AV-Comparatives Summary Report 2014

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Summary Report 2014

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Anti-Virus Comparative

Summary Report 2014 Awards, winners, comments Language: English December 2014 Last Revision: 20th January 2015

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Summary Report 2014

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Table of Contents Introduction Participating Vendors Management Summary Product Thumbnails Overview of levels reached during 2014 Winners Overall winner of 2014 (Product of the Year) Top Rated Products 2014 Whole-Product Dynamic “Real-World” Protection winners File Detection winners False Positives winners Overall Performance (Low System-Impact) winners Proactive (Heuristic/Behavioural) Protection winners Malware Removal winners User-Interface Review Section AhnLab V3 Internet Security 8.0 Avast Free Antivirus 2015 AVG Internet Security 2015 Avira Antivirus Pro 14.0 Baidu Antivirus 2015 International/English Version Bitdefender Internet Security 2015 BullGuard Internet Security 15.0 Emsisoft Anti-Malware 9.0 eScan Internet Security Suite with Cloud Security 14.0 ESET Smart Security 8.0 Fortinet FortiClient 5.2 with FortiGate F-Secure Internet Security 2015 Kaspersky Internet Security 2015 Kingsoft Internet Security 2013.SP9.5 Lavasoft Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ 11.4 McAfee Internet Security 2015 Microsoft Windows Defender 4.5 for Windows 8 Panda Free Antivirus 15.0 Qihoo 360 Internet Security 4.9 Sophos Endpoint Security and Control 10.3 Tencent PC Manager 10.3 ThreatTrack VIPRE Internet Security 2015 Trend Micro Internet Security 2015 Copyright and Disclaimer

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Summary Report 2014

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Introduction At the end of every year, AV-Comparatives releases a summary report to comment on the various anti-virus products tested over the year, and to highlight the high-scoring products of the various tests. Please bear in mind that this report looks at all the comparative tests of 2014, i.e. not only the latest ones. Comments and conclusions are based on the results shown in the various comparative test reports of AV-Comparatives, as well as from observations made during the tests (http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparatives-reviews/).

Participating Vendors The following vendors participated in AV-Comparatives’ public main test-series of 2014 and agreed to have the effectiveness of their products independently evaluated. Microsoft asked to be included in the tests, but to be regarded as a baseline and not as competition to the other products. We are happy that this year’s tests have helped several vendors to find critical and other bugs in their software, and that this has contributed to improving the products.

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Summary Reeport 2014

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Managgement Su ummary Tests This yeaar, AV-Compparatives has again subbjected 23 security pro oducts for W Windows to rigorous investigaation. All th he programss have beenn tested for their abilitty to protecct against real-world Internett threats, ideentify thousands of receent maliciou us programs, and providee protection n without slowing down the PC. P Addition nally, optionnal tests cheecked how well the prooducts could d remove ock new andd unknown th hreats, and protect p the uuser against phishing malware from an inffected PC, blo attacks.

Resultss and Awards Whilst all of the proograms in our test reacheed an accepttable level overall, somee programs performed p han others. For details, please see ““Overview off levels reached during 2014” on paage 7. In better th order to recognise th hose productts that achieeve outstand ding scores in our tests, we give a number of ht the best results in eaach test and d overall. The e Product off the Year aw ward and awards tthat highligh Top Rateed awards are based on overall perrformance in n the public main test sseries; there are also Gold, Sillver and Broonze awards for each inddividual test type. Please e see the Aw ward Winnerrs section for moree details of the awards.

Advice on Choosing Compu uter Securrity Softwaare There is no such thing as the peerfect securitty program, or the best one for all nneeds and evvery user. Being reecognized ass “Product off the Year” ddoes not meean that a program is thhe “best” in all cases and for everyone; itt only meanss that its ovverall perform mance in ou ur tests throoughout the year was consistent and unbeaten. ndor’s websitte and evaluaate their sofftware by Before selecting a seecurity product, please vvisit the ven ur awards aree based on test results only and doo not consid der other downloading a trial version. Ou portant factoors (such as available interface laanguages, prrice, and factors as there aree some imp uate for you rself. support)), which you should evalu

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Summary Reeport 2014

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Producct Thumbnaails Here we provide an overview of the program ms tested, wiith a note off each one’s successes during the year. Altthough the user interfacce does not affect any awards, we have noted some of thee best UI features as well. AhnLab improved in n the second half of the yyear, with aw wards in all three of thee last tests. The T setup wizard pprovides the useful choice of using W Windows Firew wall or the AhnLab A firew wall. Avast reeceived one Advanced+ award a this yyear. Its inteerface has be een given a facelift for 2015. 2 We liked thee choice of components c t setup wiizard and thee uninstallerr, and its and languagges in both the excellentt online knowledge basee. AVG win ns a Top Ratted award fo or the first ttime this yeear. It secure ed three Advvanced+ awaards, and was joint winner of the t Removall Test. The u ser interfacee has had a facelift, f but remains justt as userfriendly as before. p Rated product this yeear, with a total t of 6 Ad dvanced+ Aw wards, includ ding both Avira is again a Top es it very straaightforward d to use. Real-Worrld Protectioon Tests. Its tried and tessted user intterface make Baidu diid well in thee Performancce Tests, reaaching Advan nced+ in both. Bitdefen nder is Prod duct of the Year 2014,, with Advanced+ award ds in all eigght main tessts, RealWorld Prrotection winner, Proacttive winner, joint Perforrmance winner, joint Rem moval winneer. It has an updatted, very useer-friendly in nterface this year. BullGuard received an award in n all eight teests this yeaar, including g three Advaanced+. We liked the fact thatt the program m settings are password protected byy default. Emsisoft ft is a Top Rated R product this yearr, with five Advanced+ awards. a It im mpressed uss with its completeely new user interface, which is deescribed in detail d in the e product reeview section of this report. eScan reeceived four Advanced+ awards in t his year’s teests. We liked the updatted graphic design d in this yearr’s version, which w makes features on the home page stand ou ut very clearlly. ESET is aagain a Top Rated produ uct this yearr, with six Advanced+ A aw wards. It wass winner of the False Positivess category. Its I tried and tested user interface an nd help featu ures are as goood as ever. Fortinett is Top Ratted, receivin ng four Advaanced+ awarrds this yearr. Its user innterface is businessb orientedd but straighttforward. F-Securee is Top Rateed, with three Advancedd+ awards. We W felt that its i completeely new user--interface design iss very clear and a easy to use, with exxcellent alertts. Kaspersky Lab winss another To op Rated aw ward this yeaar, missing out o on Produuct of the Year Y 2014 only beccause it won the award last year. It reached Advanced+ level in all eighht main testts, and is the File Detection winner w and jo oint Perform mance winner. Its new in nterface desiign retains the t easeof-use of previous veersions. ‐ 5 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

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Kingsoftt received awards a in all the tests iit participatted in, inclu uding two Addvanced+. The T setup wizard allows Kingsooft’s own Internet browseer to be insttalled as an option. o Lavasoftt won three Advanced+ awards thiss year, including both File F Detectionn Tests. We liked its manual, the extensiive choice of o interface languages, and the opttion to instaall it as a secondary s scanner. ding one McAfee (Intel Secuurity) receiveed awards iin all six of the tests it took parrt in, includ ard, and its clear and persistent p Advanceed+. We likedd the choicee of componnents in thee setup wiza malware alerts. ows 8/8.1, an nd served ass our baselin ne. It was Microsofft Windows Defender is incorporatedd into Windo not in coontention foor awards, bu ut has a simpple, easy-to-use interface e. Panda reeceived threee Advanced+ awards in this year’s tests. We liked the abillity to custo omise the tiles on the home paage of the neewly designeed program window. w Qihoo 3 360 (English version) received five Advanced+ awards, a and was bronzee winner of the t RealWorld Prrotection Tesst. We liked its i clear andd persistent malware m alerts. Sophos received three Advanceed+ awards during the year. Its user-interface u e is straightforward, although h oriented toowards busin ness use. Tencent received aw wards in alll six tests itt took part in, includin ng two Advaanced+. The program displays a “Health Sccore” (overall system seccurity) after a quick scan n. Threat TTrack Vipre received awaards in five out of six teests it particcipated in thhis year. We liked its clean neew interface design and good g malwarre alerts. Trend M Micro receiveed three Ad dvanced+ aw wards in thiss year’s testts. It has a new graph hical user interfacee, which struuck us as verry clean and effective.

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Summary Reeport 2014

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Overvieew of leveels reached d during 2 2014 AV-Compparatives prrovides a wide rangee of tests and revie ews in com mprehensive reports (http://w www.av-com mparatives.orrg/comparatiives-reviews//). Annual awards for 20014 are baseed on the public m main test-serries: Real-W World Protecttion Test, Performance P e Test, File Detection Test, T and False-Allarm Test (all ( compulssory), and tthe Proactivve Test and d Malware RRemoval Teest (both optionall). Vendors who w choose not to have some features of their products puublicly evaluaated (i.e. did not participate in some of th he optional ttests) are sttill eligible fo or Product oof the Year/TTop Rated ot part of awards, but obviouslly have feweer opportunitties to score points. Additional testss/reviews (no n test-seriess, and not relevant r to tthe awards) included: Mac M Security Test/Review w, Mobile the main Security Test/Review w, Business Security S Revi ew. All the pprograms tested are from m the reputabble and reliable manufacturers. Pleasse note that even the STANDAR RD level/awaard requires a program to reach a good standard, althouggh it indicattes areas which neeed further improvement i t compared to other pro oducts. ADVA ANCED indicaates areas which may need som me improvem ment, but aree already verry competent. Below is an a overview of awards reeached by the varioous anti-viruus products in AV-Comparratives’ main n test-series of 2014.

Key:

* = Standard, ** = Advanceed, *** = Advvanced+

An emptyy box indicatees that the vendor did not pparticipate in the optional test.

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Award Winners The Prodduct of the Year award is given to the productt with the highest overaall score from m all the public m main tests. It depends on the numbber of Advanced+ awardss received inn all our tests. As all productss receiving an Advanced+ + award are considered (statistically ( speaking) to be as good d as each other, a product can n receive thee Product of the Year aw ward without necessarily reaching thee highest score in any individuual test. g the A numbeer of productts which reacch a very higgh overall staandard in the public maiin tests are given Top Rateed award. For each h of the testt types1 in the t public m main series (Real-World ( Protection, File Detection, False Positivess, Performan nce, Proactivee, Malware RRemoval), wee give Gold, Silver and Brronze awards, for the first, seccond and third highest-scoring produucts, respecttively.

