Bitdefender is a German antivirus that is known for its excellent virus detection rates. This new internet security suite takes PC protection one-step further by including a Firewall, Encryption, Vulnerability, Privacy Protection, Parental Controls, and Antispyware. The 2010 version really brings in a lot features that I have never seen before in other free antivirus suites such as Laptop mode, Extensive Vulnerability protection, and Encryption.
Installation:
The Bitdefender Internet Security 2010 installation was marginally smooth and took about 5 minutes. There were a few annoyances such as a few command prompts that occasionally pop-uped and promptly closed but there weren’t any large complications.
Bitdefender offers a lot of installation customization menus that attempt to custom tailor the internet security’s performance to a user’s specific need. The first menu simply asks what types of activities the computer will be primarily used for. There are the Typical, Parent (focuses on content filtering), Gamer (focuses on putting the antivirus engine in idle operation and minimizing pop ups), or Custom Configuration (offers any sort of all of the above configuration options).
The next set of configuration menus are unique to Bitdefender. The software includes a dedicated laptop mode that will alter how the resident shield and firewall function to lower CPU usage and memory usage. These modifications in turn will significantly conserve battery life. I am delighted with this feature because I am a road warrior and currently writing the review on battery power. I haven’t noticed a significant decline in battery power compared with other free antivirus that do not conserve energy. In addition to the Laptop Mode, there is a home network mode that works similar to centrally managed software in corporations. This will allow a single bitdefender installation the ability to modify all other bitdefender installations within a home network. A user won’t have to individually configure each networked computer to talk to each other. This is convenient and mirrors corporate antivirus software.
The final configuration mode allows a user to customize bitdefender according to their computer proficiency level. There are the novice, intermediate, and expert modes. Bitdefender will actually display a separate GUI for each of the different settings. If one has read a lot of reviews on this website, they will have read that I frequently criticize antivirus companies for not designing their products for beginner users. Hence, the Bitdefender user level configuration is a welcome option.
Interface:
As stated above there are multiple interfaces included in this version. The beginner interface is definitely designed for the beginner as it only has a few options such as scan now, update now, fix issues and large icons. This menu is perfect for users who have little to no knowledge about free antivirus and essentially resembles the CA internet Security Interface.
The second interface is the Intermediate, which again uses large icons to display the antivirus engine status etc. In addition, this interface adds parental control functions and encryption.
The third interface is the advanced interface, which completely omits any graphics and really gives the user the full control of the internet security software. I think that this is an excellent interface and really shows how powerful the software really is.
Functionality:
Bitdefender is full of functionality in addition to its many interfaces. One main theme in Bitdefender is the amount of information that is displayed at anytime.
Firewall. The firewall is very detailed. For example, each active process displays a large amount of information including totals and active amounts of data each process is using and even the age of the process. The Firewall rules are also automatically configured and the user is alerted to a small popup when a change is made. The pop-up only requires action if a user doesn’t agree with the automatic rule configuration. In tests, the firewall AI was extremely accurate even with uncommon but safe processes.
Privacy Control. In addition to the usual important information control (passwords, SSN), Bitdefender Internet Security includes Registry, Cookie, and Script control. These controls will monitor each of the respected items and if a malicious script etc attempts to modify the registry. Update: The registry control needs some work as it will constantly alert a user to registry changes even with safe programs such as Skype.
Vulnerability Protection. Bitdefender takes the vulnerability protection one-step further than most free antivirus. Bit defender monitors windows updates, Microsoft updates (office etc.) and all other applications (Skype, Winamp, Firefox, Adobe). If there is a vulnerability in a certain application, Bitdefender will locate the patch and help you update the software. I believe this approach is better than other internet security options such as Norton that attempt to block vulnerabilities but don’t actually point out specific applications’ vulnerabilities. In addition, to the following protections bitdefender will also monitor weak passwords.
File and IM Encryption. Bitdefender also encrypts Yahoo and MSN messenger texts. Unfortunately, AIM is omitted but any protection at all is appreciated in this area. There is also file encryption. Bitdefender has a handy shell extension that when a user right clicks a file, a user can quickly and easily encrypt the contents.
Game and Laptop Mode. The game mode is similar to Norton Internet Security’s Silent Mode; the antivirus suspends the real-time shield and alerts the user so that a gamer is not distracted. However, I really like the laptop mode in which the resident shield is optimized and scheduled scans are also reconfigured.
Antispam. Bitdefender offers the best AntiSpam protection of any free internet security software. The antispam Bayesian filter sensitivity, whitelist, and blacklist can be configured.
Parental Control. Bitdefender Internet Security 2010 has extensive parental control settings. One of the standout features is the web limiter, which can block internet activity by day of the week and hour. In addition, to web access specific applications can be added to the block list and blocked. Finally, there is a security slider in which a user can select the intended audience’s age and have all the selected security filters automatically configured.
Helpful Menus. Most free antivirus have a question mark button that a user can select for assistance or an explanation. Bitdefender takes the help menus on step further. Whenever a user highlights an item with the mouse a helpful explanation will be displayed below explaining exactly what the option does. However, the explanations are sometimes a little lacking even though they are very convenient to read.
Virus Detection and Scanning:
First, I really like the Bitdefender scanning process. The scanning status is very informative. Bitdefender includes the current file scanned, the files scan per second, elapsed time, and whether any hidden items or hidden processes are detected. The scanning speed is pretty slow at only about 10 to 23 files per second. A full system scan took about 2 hours, which is standard for most free antivirus. The virus scan detected all of the viruses on my virus hard drive and didn’t detect any false positives. Excellent virus detection should be expected with Bitdefender because it was awarded the advanced plus certification by AV comparatives.
Resource Usages:
Bitdefender Internet Security 2010 is very light on resource usage. During a full system scan, bitdefender will only use an additional 11 megabytes and 50 percent CPU power for the scan. This is by far the least amount of memory used in a scan of all of the free antivirus I have reviewed. While idle bitdefender used 30 megabytes of memory spread across five independent processes. I didn’t notice a slowdown in normal computer operation while using Bitdefender on the test system even when running on battery.
Conclusion:
Bitdefender is an excellent antivirus. It really is one of the most impressive performers in that it offers 3 different interfaces in one single piece of software. CA internet Security 2010 and other competitors need to take some serious lessons from Bitdefender. In addition, Bitdefender Internet Security 2010 includes excellent virus scanning.