BitDefender Antivirus 10

Reviewed on 11/1/06    Release date: 9/15/06    BitDefender Antivirus 10 offers a two-in-one defense, providing its award-wining antivirus and antispyware protection in one product. Unfortunately, in CNET Labs' performance testing, BitDefender lagged behind the competition, including McAfee VirusScan Plus, one of the slower antivirus applications we've tested. BitDefender is still a top-rated antivirus solution, and it offers two licenses with a two-year subscription at a price below that of the competition. But for the best antivirus protection, we still recommend Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6 above all else.

We downloaded and installed BitDefender Antivirus 10 in a matter of minutes. While other antivirus apps provide single-user licenses and one-year subscriptions, for $10 less than other antivirus applications, BitDefender Antivirus 10 provides two user licenses and two years of updates. Unlike Norton AntiVirus 2007, which runs on Windows XP only, BitDefender 10 runs on Windows 98, Me, 2000, and XP. For $10 more, or the price of other antivirus applications, BitDefender Antivirus Plus 10 includes a firewall. In our current crop of antivirus reviews, only McAfee VirusScan Plus includes antivirus, antispyware, and a firewall; the difference is that BitDefender Antivirus Plus 10 also provides two user licenses and two years of updates. McAfee is single user, with one year of updates.

Once installed, BitDefender requires 60MB of disk space, twice as much as Eset NOD32 and CA Antivirus 2007, comparable to McAfee VirusScan Plus, yet one-third the size of Norton AntiVirus 2007. In terms of system resources, BitDefender Antivirus 10 (using its default scan settings) is neither a resource hog or nor is it lean, falling somewhere in the middle instead.

Should you decide to uninstall BitDefender Antivirus 10, a handy uninstall icon accessible from the Windows All Programs list should remove all trace of the application from your PC. After a reboot, however, we found several files, folder, and even system registry entries left behind, so the uninstall process could be cleaner.

After our installation of BitDefender Antivirus 10 we noticed a tiny black box in the lower-right corner of our desktop screen, just above the system tray. This is BitDefender's Scan Activity monitor. A green line indicates when files are scanned for viruses and spyware; BitDefender Antivirus 10 Plus customers will also see a red for firewall activity. A right-click hides this feature but never fully removes it. To remove the monitor, which we found to be distracting, you'll need to go into the system configuration settings. Also on the settings page, you can change the skin of the application from the default red to a much calmer blue.

Inside the main interface, there are navigation controls along the left side for General, Antivirus, Antispyware, and Update. The General section includes Quick Tasks, such as Scan Now, the default scan setting, and Update now. Further down the page is the security level, which is configurable, with the ability to throttle back BitDefender's scanning resources and customize what is protected and what is not. The default security level is Advanced Protection Plus.

The Antivirus section includes another graphical activity monitor and the ability to throttle back the antivirus scan to cover only the bare minimum of files or ramp it up to scan everything. The Antispyware section includes a Privacy Protection feature, disabled by default but enabled by clicking the Advanced Settings link and entering, for example, your personal credit card numbers. Should a Windows application try to send that credit card number out over the Internet, you'll see a warning message asking permission to continue. The Update section allows you to request a manual program update or to schedule the automatic updates, which can be set to download hourly. New in version 10 is built-in antirootkit protection, as well as port 80, Web traffic scans (to prevent drive-by downloads).

Unfortunately, BitDefender Antivirus 10 is a bit of a sloth, scoring lower than expected in our CNET Labs real-world application testing. While performing a BitDefender scan, it took us 242 seconds to open our iTunes application and 348 seconds to open Sorenson video compression; BitDefender ranked dead last in both tests. On single-file scans, BitDefender did much better, attaining second place at 102 seconds (fast), and its boot time tied Norton AntiVirus 2007's at 66 seconds (average).

In terms of protecting your PC, we refer readers to two leading independent antivirus testing organizations. In the latest test results from AV-Comparatives.org, BitDefender 9 earned an Advanced + (highest) rating, catching 95 percent of all malware tested. Previous versions of BitDefender Antivirus have also been certified by CheckVir.com and the German Association for Technical Inspection (TUV).

Help is, for some reason, a separate feature, accessible from the Windows All Programs list, not within the program itself. We found it hard remember that it was a separate application, and we hope that future versions of BitDefender integrate it into the program. The selection online is sparse. At the time of this review there were only seven FAQ articles on the BitDefender site; three had to do with registering or installing BitDfender 10 and one explained how to upgrade an existing license. Beyond that, we found little or no other documentation available for online access or download. Online Chat services from Romania are available 24/7 and require name and e-mail address, along with a short description of the problem. E-mail is available after supplying your first name, last name, e-mail, and telephone number. Live telephone support is available through a phone call to Romania; international phone call rates apply.

BitDefender Antivirus 10 is a solid little antivirus and antispyware application, and for the money, you get more here than with other traditional antivirus applications. That said, we'd like to see a faster scan engine and perhaps a lighter and leaner program profile in the next version, along with a built-in help file.