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For som me test typess, there may be two actuual tests cond ducted in a year; y the awaards are baseed on the combinedd score of botth tests. ‐ 8 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

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Overalll winner of o 2014 (P Product of the Year) For AV-CComparativess’ “Product of o the Year“ award, all tests in the public p main--test series are a taken into con nsideration. This year, both Bitdefennder and Kasspersky Lab received an Advanced+ award in all of these tests, i.e. were equaally high-scooring. In succh cases, we use the folllowing tie-break: the n won the award beforre, or the prroduct that won w it less rrecently, is given g the product which has not On this basis, AV-Comparratives’ 20144 Product of the t Year awa ard goes to BBitdefender. award. O

Biitdefend der

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Summary Reeport 2014

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Top Rated Products 2014 This yeaar, like last year, a number of prooducts reach hed a very high standaard in all our o tests. Although h we only haave one Product of the Year, we reccognise all those t produccts with goo od overall results bby giving theem the AV-Co omparatives Top Rated award. We havee used the reesults over the t year to designate prroducts as “Top Rated”. Results from m all the tests aree assigned points p as follows: Testedd = 0, Standard = 5, Advanced = 110, Advanced+ = 15. Productss with 90 pooints or moree were givenn the Top Raated award, with two coonditions. Firrstly, any productss that failed to win any award (i.e. ggot 0 points)) in either of the Real-W World Protecttion tests have nott been considered. Secon ndly, good reesults in thee performancce tests cannnot make up for weak results in the detecttion/protecttion tests. W We intend to o give the To op Rated aw ward again next year, but the ccriteria may be adapted.

Top Rated products foor 2014 are,, in alphabetical order: VG, AVIRA, Emsisoft, E ESSET, F-Secure e, Fortinet, Kaspersky LLab AV

mary and awaards pages – links below:: Please seee our summ http://chart.av-comparatives.org g/awardslist .php?year=2014

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Summary Reeport 2014

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Whole--Product Dynamic D “R Real-Worldd” Protecttion winne ers Security products include vario ous differennt features to protect systems agaainst malwaare. Such nto account in the Who ole-Product Dynamic D “Reeal-World” Protection protectioon features are taken in tests, w which test products p und der real-worrld condition ns. Productss must provvide a high level of protectioon without producing p to oo many falsse alarms, an nd without requiring r thee user to maake many decisions. ge result ovver the year: Bitdefende er (99.7%, few FPs), Avira A and The figuure shown iss the averag Kasperskky Lab (99.6%, few FPs), and Qihhoo 360 (99 9.5%, few FPs), all receeived the Ad dvanced+ award in n both tests of o 2014.

AWARDS

efender Bitde

Avira, Kasspersky Labb

Qiho oo 360

r of thee 2014 Real- World Protecction tests, please p click tthe link belo ow: For details and full results www.av-compparatives.org g/dynamic-teests/ http://w

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Summary Reeport 2014

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File Deetection winners w The File Detection Test evaluates the static file scanning engine component, whhich is one subset of d by security ty products. A high dete ection rate oof malware - without the prottection featuures provided causing too many false alarmss – is, depeending on the t situation, one of tthe most im mportant, nistic and reeliable features of an annti-virus prod duct (as e.g. it is not hheavily dependent on determin infection n vectors or other factorss). The folloowing products received the ADVANCCED+ award in i both overrall File Deteection tests, in March and Sepptember 2014. The figure shown iss the averag ge of the two t test ressults: Kaspersky Lab (99.8%, few FPs), F--Secure (99.6 6%, few FPs)) and AVIRA, Bitdefende er and eScann (99.5%, few w FPs).

AWARDS

Kaspe ersky Lab

F-S Secure

AVIRA, Bitd defender, eSScan

r of thee 2014 File D Detection tessts, please cllick the link below: For details and full results www.av-compparatives.org g/detection-ttest/ http://w

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Summary Reeport 2014

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False P Positives winners w False positives can cause c as mucch trouble a s a real infeection. Due to t this, it is important that t antir to thhe public, in order to virus prooducts underrgo stringent quality asssurance testting before release avoid false positivess. AV-Compaaratives carryy out extenssive false-positive testinng as part off the File Detectioon Tests. he lowest rates of false positives du uring 2014 were w ESET (2)), Panda and Sophos The prodducts with th (3) and Fortinet (6). These figurres representt the SUM off the false po ositives from m both FP Tessts.

AWARDS

ES SET

Panda,, Sophos

Forrtinet

r of thee 2014 False Positive tessts, please click the link below: For details and full results www.av-compparatives.org g/false-alarm m-tests/ http://w

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Summary Reeport 2014

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Overalll Performaance (Low System-Im mpact) wiinners Security products must remain turned t on u nder all circcumstances, while users are perform ming their oducts may hhave a higheer impact tha an others onn system performance usual computing tasks. Some pro me tasks. while peerforming som Bitdefen nder, Kasperrsky Lab, AV VIRA and ESSET demonstrrated a lowe er impact onn system performance than oth her products..

AWARDS

Bitdefender, B Kaspersky Lab

VIRA AV

ESET E

r of thee 2014 Perfoormance testss, please clicck the link b elow: For details and full results www.av-compparatives.org g/performancce-tests/ http://w

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Summary Reeport 2014

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Proactiive (Heuriistic/Behavioural) PProtection winners The Proaactive Test shows s how good g the he uristic detecction and be ehavioural p rotection features of the various anti-virus products are (i.e. h ow good th hey are at protecting p aggainst new//unknown I acccess againstt completelyy new (0-day) malwaree. A high proactive malware) without Internet n rate must be b achieved with a low rate r of false alarms. detection/protection t highest proactive prrotection rattes in the 20014 test: Bittdefender The folloowing products showed the (98%, feew FPs), Kasp persky Lab (97%, ( few FPPs) and ESETT (90%, very few FPs).

AWARDS

efender Bitde

Kasperrsky Lab

ES SET

r of thee 2014 File D Detection tessts, please cllick the link below: For details and full results www.av-compparatives.org g/retrospectiive-test/ http://w

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Summary Reeport 2014

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Malwarre Removaal winners A very uuseful abilityy for an antii-virus progrram is removval of malwa are which haas already in nfected a system. In this year’s test, five produccts received the Advancced+ award, these beingg Bitdefend der, AVG, eScan, K Kaspersky La ab and Panda:

AWARDS

nder, AVG Bitdefen

eScan, Kasspersky Labb

Pa anda

r of thee 2014 Malwaare Removall test, please e click the linnk below: For details and full results www.av-compparatives.org g/removal-teests/ http://w

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User-Interrface Reviiew Sectio on The proggram reviewss in this secttion do not hhave any efffect on the awards. a They are intendeed to give users an n idea of wh hat each program is like in everydayy use. We ho ope that thiis, together with the results oof the tests, will help reeaders find a security prrogram that meets theirr needs; non netheless, we stron ngly recomm mend potenttial buyers oof any of th he programss in this repport to evalluate the softwaree themselvess by using a free trial vversion. Other factors th hat should bbe considereed before purchasee include com mpatibility, technical t suppport and prrice. The proggrams were tested t for thiis year’s revi ew on 64-bit English Windows 8.1 w with Update. Whilst w we assume th hat the vastt majority off our readerss are compu uter enthusiaasts or profeessionals, the userr-interface reeview primarrily considerss how easy each e program m is to use ffor non-expeert users. Our Reall-World Proteection Test demonstrates d s that in som me cases, a security s proggram will onlly protect the PC iff the user maakes the righ ht decision – it is possib ble to allow the t malware to run. Add ditionally, if a proogram is ouut-of-date orr a protectiion componeent is disab bled, the coomputer will not be protecteed unless the user is made m aware of the prob blem and prrovided withh a simple means m of hus feel that if a securrity program m is to provide effectivee protection n for the rectifying it. We th hat needs average user, it musst either carrry out actionns automaticcally, or make it clear to the user wh a decision -making or specialist kn nowledge. W We hope our feedback to be doone, withoutt requiring any will be h helpful to vendors in opttimising theiir products. Equally, E we are a sure thatt many of ou ur readers will provvide IT suppport for non--expert fami ly members, friends and d customers, and we aim m to help them decide which products p willl be easiest ffor their supported users to operate. wing aspectss of the secu urity program ms in our testts: Our everryday-usage report looks at the follow



What options aree available in n the setup w wizard?



Doess the uninstaller have additional options, such as addin ng or removving compo onents or repaairing the insstallation?



Is a dedicated reemoval tool provided by the manufaccturer?



How w does the prrogram registter in Windo ws Action Ceenter?



If th he program’ss real-time protection p oor firewall (if applicable) are disablled, is a Sysstem-Tray alertt shown by Action A Center or the prodduct itself?



Are eessential fun nctions and information easy to find d in the prog gram’s user innterface? Wee look for systeem status, scan, s updatee (where appplicable), su ubscription status (wheere applicablle), help, quarrantine and logs. l



Doess the program m customise Internet Exxplorer by ad dding a toolb bar or rankinngs for search results, or ch hanging the default searrch service (B Bing)?

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Doess the main program p wind dow warn apppropriately in i the eventt that the re al-time prottection or firew wall (where applicable) a iss disabled, aand make it easy e to rectify this?



What scanning options o are available? a



Is a scan entry added a to Win ndows Explorrer’s right-cliick menu?



Stan ndard-User Access: A can protection be disabled, or the pro ogram uninsstalled, with h a nonadministrator acccount?



Malw ware alerts: Does D the pro ogram show a clear and appropriate a warning w wheen the EICAR R test file is doownloaded2? If the prog gram produceed a significcant numberr of user-deppendent deccisions in our Real-World Protection Test T this yeaar (over 1% % of test cases), the reelevant dialo og box is wn. This applies to Bullguard, Emsisooft, F-Secure, Kingsoft an nd Tencent. show

 Helpp: We look foor a local hellp function, oonline knowledge base, and downloaadable manuual. Please n note that maany of the programs p in this review w have addittional featurres, such as parental control, which we haave not coveered here. Reeaders shoulld consult manufacturer’ss websites fo or details i each prodduct. The queestion we ha ave attempteed to answerr for each of other functionalitty included in w many featu ures does it hhave?”, but “Does “ it do the t essentiall things well?”. program is not “How

2

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AhnLab V3 Inteernet Secu urity 8.0..8.1.1531 1

Installa ation Choices in the setup wizard: Th he user has tto accept thee licence agrreement, andd can decidee whether or not too install the AhnLab Perssonal Firewa ll, change th he folder loca ation, and reegister the product. p We foun nd installation very quick and straaightforward. We liked having the option of installing i AhnLab’ss firewall or continuing to t use Windoows Firewall.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninsstaller: Therre are none, only comple ete removal iis possible. Removal tool: We coould not find d a separate removal too ol.

