without any sign of morphing into a mini-suite.
Twin-Engine Trend
Several late-season additions aim to double your protection by using two antivirus engines, with varying degrees of success. G Data’s dual scan doesn’t take much longer than the average single-engine product, and it includes powerful phishing protection. However, it doesn’t thoroughly clean up the threats it detects, and a failed cleanup effectively killed one test system. TrustPort Antivirus 2011 ran a bit slower than G Data and failed significantly in my testing. After its alleged removal some threats were still running. In the malware blocking test a few threats that it claimed to block managed to install and launch anyway.
Double Anti-Spy Professional v2 turned in the best performance of the twin-engine antivirus tools. It scans first with one engine, then with the other, and it also requires two separate updates. It’s noticeably slow, but effective enough that it’s worth waiting for.
Adjustable Interfaces, Built-in Support
Some users want to hear about every little security event, but most prefer a product that just does the job, without making a fuss. Ad-Aware Pro appeals to both with a choice of simple or advanced mode. BitDefender goes even further. Not only can its users choose basic, intermediate or expert view, they can build a personal collection of their most-used tools.
Webroot AntiVirus with Spy Sweeper 2011 totally focuses on keeping everything as simple as possible. It updates automatically, scans while the system is idle, and interacts with the user through a completely redesigned interface. All the detail a tech-savvy user might want is available, but hidden when not needed.
The user interface for Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus + 2011 discards the standard landscape-orientation window for a skinny vertical panel that takes up minimal space. McAfee, too, has switched to a vertical interface.
Norton reserves a panel across the bottom of its main window for interaction and communication with other security components. Initially the panel shows an interactive world map of security activity, but it can also connect with Norton Safe Web for Facebook or with your Norton Online Backup account.
Built-in and automated support features grace many of these tools. BitDefender includes a search box for help topics right on its main screen; a built-in tool will gather system information and contact an agent for chat-based support. Norton’s one-click support system gathers diagnostics and offers relevant FAQs or chat-based support. Kaspersky’s built-in support tool can send diagnostic reports to the company and process purpose-built scripts to fix specific problems. Panda’s PSCAN lets remote analysts request samples and push fixes without requiring full chat-type interaction. BullGuard offers built-in access to e-mail and live chat support with a message center to manage your support interactions. eScan links to live chat and online help.
The Best Protection
I torture-tested all of these products, challenging them to clean up 13 malware-infested systems and to block malware from attacking a clean system. Interestingly, the most effective antivirus products in my tests were not those that bulked up with added features. Webroot and Ad-Aware Pro offered the best protection overall, especially against rootkits and scareware. Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 2011 also scored very well in my tests. Ad-Aware Pro joined Webroot to become our shared Editors’ Choice for standalone antivirus. For full details on how I test antivirus products see How We Test Anti-malware.
Recent Free Antivirus Releases
Commercial security vendors seem to have standardized on a “fall model year” plan, like car manufacturers. The free antivirus products tend to come out with an update whenever it’s convenient. I’ve reviewed a half-dozen free products since summer, some very good, some not so good.
Panda Cloud Anti-Virus 1.1 has actually matched the top commercial products in some of my tests. For example, Panda Cloud Antivirus and Ad-Aware Pro share the highest detection rate in my malware blocking test. With its extremely minimal user interface and cloud-based detection system it’s a good choice for those whose budget doesn’t stretch to a paid solution.
Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware 1.46 is a perpetual favorite among security experts. It’s not uncommon to find another company’s tech support agents calling on Malwarebytes to clean up a stubborn infestation. It’s a tiny download, it installs quickly, and it gets right to business. What it won’t do is protect your system from attack. The product’s paid edition offers malware blocking, but it’s not very effective.
In the past AVG reserved their most powerful antivirus protection for the commercial product, but with the release of AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011 they’ve granted full power to the free edition. In fact, the free AVG is so feature-rich that it almost overshadows the company’s security suite. Its scores in my malware cleanup tests are the best among free products.
While Ad-Aware FREE Internet Security 9.0 lacks some of Ad-Aware Pro’s features it’s fully protected by Lavasoft’s new Dedicated Detection and MagmaShield technologies. It scored almost as well as the Pro edition and definitely beat out all the other free products.
Comodo Antivirus 5.0 is great at malware blocking, not so great at cleaning up already-infested systems. That’s completely in tune with the company’s viewpoint, which is that the best solution for an existing malware problem is to backup and reformat.
I evaluated two free products for the first time this season, digital defender free 2.0 and Immunet Protect Free 2.0. Digital defender didn’t detect much malware and left many threats running after allegedly removing them. Its for-pay Pro edition spent a much longer time scanning without appreciably improving the results.
Immunet focuses on protecting you by protecting the community of friends and contacts around you. You can easily hook friends up with a free copy of the program and view the security status of your entire community. Eventually this community- and cloud-based system may offer effective antivirus protection, but my testing showed that it doesn’t at present.
AVG does great malware cleanup but isn’t so hot when it comes to protecting a clean system. Comodo swings the other way, with great protection but poor cleanup. Panda does both well, but Ad-Aware Free is even better. In fact, it beats most of the commercial products. Ad-Aware Free is PCMag’s Editors’ Choice for free antivirus.
This still isn’t the final word on antivirus protection for 2011. Most of the heavy hitters have released their 2011 editions, but we’re still waiting for ZoneAlarm, Avast!, and PrevX, among others. For now, though, Webroot and Ad-Aware share Editors’ Choice for standalone antivirus.
Oldies but Goodies
What about the antivirus companies that just haven’t released new versions recently? In general I’d recommend a current product over an apparently-equal product that’s a year or more old, but there are a number of solid products in this position.
Free products can perhaps be excused if they don’t update as often as premium products. avast! Free Antivirus 5.0 did well in my last round of testing, and a new version is expected at the end of this month. Avira AntiVir Personal 10, also free, turned in a decent performance, as did Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0. No date has been set for a new version of these two.
Prevx 3.0 is one of a kind. It relies on cloud-based behavioral analysis and it installs and scans in a flash. Release of a new version has been delayed due to Webroot’s acquisition of Prevx, but version 4.0 is definitely on the horizon. VIPRE Antivirus 4.0 scored especially well in the previous round of malware-blocking tests.
I didn’t perform a separate test on ZoneAlarm Antivirus 2010, but as the antivirus component of ZoneAlarm Extreme Security 2010 it achieved decent scores. Check Point promises significant upgrades to the ZoneAlarm line in the first quarter of 2011.
The following pages present capsule summaries of our full reviews. As always, you can click the title of each capsule to read the complete reviews.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372371,00.asp
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