Blue Atom is a small antivirus program that packs a big punch. Even though, the publisher isn’t Symantec, the program manages to contain over 333,000 virus definitions and an impressive 627 heuristic checks. This scale of detection capability can seldom be found in any antivirus installer greater than 50 megabytes. The size of Blue Atom is a measly 5.5 megabytes! Also, the antivirus contains a real-time protection system and even USB protection. Best of all, the whole program is free.
The installation of Blue Atom was easy. The included installer is above average and installed quickly on the test system. For 64 bit versions, the program completely installed. However, when scanning, the program doesn’t report the results correctly even though it is actually scanning. Therefore, I recommend Blue Atom antivirus be installed on 32 bit Windows. This is contrary to some download sites that claim the program is compatible with all versions of Windows.
Virus scanning with Blue Atom is easy. Simply select the folder or drive one wants to scan and the program is ready. However, I would have preferred just a full system scan or quick scan option. The program didn’t detect any viruses on the test system. Also, scanning seemed below the average free antivirus in terms of speed.
The interface of Blue Atom is above average, but lacks customizability. The settings page only includes an auto scanning removable drives feature, enable heuristic scanning, unhidden folder scanning, and the capability to change the language to Indonesian. This is definitely one of the briefest settings page that I have seen. It would have been nice to at least see the virus encyclopedia and the heuristic checks.
Resource usage was above average. The program used approximately 12 megabytes when scanning and the same while idle. CPU usage was steady at 12 percent during a scan. Some additional features of the program are a quarantine functionality, simple process manager, an USB immunization feature, and an auto update feature. The program also includes a premium license.
All in all Blue Atom, is a well rounded antivirus. However, it’s not quite ready to replace a free AVG or equivalent antivirus suite.