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Actio on Center: AhnLab V3 Internet Security registters as antivvirus and antispyw ware. By deffault, the Ah hnLab firewaall is not acctivated, and d Windows FFirewall conttinues to run.

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Action CCenter alertts: If real-tim me protectioon is disableed, Windows Action Centter displays a pop-up alert:

Location n of main p program fea atures System status is shoown on the home h page oof the main program p window. me page (Smaart Scan), while full/cusstom/scheduled scans Scans caan be run froom a button on the hom are availlable from th he System Seecurity link inn the left-hand menu collumn. Update and Help buuttons are found in the ttoolbar at the top of the window. on status in n the prograam. Accordin ng to the We weree unable to find any deetails of the subscriptio manual, the program m will displayy a warning aand renewal link 30 dayss before the subscription n expires. Logs and d Quarantine: There are links to botth items on the t System Security S and SSystem Tunin ng pages. With th he exceptioon of subscription staatus, all the main functions annd information are straightfforward to find in V3 Intternet Securi ty’s interface.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion AhnLab VV3 Internet Security doees not make any changess to Internet Explorer.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and reactivvation: If RTTP is deactivvated, the Reeal-Time System Scan line readds Disabled, and its icon changes to a cross in an orange cirrcle. Clickingg on Disabled d displays a short m menu from which w Enabled d can be cliccked and thee protection thus restore d. ‐ 20 ‐ 

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We feel that the status display is i quite subttle, and thatt some users would not nnotice that there t was anythingg wrong if reeal-time prottection was ddisabled. Status d display and d default co onfigurationn: After insttallation, the Security SStatus was shown s as Attentionn. Opening the Protection Settingss dialog boxx showed th hat only 3 out of a po ossible 8 protectioon componen nts were activated:

Activatin ng all 8 of the components changedd the main sttatus displayy to Secure. W We note thaat neither email noor messagingg client was installed i on our test macchine, makin ng these feattures redund dant. V3’s deffault configuuration would appear n ot to meet its own ma anufacturer’ss security sttandards, which m may leave some users feeling confussed. We wou uld recommend that AhnnLab alter th he status display sso that it shows Secure when w the (enntirely sensible and appropriate) deffault configu uration is used.



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Scannin ng Availablle scan options: In addiition to the SSmart Scan on o the home e page, V3 offfers full, custom and scheduleed scans from m the System m Security pa ge:

Right-cllick scanning: By defaullt, there is nno addition to t Windows Explorer’s E coontext menu,, but this can be aactivated in the t settings. Two entriess, V3 System m Scan and V3 Secure Dele letion, then appear a in the menu.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: Users with w non-addministrator accounts can disable real-time protection without having to en nter administrator credenntials. Uninstalling the prroduct: A standard user cannot uninstall the product; a Wiindows Userr Account f administrrator credentials. control iis displayed, prompting for We feel tthat by default, standard d user accou nts should not n be able to deactivatee real-time protectioon.

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: In our tesst, AhnLab VV3 Internet Security S dete ected the EICCAR test filee silently. The deteection was reeported in th he log. Whetherr or not to sh how alerts when malwaree is detected d is arguably a matter off personal preference. Some peeople at leastt will prefer to see an aleert, so that they t have an n explanationn as to why e.g. they cannot ddownload a particular p filee.

Help an nd Support Manual: There is a downloadabl d le 120-page manual in PDF P format, covering c all aspects of in nstalling, configurring and usin ng the produ uct. The sam me content can c be found d by clickingg on Help in n the top right-hand corner off the window w. This openss an HTML veersion of the manual, shoown below:

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Online k knowledge base: b There is a Productt FAQ page on the AhnLLab website,, although itt appears not to diisplay any an nswers relevant to V3 In ternet Securrity 8.0:

We found the manuaal to be comp prehensive, w well organiseed and easilyy navigable. However, we w feel that the style of writting may be somewhat ccomplicated for f non-expe ert users, andd suggest th hat simplifyiing the instrructions and adding moree screenshotts (there are only 3 in thhe entire man nual) would bee helpful.

Addition nal points o of interest After insstallation, th he product notifies the reeader that an update is necessary: n

Summa ary AhnLab V3 Internet Security 8.0 0 is simple tto install and largely easy to use. T he program interface makes m most main feeatures and data easily accessible. However, we would sugggest that th he status display should be more obvio ous, and th at it shoulld accept th he program’’s (sensible)) default configurration as safee.

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Avast Free Antiivirus 201 15.10.0.2 2206

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: The T standardd installation n asks wheth her to installl Google Chrrome and Google TToolbar for Internet I Exp plorer. The ccustom instaallation allow ws the user to choose the folder location, componentts and user-interface lan guages, and d whether to allow data ssharing. The last step a allows the t user to go back and d change of the ssetup wizard summarisess the selecteed options and them. ween a veryy simple defaault installattion and thee custom insstallation We likedd having thee choice betw that alloows advancedd users to ch hoose compoonents and laanguages.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninstaller: As w well as removing the pro ogram complletely, the un ninstaller can updaate the program version,, repair the iinstallation, and change componentss and languaages. Removal tool: Avastt provide a separate remooval tool, avvastclear.exe.3 We were pleased to see s the range of useful ooptions availlable in the uninstaller. u



3

http://w www.avast.com/en-us/unin nstall-utility ‐ 24 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Action n Center: Avvast Free Anttivirus registters as antiviirus and antiispyware.

Action CCenter alertts: If the Avvast real-tim me protectio on is disable ed, no pop-uup alert is shown s by Action CCenter or the program itself. We feel tthat an obvious alert meessage-box s hould be dissplayed when n protection is deactivated.

Location n of main p program fea atures System status is shoown on the Home H page p other types of scaan from the SCAN S link Scans caan be run froom the Quickk Scan buttoon on home page, on the riight. Updatess can be run by clicking the t SETTINGSS link, Updatte. Help is oopened by cllicking the question-mar q rk symbol in the top righ ht-hand corn er of the win ndow. Logs aree accessed frrom the STATTISTCS link o n the right. Quaranttine can be found by cllicking SCAN N, Scan for viruses; v there e is a link aat the bottom of the page. d makes mosst importantt features We feel that the intterface of Avvast Free Anntivirus is veery clear and and infoormation eassily accessible. The updaate and quarantine funcctions are noot so simplee to find, although h an automattic update ru uns every fouur hours.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Toolbar:: An Avast button is added to IInternet Exp plorer’s existting toolbarr, and disp plays site informattion and webb-filter settin ngs. Search sservice: Thiss is not changed unless tthe user choo oses to insta all Google Chhrome/Googlle toolbar from thee Avast setupp wizard. Ratings for search results: r Avasst marks sea rch results as a safe in Goo ogle, but noot in Bing. ‐ 25 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and reactivvation: the alert a below is shown in the main window w if RTP is diisabled. Clickking the Resolve All butt on re-enablees all protecttion compon ents.

The alert shown by the status section s of thhe main win ndow is very prominent, and providees a very obvious one-click opption to reactivate protecction, which we find ideal.

Scannin ng Availablle scan options: The scaan dialog boox, found by clicking Sca an, Scan for vviruses, provvides full, quick, cuustom, boot--time and removable meddia scans:

Right-cllick scannin ng: An Avasst scan enttry is added d to Window ws Explorer’s ’s context menu, m so individual drives, filees and folders can be scaanned by rig ght-clicking.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: this can be b deactivatted by a userr without adm ministrator pprivileges. Uninstalling the prroduct: a staandard user cannot do this, either from Controol Panel or using u the Avast removal tool. ministrator accounts a shoould not be able a to deacttivate protecction. We feel tthat non-adm



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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: The warning below iss shown wheen the user attempts to download the EICAR test file.. The alert clloses automaatically afterr about a min nute.

The Moree details buttton does no ot actually pprovide any more detaills, but does make clear that the threat haas been bloccked:

We feel the warning is reasonab bly clear, is ddisplayed for long enoug gh to read, aand does not provide the user with any opption to run the malwaree, all of which is good.

Help an nd Support Local heelp file: thiss is accessiblle by clickingg the question-mark icon n in the top right-hand corner of the winddow. This is context-senssitive, i.e. itt opens at th he page relatted to the feeature currently being used. Th his explains the current feature, butt there is no o assistance with findingg a particulaar feature (e.g. quaarantine) in the first place.

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Online k knowledge base: b Avast Customer C & TTechnical Su upport4 is sea archable, andd provides compreh hensive, stepp-by-step instructions witth screensho ots for speciffic tasks, staarting with how h to open thee program wiindow:

We feel that the local l help service s is off rather lim mited use, but b the onlline knowled dge base instructiions are exceellent, being comprehenssive, clear, and a very welll illustrated.

4

http://w www.avast.com/en-us/faq.php ‐ 28 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Addition nal points o of interest Tutorial: Avast Freee Antivirus provides p a s hort tutorial with securrity tips, whhich is shown shortly after insstallation:

Customiisable butto ons: the fourr main buttoons on the Status S page can c also be customised by rightclicking and choosin ng any one of a number oof features, such s as upda ate, quarantiine, and scan ns. Pirate TTalk: The useer-interface languages innclude a hum morous versiion of Englissh called Pirrate Talk, which in ncludes phrasses like “From the crow’ss nest”, meaaning in thiss case “Systeem status”. It I is used in the prrogram window, and for audio messaages too. Both thee customisabble buttons and a the tutoorial strike us u as very usseful and eassy to use. Piirate Talk might noot be everyone’s cup of tea, t but it m makes us laug gh.

Summa ary We foun nd Avast Freee Antivirus 2015 to bee mostly weell-designed and easy tto use. We liked the componeent and langguage choicees in the settup wizard, and the layo out of the m main window w with its clear staatus display and custom misable butttons. The on nline knowle edge base iss excellent. Our only suggesteed improvement would be to preventt non-adminiistrator accounts disablinng protection.

