As with many of Trend Micro's competitors, the parental control section can be configured for Adult, Teen, or Child, although here you also have the option for "Mature Teen" as well as to create a customized setting. The Adult user or system administrator can set access times based on user log-in, and customize the protected data field. Each of these options under Internet & Controls sports a green On or red Off toggle for quick verification.
The Other Settings tab offers more information on your Trend Micro subscription, Automatic Updates, and a definition file scheduler, toggling the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network, which controls the behavioral information your computer submits, security warning pop-up controls, password protection to keep Trend Micro from being used by others, and logs access. The interface scheme, with a simple-sentence drop-down explaining what a feature does as well as links to dig down for more settings, sort of backfires here. Most of the options in this tab contain only one settings link, meaning that what should take one click actually takes two.
Frustratingly, the update scheduler can't be set to check for updates more often than once an hour.
Features included only in the pro version include protection for mobile phones, the Trend Micro toolbar--which installs on Internet Explorer and Firefox--a system tuner for recovering disk space and defragmenting your drives, and a password-protected vault that seals if your computer is stolen and accessed. The mobile protection is available only for Symbian and Windows Mobile phones, and because of the variation of models requires configuring a download for your specific model. Mobile threats are growing, so being able to prevent browser-based attacks on your mobile for the same cost of protecting your PC might appeal to some people.
There are 2GB of online storage included for free, which is nice, but is such a small amount that it's not really a big deal. You also get automatic public Wi-Fi hotspot verification included. Trend Micro will automatically check the digital certification against the official registered certification. This sounds useful, but again, we're not sure how important it will be.
Performance
Although there were no problems navigating within Trend Micro and there were no noticeable slowdowns to the naked eye, certain Trend Micro performance hang-ups did appear. For one, the suite had a difficult time respecting the default browser setting on a Windows 7 laptop. Sometimes it would open internal program links into Firefox--the programmed default--but more often it would open them into Internet Explorer. These links--opening into either browser--took much too long to load. It wasn't clear whether this lag was because of the main suite or the Trend Micro toolbar scanning them before launching.
CNET Labs' benchmarks reveal that all three of Trend Micro's 2010 products had an uneven impact on computer performance. Trend Micro Internet Security Pro and Trend Micro AntiVirus plus Antispyware slowed boot time by 4 seconds, while Trend Micro Internet Security only affected boot time by 1.5 seconds. The Pro version also dramatically slowed down shutdown performance by nearly 8 seconds, while the basic AntiVirus dragged the shutdown cycle down by less than a second, and Internet Security added 1.65 seconds.
The benchmark of Trend Micro's full scan was quite slow, with the Internet Security Pro and AntiVirus plus Antispyware products taking 19 minutes, and the standard Internet Security taking 20 minutes. The nonbenchmarked, quick scan compared favorably with industry standards, coming in at 53 seconds. The full scan took an average amount of time, at 1 hour and 28 minutes. Besides potential hardware conflicts, keep in mind that these differences can often be attributed to the generally clean state of the benchmarking computer's hard drive, versus the number of programs and files that reside on a real-world machine.
Trend Micro's results were also uneven on processor-intensive tests. On Microsoft Office tests, the Pro suite was again the slowest, followed by the stripped-down AntiVirus. The basic suite, Trend Micro Internet Security, was the fastest of the three, running the program an average of 18 seconds slower than an unprotected computer did. This pattern repeated with our Cinebench tests. In iTunes decoding tests, however, all three notched nearly identical scores. And in the multimedia test the basic AntiVirus was faster than its two siblings by 20 seconds.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Unfortunately, Trend Micro's efficacy is up for debate. The company no longer participates in the trials run by AV-Comparatives.org, and the most recent data from AV-Test.org is for the 2008 version. Keeping in mind that the data is for a test from September 2008 (though the 2008 release is actually from fall 2007 because of the security industry's naming conventions), Trend Micro had lukewarm results. It was able to detect between 90 and 95 percent of malware on demand, between 85 and 90 percent of adware and spyware on demand, and only notched one to two false positives.
Support
Trend Micro offers free customer support, although if you're looking for help through the program, it will merely shove you via hot-linked FAQs toward the Trend Micro Web site. The Product Help link will keep you on your computer, but the rest jump you online. Once there, Trend Micro offers prerecorded video help, manuals, online-chat service, and phone service. The phone number is listed on the Web site behind several links, and is not particularly easy to find.
Conclusion
Trend Micro looks and feels like a professional security suite, but it's worrisome that the company doesn't participate in the major tests that its competitors are subject to. At the same time, it does include behavioral detection, which is becoming more important for catching complex threats. The mobile support is worthwhile for peace of mind, and for reminding you that just because you're on a cell phone doesn't mean you're risk-free. However, that's only available in the most expensive of Trend Micro's three packages. Overall, Trend Micro gives you a lot for your money, but lacks verification from independent testers.
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Quick Specifications
- Release date08/25/09
- Version 3.0
- License type Complete package
- Min Processor Type Intel Pentium
Seth Rosenblatt is a senior editor at CNET, and has written about nearly every category of software and app available. At CNET since 2006, he currently focuses on browsers, security, and operating systems, with occasional forays into tech and pop culture. Full Bio
