Bitdefender Total Security 2013
Price: $80 (3 PCs, 1 Year)
Website: www.bitdefender.com
Quiet as a mouse, lethal as a lion far and
away our favorite feature of BitDefender is its Autopilot mode, which ought to
be called "Shut Up and Leave Me Alone" mode. When engaged,
BitDefender’s autopilot steps in as if to say, "I’ve got this, you just go
about your business," and as you do whatever it is you do on your PC, any
and all security-related decisions that need to be made are handled silently in
the background.
This feature alone is a godsend if you’re
the designated IT guy for friends and family members no more late-night calls
about security pop-ups or, even worse, messed up machines because your
mother-in-law granted permission to a dirty download even though a security
warning advised against it. D'oh!
Bitdefender
Total Security 2013
It also requires a fair amount of trust,
which BitDefender earned as we did our best to break down its defenses. There
wasn't much that BitDefender didn't recognize right off the bat as malicious,
and the few dirty downloads it didn't immediately identify were thwarted by its
cloud-based definitions. Malware stands little chance, though it comes at a
small cost.
There's the price of the security suite
itself, but you'll also pay in performance. Our 6GB file transfer test took 11
seconds longer to perform with BitDefender installed, which translates into
roughly a 10 percent performance hit. Both PCMark scores suffered slightly,
though oddly enough, there was no increase in boot time. Scanning was also a
mixed bag, with an initial sweep taking over half an hour, but reducing to less
than four minutes during subsequent runs.
The performance hiccups aren't enough to
sour us on BitDefender. It offers a tough veil of protection that's
unobtrusive, and value-added features like a virtual keyboard for shopping
sites, online storage, and a vulnerability scan that detects out-of-date
software add to the overall package.
Trend Micro Maximum Security
Security for social-networking
butterflies
Price: $90 (3 PCs, 1 Year)
Website: www.trendmicro.com
You
can customize Trend Micro’s user interface by uploading a photo of your own or
selecting from a handful of preloaded images.
It's been three long years since we last
reviewed Trend Micro, having exiled the program from our annual AV roundups for
its particularly poor showing back then. We don't hold grudges, however, and
apparently neither do the Maximum PC readers who voted Trend Micro into this
year’s AV cage match. Have things changed since then?
They most certainly have. Whereas the old
Trend Micro cowered in the corner when we unleashed a flurry of malware, the
latest version threw itself in harm’s way and made sure nothing outwardly awful
infiltrated our test bed. Malware was able to sneak in by hiding in zip files,
but they were quickly beheaded as soon as they stuck out their necks. As an
extra precaution, we recommend enabling real-time scanning of compressed files,
an option that’s not checked by default.
Independent testing labs generally gave
Trend Micro high scores, so between their tests and ours we’re much more
confident in TM’s ability to hold the fort when danger comes knocking. It’s
also a good choice if you spend a lot of time on social networks. Trend Micro
expanded the number of social networks it scans for dangerous links to now
include Google+, Linkedln, Pinterest, and Sina Weibo, in addition to Facebook,
Twitter, and Mixi. There’s also a "Privacy Scanner” for Facebook that
analyzes your settings and makes recommendations.
Not all is roses and rainbows, however.
Trend Micro's active scanner had the biggest negative impact on our
file-transfer test, which took nearly 50 percent longer versus a clean install.
We're also disappointed Trend Micro doesn't offer more fine-grain control over
its settings. Part of the reason is because there's no built-in firewall, just
a "firewall booster" feature that aides the Windows firewall.
Overall, Trend Micro is leaps and bounds better than three years ago, but
there's still room for improvement.
Mcafee Internet Security 2013
No longer the performance hog it once
was
Price: $80 (3 PCs, 1 Year)
Website: www.me.mcafee.com
McAfee’s
redesigned interface will especially appeal to users with touchscreen displays.
For better or worse, reputations are hard
to shed, and some folks still view McAfee as a gas-guzzling dump truck parked
out on the front lawn, oftentimes uninvited. OEMs like to bundle McAfee with
other trial ware on new systems, a two-way relationship that also benefits
McAfee, albeit at the expense of street cred. And then there’s the recent drama
surrounding company co-founder John McAfee, who faked a heart attack to evade
Belizean authorities (it's a long, bizarre story that's worth a Google search).
None of that really matters as far as we’re
concerned, because the reality of how a product performs far outweighs the
perception of the masses. So, how did McAfee perform? Like a roller coaster
with several ups and a few downs.
This year's build is redesigned with a
touch-friendly tiled interface that’s obviously geared toward Windows 8 users,
though it functions just fine with a mouse and keyboard and on Windows. All the
main functions sit front and center, and it doesn’t take much effort to dig
beneath the surface to where the advanced controls are located.
When surfing shady websites, McAfee did a
good job blocking most malicious downloads, though it did let a few dirty files
reach the desktop. Most that touched ground were quickly put under lock and
key, but a few slipped through, including a file identified as a keygen by
Malwarebytes.
System performance was another mixed bag.
McAfee didn’t affect our test bed’s boot time, nor did it bog down our PCMark 7
benchmark run. PCMark Vantage, on the other hand, scored 1,700 points lower.
Subjectively, the system didn’t feel sluggish with McAfee installed, which
hasn’t always been the case.
We can’t say whether power users are ready
to forgive McAfee for past sins, but as it stands, it’s an above-average
scanner filled with features.