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

AVG In nternet Seecurity 20 015.0.53 15

Installa ation Choices in the settup wizard: The defaultt setup provvides the ch hoice of lan guage for the t setup wizard, ttrial or subsscription liceence key, fo lder location n, whether to t join the pproduct improvement program, and search service:

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Choosingg the Custoom Installattion optionss provides the t addition nal choices of componeents and languagees:

We likedd the simple setup for no on-experts, w with a choice of compon nents availabble to advanced user. We were also pleasedd to be given n a clear chooice of defau ult search engine.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninsstaller: Thesse include prroduct updatte, repair, chhanging components, and dow wngrading to the AVG Freee Antivirus:

Removal tool: Theree is a separatte removal toool, AVG Rem mover5. AVG have proovided an exxcellent rangge of optionss in the unin nstaller. We feel A

5

http://w www.avg.com/eu-en/utilitiies ‐ 31 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Action n Center AVG Inteernet Securitty registers as a antivirus, antispywaree and firewall. Windows FFirewall is disabled.

Action CCenter alertts: If real-tiime protectiion is disab bled from the System Trray icon, no o alert is shown. IIf it is disabled from the program wi ndow, an Acction Center alert is displlayed:

No Systeem Tray alertt is shown if the AVG fireewall is switcched off. We feel there should always bee a clear Acction Centerr warning when w a proteection comp ponent is disabled, as the warrning trianglle on the AVVG icon itself is far too small s to stannd out, and the icon itself is hidden by deefault.

Location n of main p program fea atures Protection status, scans, s subsccription stattus, and upd dates (Protection is up-tto-date) are shown in the main n program wiindow. Help is ffound in thee Options men nu in top rigght-hand corrner of windo ow. Logs andd quarantinee are also located in thee Options menu, under Hiistory. We found the prograam interfacee very clear and easy to navigate, with w the mosst importantt features availablee at-a-glancee in the main n window, annd everythin ng else locate ed in the sinngle menu. ‐ 32 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion The searrch service can be changed to AVG’ss Yahoo-based search se ervice as an option durin ng setup. Otherwisse, no changges are made to Internet Explorer.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on and firew wall warningg & reactivaation: If the RTP is disabbled, the aleert below is shown n:

A corresponding alerrt is shown in i the eventt that the firrewall is inacctive. In eithher case, cliccking the Click to ffix it button will reactivaate all protecction featurees. We feel the alerts in n the program window a re very clearr, and it is simple s to reaactivate any disabled componeents.

Scannin ng Availablle scan optio ons: The Sca an Options paage, found by b clicking th he cogwheel next to Scan n Now on the home page, provvides full, cu ustom, schedduled and roo otkit scans:

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Right-cllick scannin ng: There is a Scan withh AVG entry in the conttext menu oof Windows Explorer, allowingg files, folderrs and drivess to be scannned by right--clicking.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: This cann not be deactiivated witho out administrrator credenttials. Uninstalling the product: p Thiis requires administrator credentia als, regardleess of whetther AVG Removerr or Programss and Featurres is used. AVG Inteernet Securitty 2015 prevvents non-addministratorss from disab bling or remooving the prrogram in any way,, which we find f ideal.

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: The warning below iss shown wheen the user attempts to download the EICAR test file.. It remains open until the user closees it.

Clicking Show details ls provides a few additioonal details, such as the e severity off the threat,, and the mponent thatt identified it. AVG com We woulld describe the t alert as very informaative. Users have to make a choice,, although there t is a clearly reecommendedd option, and no means of running the t maliciouss program, bboth of which h we find ideal.

Help an nd Support Local heelp file: thiss is shown in i the screennshot below w. This uses the familiar,, accessible Windows Help layout, with an overview off topics liste d in the leftt-hand pane and details oon the right.

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Online k knowledgebaase: There iss a searchablle FAQ page6 which proviides simple aanswers to common c queries.

VG Internet Security. To opics are We weree particularlyy impressed with the loocal Help feeature of AV clearly aand succinctlly explained,, with screennshots provid ded wheneve er this is obvviously useful.

6

http://ssupport.avg.coom/support_IInternet_Secuurity ‐ 35 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Addition nal points o of interest Initial sscan: Shortlyy after the installation, a dialog bo ox is shown that promptts the user to t run an initial sccan of the coomputer.

AVG PC TuneUp: Th he Fix Performance buttton on the main progra am window promotes a separate product, AVG PC TuneUp.

Summa ary AVG Inteernet Security 2015 hass kept all th e simplicity and clarity of earlier ve versions, and d remains very eassy to use. We W particularrly liked the installation n and deinsttallation opttions, easy access a to importan nt features in the prograam’s main wiindow, and excellent e local help. The status displlay in the program itself is exccellent; our one o suggesteed improvem ment would be to report m more consisttently via Windowss Action Centter.

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Avira A Antivirus Pro 14.0 0.7.306

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: There T are Exppress or Custom optionss. The Custom m Installatio on allows the userr to choose the installation folder, which prog gram compon nents to insstall, and wh hether to confirm before sendiing suspicious files to A Avira. The Co onfiguration Wizard, show wn after installation, a types of threat to deetect. lets the user decide on heuristics and detecttion levels, and nfiguration W Wizard allow w advanced users u to conffigure the prroduct as The Custtom Installattion and Con they waant. Non-expperts can usse the Expreess installattion option, and simplyy accept thee default options in the Configguration Wizzard.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal optionss in the uninstaller: u There is a Change option, whicch allows individual componeents to be addded or remo oved. Removal tool: We coould not find d a separate removal too ol. s us ass a useful option for The abillity to changge installed componentss from the uninstaller strikes advancedd users.

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Actio on Center: A Avira Antiviru us Pro registters as antivvirus and anttispyware in Action n Center:

Action CCenter alerts: If real-tim me protectio n is disabled d, Windows Action A Centeer displays itts normal bubble aalert:

Location n of main p program fea atures System Status, Scan n, Update, Subscription S n Status, Logs and Quarrantine are aall accessiblee directly from thee home pagee of the main n program w windows. Hellp can be found in the H Help menu at the top of the w window. The layoout of the program win ndow makess it extremeely easy to find all impportant feattures and informattion.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Antiviruss Pro does not add a toolbar t to Innternet Expllorer, or cha ange the seaarch engine or mark search reesults.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and reactivaation: If RTP is disabled d, the statuss display in the main window changes to an alert, shown s below w. Clicking the Fix prob blem buttonn will reactiivate the protectioon.

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Firewalll warning an nd reactivattion: Antivirrus Pro doess not include e its own firrewall, but users u can monitor and controol the Windo ows Firewalll from Aviraa’s program window. If Windows Fiirewall is disabled (by whatever means),, Antivirus Pro displayss a correspo onding warnning, along with Fix Problem button. ng status and controls foor Windows Firewall F in th he interface is a very cleever idea, We feel tthat includin as it alloows the user to see and change c all m major securityy features in one place.

Scannin ng Availablle scan optiions: A widee range of sccan options,, including quick, q custom m and comp plete, can be foundd by clickingg System Sca anner in thee left-hand pane of the program wiindow. The Scheduler S entry in the same meenu panel alllows scheduuled scans to be set up.

E Right-cllick scanning: An entry entitled Scaan selected fiiles with Avirra is added tto Windows Explorer’s context menu, allow wing drives, folders f and fi files to be scanned by rig ght-clicking.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: A non-ad dministrator account cannot disable e protection features; a Windows User Acccount Controol dialog box appears, deemanding adm ministrator credentials. c Uninstalling the product: p If a standard user attemp pts to uninsstall the prooduct or ch hange its configurration, a UACC prompt agaain demands details of an admin account. Avira have effectivelly prevented standard ussers from disabling the product.

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: The follow wing alert is shown in the browser:

We feel tthe web pagge alert is excellent, makking very cleaar what has happened. TThis remains until the user closses it.

Help an nd Support Manual: Clicking the Help menu u, Overview, opens the local help service, s whicch uses the Windows nsole: Help con

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

The Suppport entry in the Help meenu opens thhe product’s online Forum7. This alloows users to ask their own queestions, and search for an nswers alreaddy provided for other use ers. We woulld describe the local help p service as good; it is comprehensiv c ve, and provi vides simple and clear instructiions, with occasional sccreenshots. W We noticed that t one or two of thesse show German text instead of English, but b Avira havve confirmedd that these will be replaced in the next version n of Avira Antiviruss Pro.

Addition nal points o of interest A quick sscan is run after a the insttallation andd configuratiion wizards have h been coompleted.

Summa ary We found Avira Antiivirus Pro to o be very sim mple to use,, with the home page pproviding a very v clear status diisplay, and easy e access to t all importtant featuress. We particu ularly liked tthe ability to o monitor and conttrol Windowss Firewall dirrectly from tthe program window, and d the malwarre-alert web page.

7

http://w www.avira.com m/en/supportt ‐ 41 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Baidu Antiviruss 2015 (5 5.0.3.843 33) Interrnational//English V Version

Installa ation Choices in the setup wizard: Th he only choi ce in the staandard installation is whhether to join Baidu’s User Expperience Proggram. The custom installlation allow ws the user a choice of 7 languages,, and the location of the progrram folder. ndard installaation is extreemely simplee and could be carried out with a sinngle click. Th he choice The stan of languuages will be b useful to o some useers, although h we found that the link for thee custom installattion was veryy subtle and could easily be overlookked.



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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninstaller: Baiddu’s Uninstalll/Change dia alog box enccourages useers not to uninstall the product, by suggesting solutionns to any pro oblems that have been eencountered:

d a separate uninstall tool. Removal tool: We coould not find ws Action Cen nter Windowss Window Registraation in Win ndows Action n Center: Baaidu Antiviru us registers as a antivirus aand antispyw ware. The product does not incclude its own n firewall, soo Windows Fiirewall remaiins active:

me protectio n is disabled d, no pop-up p alert is shoown by Actio on Center Action CCenter alerts: If real-tim or Baiduu itself. We feel it would be an improveement to havve Windows Action Centter display itts normal allert when malware protection is i disabled.

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Location n of main p program fea atures System status, scan n, update, lo ogs and quaarantine can n all be found on the ho me page of the main ded in the foorm of a linkk to the Baid du website. This can be found in program window. Heelp is provid the menu in the top right-hand corner of thee window. me page show ws icons for all three of the program m’s antivirus engines, nam mely Baidu Antivirus, A The hom Baidu Clloud, and Avria Antiviruss. All of thesee are activatted and upda ated by defa ult. w of Baidu Antiviruus makes alll essential fe eatures easyy to access, although The main n program window the Updaate link is in n very small text, light bblue on a medium m blue background,, and could easily be missed, in our opinioon.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Baidu An ntivirus doess not custom mise Internett Explorer.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and reactivvation: If RTTP is disable ed, the textt and symbo ol on the home paage change to t show this::

Clicking Get Full Prottection immeediately reacttivates the RTP. R how that prootection is disabled, d we feel it wouuld stand out more if Whilst teext and grapphic both sh colouredd red. Reactivvating the RTP is very quuick and simple.



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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Scannin ng Availablle scan optio ons: Quick, full f and custtom scans arre available directly d from m the home page: p

Right-cllick scannin ng: A Scan with w Baidu AAntivirus entry is added d to Window ws Explorer’ss context menu, alllowing drivees, folders an nd files to bee scanned byy right-clickiing.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: A standard user cann disable RTTP without having to pprovide admiinistrator credentials. Uninstalling the prroduct: This cannot be done by a non-adminisstrator accouunt, a Windows User Account Control prom mpt demands administraator credentials. a improvem ment to preveent standard d user accoun nts from disaabling protecction. We feel iit would be an

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: If the EICAR test filee is downloaaded, the fo ollowing alerrt is displayeed in the browser::

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Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Help an nd Support The onlyy help feature we could find f was the Baidu Antivirus Forum8.

Addition nal points o of interest The userr can changee the backgrround imagee of the main window to o one of anoother twelve designs. These apppear to havve been carrefully choseen so that the t white te ext of the pprogram conttrols still stands oout clearly. Itt is also posssible to channge the user-interface language from m the setting gs.

Summa ary We found Baidu Anttivirus to be largely very simple to use, u with a well-designed w d interface. However, we feel that a moree secure deffault configuuration, makking it more e difficult too disable prrotection, would bee an improveement.

8

http://fforum.antiviruus.baidu.com// ‐ 46 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Bitdeffender Intternet Seccurity 201 15 (18.17 7.0.1227)

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: The T default setup lets the t user decide whetherr to send an nonymous usage reeports. The Custom opttion providees the addittional choice es of folderr location and proxy details. At the end of the instaallation, the user is prom mpted to acttivate the pproduct by lo ogging in with a B Bitdefender, Microsoft or Google acccount. Bitdeefender inforrm us that tthis is to en nable the online seervices such as Parental Control. The stan ndard installaation is veryy simple and even inexpeerienced use ers should haave no difficculty with it.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninsstaller: Therre is a repairr function in addition to removal. Removal tool: Theree is a separatte removal toool, the Bitd defender Uninstall Tool9. i a useful ad ddition to thhe uninstalleer, in our opinion. The repaair function is

9

http://w www.bitdefender.com/site//Downloads/uuninstallIntro//uninstall_con nsumer_paid. html ‐ 47 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

www.av-comparatives.oorg

 

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Wiindows Action Center:: Bitdefendeer Internet Security re gisters as antivirus, a antispyw ware and fireewall.

Action CCenter alertss: When we disabled d reall-time protecction, the fo ollowing Systtem Tray warrning was shown by Action Cen nter:

window, whicch shows tha at the RTP iss disabled an nd allows Clicking on the alertt opens Action Center w it to be reactivated. Additionallyy, the Bitdeffender widgeet displays a warning in the form off a red Xovered by proogram windo ows). symbol ((although this may be co If the firrewall is deaactivated, thee following W Windows Acttion Center alert a is displaayed:



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Summary Reeport 2014

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Location n of main p program fea atures System status, updaate, subscription statuss, and defau ult scan can all be foundd on the hom me page. ow. Help is ffound in thee menu in thee top right-hhand corner of the windo Quaranttine and logs are both accessed from m the Events window (Meenu | Events)). The Eventss window shows a list of malw ware items found and alloows them to be restored or deleted. portant functtions and information arre very easilyy accessible from the We woulld say that the most imp main proogram windoow. It took us a little w while to work out that the t quarantinne function and logs functions are integgrated into the same window, bu ut having realised thiss, we recog gnise the convenieence of haviing both items togetherr. Bitdefendeer inform us that when a threat is moved m to quarantine, a popupp message ap ppears, notiffying the user of the event and alloowing him/her to see the detaails in the loggs.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Toolbar:: A toolbar with w one item m, Bitdefendder Wallet, iss added to In nternet Expllorer. It can easily be closed byy clicking th he X symbol at a the end.

Search sservice: Thiss is not changed. Ratings for search results: Rattings for seaarch results are provided d for Bing annd Google, as a shown Bitdefender inform i us that the ratinggs are also applied a to Ya ahoo and Baiidu, and linkks posted below. B on Facebbook and Twiitter.

Bitdefen nder inform us that theey are worki ng on integ grating the Bitdefender Wallet icon n into an existing toolbar, to save s screen space.



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Summary Reeport 2014

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Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Firewalll and real-tiime protectiion warningg and reactivation: If either the reaal-time protection or the firew wall is disablled, the alertt below is di splayed in th he main window:

Bitdefen nder inform us u that the same alert w will be show wn if the phishing protecction or Anttimalware Filter is disabled, orr if the product has not been updateed for 72 ho ours. Clickingg on Fix all issues! i or pens a dialoog box with a Fix button, clicking w which reactiivates all anywherre in the staatus area op protectioon componen nts. We feel Bitdefenderr Internet Security S pro vides a veryy clear alert, and a veery simple means m of rectifying the probleem.

Scannin ng Availablle scan opttions: Clickin ng on Proteection provid des the scan n options shhown below.. Manage Scans alllows custom and scheduled scans to be created.

Right-cllick scanning: The entryy Scan with BBitdefender iss added to Windows W Exp lorer’s conteext menu, so that tthe user can scan drives,, folders or ffiles by rightt-clicking the em.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: Protectio on componennts cannot be disabled by non-adminnistrator accounts, as the conttrols are greyyed out. Uninstalling the product: p Staandard userss cannot un ninstall the program, eeither from Windows Control Panel or usiing the prod duct’s removaal tool. In both b cases, a Windows U User Account Control ministrator credentials. c prompt ddemands adm Bitdefen nder have seccured the pro oduct effectiively againstt deactivatio on or removaal by standard users.

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Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: When the user attemppts to download the EICA AR test file, the following alert is shown in n the browseer:

If the usser clicks the link at thee bottom (I understand the risks…),, and continnues to down nload the file, a Syystem Tray alert is shown n:

Clicking on More dettails opens the suite’s Evvents page att the relevan nt entry. a very clear and succin ct. We feel bboth alerts are

Help an nd Support Local heelp file: Theere is a local help servicce in HTML format, f whicch opens in the default browser. Topics caan be found with a searcch box.

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Online knowledge base: Bitdeefender provvide an FAQ page10, which has ansswers to 59 common queries. There are haas step-by-sttep simple innstructions that t work witth different vversions of Windows: W

g as far as it goes. The knowleedge-base The locaal help serviice struck us as fairly bbasic, but good articles explain taskks comprehen nsively and are very well illustrated with screennshots. We note n that Bitdefen nder have considered useers of Window ws XP, Vista,, 7 and 8, an nd provided separate insstructions where neecessary, or – as shown in the screeenshot abovee – used dire ections that work with any of the supporteed Windows versions. v Thiis is very we ll thought-out, we feel.

Addition nal points o of interest Desktop widget: Bittdefender provide a des ktop widgett, similar to those in W Windows 7/Viista. This shows th he status, sccans in progrress, and thee number of unread events; clicking on it opens the main program window.

10

http:///www.bitdefen nder.com/support/internett-security-2015/ ‐ 52 ‐ 

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Bitdefen nder consisteently uses th he same alerrt symbol, a red cross on o black bacckground. Sh harp-eyed users willl see this is even used for f the Syste m Tray icon..

The use of the same warning sym mbol throughhout strikes us very sensible.

Summa ary Bitdefen nder should prove very straightforwa s ard to use, even e for non n-experts. Innstallation is simple, and the online know wledge base provides cle ar and well-illustrated in nstructions. The program m window has an oobvious stattus display and a makes e ssential feattures and information eeasy to find. Malware alerts are simple butt effective.

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BullGu uard Interrnet Securrity 15.0..288.1

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: There T are noone; the useer has to acccept the liccence agreem ment and click Insstall, no furth her interventtion is requirred or possib ble. The instaallation proccess is effecttively as simpple as can bee.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninsstaller: Therre are none, only comple ete removal iis possible. Removal tool: We coould not find d a separate removal too ol.

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Actio on Center: B ullGuard reg gisters as anttivirus, antisspyware and d firewall. Windowss Firewall is not disabled d, but BullGuuard inform us u that their firewall inteegrates with Windows Firewall and does noot cause any conflicts.

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Action CCenter alertss: If real-tim me protectionn is disabled d, Action Cen nter shows thhe alert belo ow. If the BullGuarrd Firewall iss disabled, no Action Cennter warning g is shown, but b this is aas it should be, b given that Win ndows Firewaall is also acttive.

Location n of main p program fea atures System status: Oveerall system status is s hown brieflyy in the ma ain program m window when it is opened:

uarantine caan be found in the menu u on the Antiivirus tile: Scan opttions and qu

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Update has a dedicaated button at a the right--hand end off the title bar. ption statuss is found on the Generall page of Setttings. Subscrip Help can n be accessed from the Support S buttoon in the bottom left-hand corner. Logs can n be found in the Messagging Centre, to the left of o the minim mise button iin the top right-hand corner of the window w.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion BullGuarrd does not add a a Toolba ar to Interneet Explorer or o change the e search serrvice. It does provide ratings ffor search results in Bin ng and Googgle:

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and reactivvation: If reeal-time prottection is diisabled, the program window will show the following alert when fi first opened:

mains until th he user clickss one of the buttons, aftter which the normal hoome page is shown. s If This rem real-timee protection or the firewall is disabbled, the co omponent’s tile t is shownn with a pink border, and an eexclamation mark symbol in red. Thee big button at the botto om of the tille changes to Enable, and clickking it will reeactivate thee componentt.

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We did w wonder whether the em mpty space inn the main window cou uld not be uused for a peermanent status ddisplay. How wever, we are informed by BullGuarrd that in geographical regions where their Premium m Protection product is supported, exxtra tiles aree added for the t addition al features. As noted above, aan alert in the event of o disabled pprotection covers c the whole w window w and remaains until dismisseed by the useer.

Scannin ng Availablle scan optiions: Quick, full and cusstom scans can be run from the buutton in the Antivirus tile. Right-cllick scanning: A Scan with BullGuardd entry is ad dded to Wind dows Exploreer’s context menu, so that drivves, folders and a files can be scanned by right-clicking.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: If a user without addministratorr privileges attempts a to access the settings, the proggram promptts for the Bu ullGuard acccount passwo ord. The settings cannott be accesseed unless the correect passwordd is entered. Uninstalling the product: A Windows W Useer Account Control prompt appearss if a stand dard user attemptss to uninstalll the producct. Unless addministrator credentials are a supplied,, the softwarre cannot be uninsstalled. Using th he BullGuard Account passsword to prootect the setttings strikess us as an iddeal means of o preventing unauthorrised access.



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Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: When the user attemppts to download the EICA AR test file, the following alert is shown:

M details shows the nname of the malware, The alertt is displayeed until the user closes iit. Clicking More its locatiion on the computer, c and the processs that accesssed it:

We find BullGuard’s malware-detection alertt to be veryy well thought-out. The message maakes very clear thaat the compuuter is safe, and that thee user does not n need to take any acttion. We likee the fact that the alert stays until dismisssed, so theree is no possiibility of it closing c beforre it can be read. For advancedd users, the Quarantine and a More Dettails links are very conve enient. User-dependent dettection: In cases where the program m does not identify i malw lware unambiguously, the folloowing alert iss shown:



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Help an nd Support Clicking the Supportt link in the bottom righht-hand corn ner of the window w openns the Product Guide, an onlin ne manual:

This listts tasks and componentss on the lefft-hand side of the page, with detaails displayed on the right. nd BullGuardd’s online manual to bee very easy to find and d navigate. The instructtions are We foun clearly w written and very v well illustrated with screenshotss.

Summa ary BullGuarrd Internet Security S 15 stands out foor very simplle installation, sensible m malware alerrts, and a good on nline help feeature. The home h page pprovides an overview of the program m’s functionality and access too the most important feaatures. We a lso like the fact f that the e settings aree password-p protected by defauult, thus prevventing unau uthorised deaactivation.

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Emsiso oft Anti-M Malware 9.0.0.457 9 0

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: The T user cann change pro oxy settings,, enable dettection of po otentially unwanteed programs, join the Em msisoft Anti-M Malware Netw work (data-ssharing schem me), choose the type of initial scan, and enter/buy a licence keyy or use the program as a 30-day triial. The setu up wizard providess explanation ns of licensiing options,, data-sharin ng, updates, scanning, rreal-time prrotection, and Poteentially Unw wanted Programs (PUPs)). The illustrrated pages for scanninng/RTP and PUPs are shown below:

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We partticularly likeed the simp ple but helppful descripttions of pro otection feaatures, and the very effectiveely illustratedd explanatio on of PUPs.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninsstaller: Therre are none. Removal tool: A rem moval tool, emsiclean.exee, is availablle on the Em msisoft websiite11.

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Windows W Acction Centeer: Emsisoft Anti-Malwa are registerrs as antivirus and antispyw ware:

Action CCenter alertss: If all prottection compponents (Surf rf Protection, File Guard, Behavior Blo ocker) are deactivaated, Window ws Action Cen nter displayss its normal warning: w

11

https://helpdeesk.emsisoft.com/Knowledggebase/Articlee/View/150/0/how-can-i-coompletely-uniinstall-anemsisoft--product ‐ 61 ‐ 

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Location n of main p program fea atures System status, scan, update, subscriptioon status, help, h logs and quarantiine are all available me page. directly from the hom a all im mportant funnctions and data d very Emsisoftt Anti-Malwaare’s new dessign allows tthe user to access quickly aand easily, without w any searching s or head-scratching required.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Internett Explorer is not customissed in any w way.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning g and reacttivation: If all the pro otection co mponents (real-time protectioon, behaviooural detectiion, Surf PProtection) are a disabled, the statuus display reads r No Protectioon! on a redd background. If only oone or two components c are inactivee, the status display reads Paartial Protection! on an orange bacckground. In n both cases, the inacttive compon nents are shown w with an x symbol s next to their reespective naames, and clicking c thiss will reactiivate the componeent and chan nge its symb bol to a tickk (checkmarkk) to show that it is now w active. Pleease note that the illustration below repreesents two seeparate screeenshots; only one or thee other will be b shown at any one time.

which compon nents are We found Emsisoft’s status displlay to be ve ry clear, whiilst showing precisely w active an nd which are not. Howeever, we notte that clickiing the uppe er part of thhe status dissplay (No Protectioon!) opens the Applicatio on Rules dia log; this is irrelevant i to o the problem m and mightt confuse some ussers. We wonder whetheer Emsisoft might not make this work w as a ““Fix-All” buttton that reactivattes all compoonents at on nce.

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Scannin ng Availablle scan options: The Sca an panel in tthe main pro ogram windo ow provides Quick, Full and a Smart Scans, w while clickingg on the upper part of tthe panel sh hows the sca an dialog, w which also provides a Custom ooption:

Right-cllick scannin ng: An entryy entitled SScan with Emsisoft E Anti-Malware iss added to Windows Explorer’’s context menu, enablin ng the user tto scan files, folders and drives by rigght-clicking..

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: A stand dard user caan disable th he protectio on without having to enter e any additional credentials. Uninstalling the product: If a non-adminnistrator acccount attempts to uninnstall the prroduct, a Windowss User Accouunt Control dialog promptts for admin credentials.. We note that compreehensive acccess control ffunctions can be found under u Settinggs, Permissio ons:

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We were impressed with w the com mprehensive bbut easy-to-use user acccess functionn. However, we w suggest that for non n-admin acco ounts, the thhree Protectioon componen nts, and Shuut down proteection, should bbe deactivateed by defaultt, or that theere should be a prompt to t set a passsword during setup.

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: If the EICAR test filee is downloaaded, the allert below iss shown. It gradually fades aw way over the course of ab bout 10 secoonds.

We foun nd the alert clear and reeassuring. Thhere is no opportunity o provided p forr the user to o run the malware. User-dependent aleert: In some cases, wheree the prograam does not identify mallware unambiguously, the alertt below is shown:

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Help an nd Support There is a searchablee local help file with texxt explanatio ons of the fe eatures in thhe program:

m, which alllows users too submit theeir own quesstions and reead answers provided There is also a forum to other users’ queriees. t help fun nctions as baasic, but adequate, give en the easy--to-use nature of the We woulld describe the program.

Addition nal points o of interest Emsisoftt provide freee malware-rremoval assiistance via their t website12. This is available to o anyone, regardlesss of whetheer they are an Emsisoft ccustomer or not. n Although h it is scarceely a very im mportant poi nt, we note that the name of the prroduct, Anti--Malware, is more aappropriate than Antiviru us (commonlly used by many m other programs), ass the program m detects all kindss of malicious programs.

Summa ary We weree very imprressed with the new ddesign of Emsisoft Antti-Malware. W We feel it does an outstandding job of making m impo ortant functiions easy to o access. Installation is very straightforward, and provvides useful illustrated explanationss of protectiion features, though wee would sugg gest that promptin ng the user to t password--protect the settings wo ould useful. Malware M alert rts are reassu uring and secure.

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http:///support.emsisoft.com/foru um/6-help-myy-pc-is-infecteed/ ‐ 65 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

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eScan Internet Security Suite witth Cloud Security S 14.0.1400 1 0.1632

Installa ation Choices in the setup wizard: Th he only optioon is the location of the program follder. The setuup wizard dissables Windo ows Defenderr as soon as it is started. We checkedd what would happen if installlation weree interrupted d half-way through the file copyiing process;; Windows Defender reactivatted itself alm most immediately. We found installatioon very simp ple. Once thee user has clicked c Insta all, there is nothing more to do. The insttaller program m takes seveeral minutess to complette, and displays a messaage box showing the current ttask, but no user interacction is requiired.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninsstaller: Therre are none. Removal tool: Therre is a remo oval tool, essremove.exe, which can be downloaaded from the eScan website13.

13

http:///wiki.escanav..com/wiki/ind dex.php/Technnical_Info ‐ 66 ‐ 

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Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Action Center: eSScan Interneet Security re egisters as aantivirus, anttispyware and firew wall:

Action CCenter alertss: Full alerts are shown iif real-time protection p orr the firewalll are switcheed off:

Location n of main p program fea atures System status, scan n, update, subscription status, log gs and help can all be acccessed directly from the main n program wiindow. Quaranttine: A link to quarantin ne can be foound by clicking on the File Anti-Virrus tile on the t home page. ms in the program’s main window. W We liked the updated We had no difficultyy finding important item graphic design, usin ng black texxt on white tiles, which we feel ma akes the feaatures stand out very clearly.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Internett Explorer is not customissed in any w way.



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Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and a reactivaation: If real-time protection is disaabled, the sttatus text and symbol at the toop of the window changge appropriattely. There iss no “Fix All” l” button, so the user must ideentify the component c that t is not functioning and go intto its settin gs to reactiivate the protectioon.

Firewalll warning an nd reactivatiion: If the fi firewall is dissabled, a Win ndows Actio n Center alert will be shown, bbut the program’s own sttatus displayy continues to t show “Sysstem is securred”:

The real--time protecction alert is reasonably clear, althou ugh we feel it i would be easier for no on-expert users to rectify the problem p if a “Fix All” buutton (or sim milar) were diisplayed alonng with the alert. We are surpprised to seee that the program p itse lf shows no actual alertt if the firew bled, but wall is disab relies en ntirely on Windows Action Center to w warn the useer of this.



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Scannin ng Availablle scan optiions: Clickin ng Scan in tthe bottom right-hand corner c of thhe window opens o the scan opttions page, shown s below w:

Right-cllick scanning: The entryy Scan for Virruses using eScan e is adde ed to Windo ws Explorer’ss context menu, soo files, foldeers and drives can be sca nned by righ ht-clicking.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: A user with w a non-aadministrator account ca annot disablle the proteection, as the relevvant controlss are greyed out. Uninstalling the prroduct: If a standard useer attempts to uninstalll the program m from Conttrol Panel or the reemoval tool, the followin ng message iis shown:

eScan haave effectiveely secured the product aagainst remo oval or deactivation by sttandard userrs.



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Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: The follow wing alert is shown when n the EICAR test t file is doownloaded:

We feel that some users u will bee left unsuree as to whetther their sysstem has beeen protected or not. Whilst the message states thatt the file haas been quaarantined, it also says ““This is a dangerous d situation n”, which maay unsettle some s people..

Help an nd Support Clicking the ? symbool in the top p right-handd corner of the window opens o the Heelp page whiich has a link entiitled eScan Online O Help. This opens tthe product’ss support pa age on the eeScan websitte, which providess only a verry brief overrview of thee program’s functions. There T is how wever a linkk to User Guides, w which takes the user to a page from m which the manual can be downloaaded. The maanual is a very com mprehensive 144-page do ocument whiich covers alll aspects of installing, cconfiguring and a using the prodduct. We foun nd the manual to be very v detailedd and well produced. It I has beenn suitably organised, bookmarrked, and haas a clickab ble contents page, makiing navigatiion very eassy. It has been b well illustrateed with screeenshots. Wee do howeveer think it is rather diffficult to acccess, and the eScan should pput a direct link l to it in the t program’’s Help page.



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Addition nal points o of interest An initiaal scan is run n after installlation:

The tiless on the proogram’s hom mepage can be moved around by drragging and dropping, which w we liked:

Summa ary We foun nd eScan ISSSC to be larrgely easy tto use, with important functions e asily accessible. The manual is very good, albeit no ot easy to fi find. We feeel the progra am’s own sttatus alerts could be improvedd.

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ESET SSmart Secu urity 8.0..304.0

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: These are wheether to be part of ESETT Live Grid (ddata-sharing g scheme, activatedd by defaultt), and whether to deteect potentiaally unwante ed applicatioons (we cho ose to do this):

We liked the fact that We found the installlation of Smart Security to be simplee and straightforward. W the setup wizard proovides explan nations of thhe two choicees that have to be madee (as shown above). a



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Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninsstaller: The uninstall wizard can also o repair the product:

Removal tool: A deddicated uninstall tool is available fro om the produ uct’s knowleddge-base web bsite14. We feel tthe repair opption is a useful additionn.

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Action Center: ESSET Smart Seecurity 8.0 re egisters as aantivirus, anttispyware and firew wall:

Action CCenter alerts: If real-tim me protectio n or the fireewall is disabled, ESET ddisplays an alert a from its own SSystem Tray icon, which is remarkab ly similar to Action Centter alerts:

14

http:///kb.eset.com//esetkb/index??page=contennt&id=SOLN22 289 ‐ 73 ‐ 

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Location n of main p program fea atures System status and subscription s n status: Theese are show wn in the main panel of tthe program window. w, with moree options Scan: A Smart Scann can be staarted straighht from the main progrram window n link in the menu panell on the left--hand side oof the window w. availablee from the Coomputer Scan Update: There is an Update link in the menuu panel. here is a Helpp and Supporrt link in thee menu panel. Help: Th Logs andd Quarantine: These can n be found byy clicking Toools in the menu panel. We find the layout of o the prograam window m makes all esssential items easy to finnd, with security and subscripttion status in i the main panel, and aall other item ms accessible e by clickingg the big icons in the menu paanel on the left.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion ESET Smart Security does not cusstomise Inteernet Exploreer in any wayy.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and reactivvation: If th he RTP is dissabled, the sstatus displaay in the main proogram windoow turns from m green to reed, and statees Maximum protection iss not ensured d:

The bluee highlightedd text, Startt all antivirus us and antisppyware protection modulees, can be clicked c to reactivatte the protecction. Firewalll warning and a reactivvation: If tthe firewall is disabled d, the statuus display shows a correspoonding warning and reacttivation textt:

We feel that ESET’s status disp play shows cclear alerts if a protection compon ent is disab bled, and makes itt easy to reacctivate it.

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Scannin ng Availablle scan opttions: These are Smart Scan (most vulnerable areas), a loocal drive scan, and custom sscan. There is i also a removable mediia scan (e.g. USB, DVD).

Right-cllick scanningg: There is a Scan with EESET entry in the contextt menu of Wiindows Explo orer.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: This cann not be turnedd off without administrator credentiaals. Uninstalling the pro oduct: This also a requiress administrattor credentia als. oving the pro ogram in anyy way, which h is ESET preevents non-administratorrs from disabbling or remo ideal.

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: The warning below iss shown wheen the user attempts to download the EICAR test file.. It remains for about 15 5 seconds.

We feel the alert shows clearly enough thatt the threat has been bllocked, and is displayed d for long enough tto read.



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Help an nd Support Local heelp file: Thiis is shown in the Screeenshot belo ow. It uses the t familiar,, accessible Windows Help layout, with an overview off topics liste d on the leftt and detailss on the righht:

nct 13-page Quick Start Guide and a compreheensive 120-p page User Manual: ESET produuce a succin d basic functtions of thee program, whilst w the Guide in pdf format. The formerr covers insttallation and duct, in greaat detail. latter coovers all aspeects of installling, config uring and ussing the prod Online k knowledge base: b There is i a searchabble FAQ pagee15 which pro ovides answeers to a wide range of common questions. There are sttep-by-step instructionss with abund dant annotatted screensh hots, and ory videos: many topics also havve explanato

15

http:///kb.eset.com//esetkb/index??page=home& &locale=en_USS&option=en_ _EN ‐ 76 ‐ 

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In our oopinion, ESETT’s help facillities are seccond to none. Both of the manuals are very well written and orgaanised, and use a very simple, easyy-to-read layyout, well-illlustrated witth screensho ots where appropriate. In keeping with itts size and complexity,, the User Guide G is boookmarked an nd has a d clickablee contents page to makee navigation easy. There is even a link in the doocument to download the mostt recent verssion, which we find veryy thoughtful. The knowle edge base arrticles and videos are of the saame excellen nt standard.

Addition nal points o of interest Initial sscan: ESET sttarts automatically a scann when the installation i is finished.

Summa ary We found ESET Smarrt Security 8 a very easyy program to install and use. The proogram windo ow makes everything easily acccessible, warnings andd alerts are clear, and the softwaree is secured d against unauthorised accesss. ESET provvides exemp lary help faacilities in the t form of two manuaals and a knowledge base.

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Fortineet FortiCllient 5.2.1.0605 w with FortiG Gate

Note ab bout the pro ogram Fortinet FortiClient is primarilyy intended ffor use in business b envvironments, and in partticular in conjuncttion with a FortiGate security s apppliance. Whiilst it functtions perfecctly as a sttandalone security product, users should note n that its interface iss primarily designed for business ratther than home usse. For our tests, we used u the pro ogram with a Fortigate appliance. The T only efffect this has on the ppliance are shown in th he dark blue pane at the top of the window. w interfacee is that detaails of the ap



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Installa ation Choices in the settup wizard: First of all,, there is a choice of whether w to install the endpoint security software, orr just the inccluded VPN ssoftware:

c choose the t folder loccation. Theree are no othe er choices. After thiis, the user can Installattion is extrem mely simple.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninsstaller: Therre is a repairr option. Removal tool: We coould not find d a separate uninstaller. We feel tthe repair opption is a valuable additiion.

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Action n Center: FoortiClient reg gisters as anttivirus and a ntispyware:

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Action CCenter alertts: Windowss Action Cennter displayss its normall alert if reaal-time prottection is disabled:

Location n of main p program fea atures System status and scan s can both be found on the hom me page. We could not fiind a manuaal update control, but Fortinett inform us that t when thhe About iteem is opened d from the H Help menu, an a update is autom matically carrried out. The available heelp features can be found in the Help lp menu. Logs andd Quarantine can both be b accessed by clicking the t threats detected d link on the homee page. We woulld say the intterface is suitably orientted towards the t program’s intended bbusiness usee.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Internett Explorer is not customissed in any w way.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and reactivvation: The status display changes to show an n alert if real-timee protection is disabled, along with an Enable bu utton to reacctivate the pprotection:

We feel tthe alert is clear c and thaat switching the protectiion back on is simple. ‐ 80 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

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Scannin ng Availablle scan optiions: Custom m, full, quickk and removvable-media scans can bbe run from the Scan Now men nu on the hoome page.

Right-cllick scanning: A Scan with FortiCliennt AntiVirus entry e is adde ed to Window ws Explorer’ss context menu, alllowing drivees, folders an nd files to bee scanned byy right-clickiing.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: A standaard user can not disable the protectiion, as the relevant con ntrols are disabled or hidden. Uninstalling the pro oduct: The uninstall u wizzard prompts for administrator credenntials, witho out which the prodduct cannot be b removed. Fortinet have secured the prograam against uunauthorised access.

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: The follow wing warningg is shown iff the EICAR test t file is doownloaded:

We feel the alert is reasonably clear that nno further acction is requ uired, and ceertainly prevvents the malware being run.

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Help an nd Support The Helpp menu has two entries, Technical DDocumentatiion and Fortiinet Knowleddge Base. Th he former allows th he Administrration Guidee to be downnloaded; thiss is very mucch oriented towards IT managers m rather th han end userrs. We looked d in the know wledge base, but could not n find manny articles reelating to version 55.2 of the prroduct. We woulld say that help for ForrtiClient 5 iss definitely oriented tow wards IT staaff rather than home users.

Addition nal points o of interest The instaaller runs an n initial scan before the ssetup wizard d starts, this can be stoppped by the user: u

Summa ary We found Fortinet FoortiClient to be very straaightforward to use. Whiilst it is aim ed at busineess users, it could be used to protect a ho ome computeer too. Userss should be aware a that tthe help faciilities are aimed m more at IT staaff than end users.

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Summary Reeport 2014

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F-Secu ure Intern net Security 2015 (14.115)

Installa ation Choices in the setup wizard: These are w whether to join j Securityy Cloud (F-SSecure’s dataa-sharing scheme), and whether to use F-SSecure Safe Search. In our o test, we left the defaault settings – shown below – unchanged.

ghtforward. We found installation very straig



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Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the unin nstaller: Thee uninstaller provides the e choice of ccomplete rem moval, or removingg selected coomponents – there are oonly two:

Removal tool: F-Seccure provide a separate uuninstaller, Uninstallatio U nTool.exe16

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Wiindows Actiion Center: F-Secure Internet Security registeers as antivvirus and antispyw ware in Actioon Center, using the nam me “Antiviru us”; F-Secure e inform us tthey use this generic name beecause custom mised versions of their ssoftware is provided by many m Interneet service pro oviders.

Action CCenter alertts: If real-time protectioon is disablled, F-Secure e reports viaa both Actio on Center warningss and its own message box, b with a TTurn on butto on. The F-Se ecure alert diisappears aftter about 10 secon nds.

F-Securee’s own message box is very v clear andd prominentt, and allows the user to re-enable protection with a siingle click. We W feel it is a very goodd idea, but that the alertt should stayy open untill the user closes itt.

16

https:///community.ff-secure.com//t5/Security/FF-Secure-Uninstallation-Too ol/td-p/312655 ‐ 84 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

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Location n of main p program fea atures System status and Scan S (standaard quick scaan) are found d on the hom me page. T Update is found in Tools. ption statuss is displayed d by clicking the ? menu | View my su ubscription. Subscrip Help is llocated in th he ? menu. Logs aree shown by clicking c Toolss | Advanced Scan | Open last scannin ng report. Quaranttine is shown n on the Tools tab. We found F-Secure’s new program m design to be very good, with virtu ually all the bbasics displaayed on a simple, uncluttered home page.. Almost all other functtions are acccessed by sw witching to the t Tools tab. We suggest thatt the Settinggs button couuld swap plaaces with the e Update buttton on the Tools T tab, thus puttting all the essentials on n the home page.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Toolbar:: By default, the option to install th e toolbar forr Internet is selected in the setup wizard. Its main feaature is a seaarch box that will searchh the web usiing F-Secure’s own searc h service.

Search sservice: F-Seecure’s own search s servicce is only added to Interrnet Explorerr as a search provider if the relevant option in the setu up wizard is selected (th his is off by default). d Ratings for search results: These are sho wn for Bing g, Google, Yahoo and F--Secure’s ow wn search service:

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and reactivaation: The following f ale ert is displayyed on the program’s p home paage if real-tim me protectio on is switcheed off:

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We note there is no quick meanss of reactivatting the protection. The user has to know how to t do this via the ssettings dialoog. We find the alert very v clear an nd prominennt, but feel a “Fix-All” button wouuld be a very useful addition.

Scannin ng Availablle scan optio ons: Full cusstom and schheduled options under To ools | Advancced Scan. Right-cllick scanning: Scan Fold ders for Virusses and Spyw ware is adde ed to Window ws Explorer’ss context menu, soo that drivess, folders and d files can bee scanned byy right-clickiing.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: This cannot be dissabled by standard-userr accounts, as a Windo ows User Account Control prom mpts for adm ministrator crredentials ass soon as the e user clicks the Settingss button. Uninstalling the prroduct: A non-administrrator accoun nt cannot un ninstall the program viaa Control Panel orr the manufaacturer’s rem moval tool, aas in both caases a UAC dialog prom pts for admiinistrator credentials. d the producct against deeactivation by b standard uusers. F-Securee have effecttively secured

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: The follow wing alert is shown when n the EICAR test t file is doownloaded:

The messsage box is displayed d un ntil the user closes it. We like F-Secure’s very v simple and a clear allert, which reassures r the e user that all is well, does not provide any means of o running th he program, aand remains in place unttil deliberateely dismissed d.

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User-dependent dettection: In cases c where the program m does not do oes not identtify malwaree unambigguously, the following alert is shown :

Help an nd Support The locaal help file is opened by clicking thee question-m mark symbol in i the main pprogram win ndow.

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The same content is available ass a downloaddable PDF manual. m This is slightly eeasier to navvigate, as there aree bookmarkss, a clickablee contents ppage, and Ad dobe Reader’ss thumbnail bar. Finally, there is an FAQ p page17 on th he F-Secure website, w whicch has similaar simple texxt-only page s for specificc tasks. We woulld say that all a of F-Securre’s help funnctions have useful instructions, butt are also ratther textheavy. TThere is quite a lot of informationn about whaat the progrram can do,, and some effort is required to get to th he actual instructions. W We also feel some screenshots would bbe very helpful.

Addition nal points o of interest F-Securee have revertted to a morre conventioonal interfacee in this verrsion. Insteaad of having multiple windowss started from m a pop-up launcher, thhe program has h one wind dow, started directly from m normal Windowss shortcuts. We regarrd the new design d as a good g thing, aalthough thee multi-windo ow interfacee surely had its i fans. The grapphic of the computer screen s on tthe home paage changess to show tthe current Windows wallpapeer, as shown below:

Summa ary We weree impressed with w the dessign of F-Seccure’s new siingle-window w interface. The very cleean home page hass status, hellp and scan functions, f w while all otheer features arre easily acccessed by cliccking the Tools tabb. We also liiked its simp ple but effecctive alerts. Our only sig gnificant sugggestion wou uld be to provide a “Fix-All” button to reactivate disabbled protectiion compone ents with a ssingle click.

17

http:///community.f--secure.com/tt5/English/tkbbc-p/EN ‐ 88 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

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Kasperrsky Interrnet Security 2015 5 (15.0.1.415)

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: The only opption is wheether or not to participaate in the Kaspersky K Security Network (daata-sharing scheme). s Thiis is accepted by default. Completiing the setup wizard onlly requires thhe user to cliick Install.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal optionss in the uninstallerr: Although h KIS 2015 displays a button marked Uninstalll/Change, in reality it can c only rem move the pro oduct, with the option of retaining settings and licen nce informattion in the event that thhe product is later reinsta alled. Removal tool: Theree is a dedicatted uninstalller, kavremover.exe18

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Action n Center: KIIS 2015 regissters as antivvirus, antispyyware and fiirewall:

18

http:///support.kaspeersky.co.uk/co ommon/servicce ‐ 89 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

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Action Center alerrts: If real-ttime protecttion is disabled, the normal Actio n Center waarning is displayed:

A Centeer alert is sh hown, althou ugh Kasperskky Lab’s own n alert is If the fiirewall is dissabled, no Action displayed for about 2 seconds:

ppears so bri efly that it is i impossible e for anyone to read, and d suggest We feel tthat the fireewall alert ap that it should be dissplayed for much m longer.

Location n of main p program fea atures System status, scan n, update, subscription s n status and d help can all a be found directly in the main program window. Cllicking on Show Additionnal Tools in the bottom m right-handd corner disp plays the logs andd quarantinee functions. We found it very eassy to access important ffunctions and informatio on from KIS 2015’s main program window. ‐ 90 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

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Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Kasperskky Internet Security S doess not add a Toolbar or change the Search servvice. It does however provide Ratings for search results via a pluug-in:

The searrch ratings sttrike us as a simple but uuseful additiion.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and a reactivaation: If RTP P is deactivated, the folllowing alert is shown in the prrogram window:

Clicking anywhere in the red area a opens a page that displays mo ore informattion, and alllows the protectioon to be reacctivated:

An equivalent warning in oran nge is show n if the firrewall is switched off, and this alllows the componeent to be reaactivated thee same way. We find the program m window’s alerts to bee clear and prominent, and allow tthe protection to be reactivatted very easiily.

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Scannin ng Availablle scan options: The Sca an page alloows Full, Quick, Custom and a Removabble Drives scaans to be run, andd a scheduledd scan to be set. Right-cllick scannin ng: A Scan for f viruses eentry in Win ndows Explorer’s contexxt menu allo ows files, folders aand drives too be scanned d by right-cli cking.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: A standarrd-user acco unt can disaable RTP with hout additionnal credentiaals. Uninstalling the prroduct: The product can not be uninstalled by a non-admini strator account, as a Windowss User Accoount Controll prompt deemands adm min credentiials, regardlless of wheether the removal tool or Proggrams and Features is useed. o prevent unnauthorised users u It is possible to passsword-protecct the prograam (Settings | General) to changingg the protection settingss. We suggesst that the setup wizard could promppt the user to o set this up.

Malwarre warningss EICAR test-file alert: If the EIICAR test fille is downlo oaded, the alert a below pops up forr about 2 seconds::

The brow wser window also displayys an alert paage:

In our test, the popp-up alert ap ppeared so bbriefly that it was imposssible to readd it before it i closed. We woulld suggest th hat it should d appear for considerablyy longer, or that Kasperssky Lab could remove it and reely on the brrowser warning page insttead.

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Help an nd Support Local heelp file: Thiss has a comp prehensive lisst of topics, with simple text instrucctions for each:

Manual: A 103-pagee manual in n PDF formatt can be do ownloaded frrom the Kasspersky webssite. This covers all aspects off installing, configuring c aand using th he product. nline knowlledge base, which provvides step-b by-step instrructions for common There iss also an on tasks, illlustrated witth annotated d screenshotss:

As we have come too expect from m Kaspersky Lab, the on nline knowledge-base insstructions are simple and cleaar, with exceellent illustraations. The m manual is allso very welll produced, aalthough scrreenshots have beeen used veryy sparingly, which w we feeel is a pity. ‐ 93 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

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Addition nal points o of interest The Scann and Updatee tiles display the progreess of their respective current actionss:

Summa ary Despite a significantt redesign of o the prograam window, Kaspersky la ab have retaained the easse of use found in n previous versions v of the program m. Essential functions are a easily foound in the program window, while the status displayy is clear an d allows thee user to act on alerts veery easily. Th he online knowledge base prrovides exceellent illustrrated instructions for using the pproduct. Tw wo minor suggestions for imprrovement wo ould be displlaying alerts for long enough to readd, and promp pting the user to ppassword prootect the pro ogram.

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Kingso oft Intern net Security 2013.SSP9.5.110 0400

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: After A startin g the setup wizard, the e user can deecide which location the proggram will be installed to. The progra m’s end-user licence agrreement is aalready preseelected as agreed. TThe installattion of the Kingsoft K brow wser Cheetah h is also alrea ady preselect cted.

We likedd the extrem mely simple setup. How wever, we beelieve that the end-useer licence ag greement should n not be preseelected, and d the prograam should also not auto omatically aassume that the user wants too install the Kingsoft bro owser in addiition to King gsoft Interne et Security.

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Summary Reeport 2014

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Uninsta alling the prroduct卸载产品 The proggram advertises “One seccond uninstaallation” as a new featurre. The unin staller window offers various program fun nction for co omputer probblems such as trash rem moval and tuune up to cope c with unction offerred is to actu ually uninsta all the produ ct. slow PC performancee. The last fu

i offered. Removal tool: No reemoval tool is a excellent range of opttions in the uninstaller tto prevent users from We feel KINGSOFT haas provided an accidenttally uninstaalling the prroduct. Howeever, we feeel uninstall should be ppreselected when w the uninstaller is startedd.

Window ws Action Ceentre Windo ows操作中心 心 Registraation in Win ndows Action n Centre KINGSOFFT Internet Security reg gisters as anntivirus and antispyware e. As Kingsooft Internet Security does nott provide a firewall, fi the Windows W Fireewall is still enabled.

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Action CCenter alertts: If real-time protectioon is disablled from the e System Traay menu or from the program window, an Action Centter alert is diisplayed:

w the reall-time protecction is disab bled. We feel tthat the program deliverrs a sufficiennt warning when



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Location n of main p program fea atures Protection status, scans, s and updates can be found on the program m’s “Computeer scan” page.

b. The resuult of the most recent scaan is shown in the Computer Scan tab K Help: Via the main menu in thee top right-hhand corner of window, the user hass access to Kingsoft’s Weibo seervice and bllog. Logs and quarantin ne: The quarrantine is caalled “Restorre Area” and d can be fouund on the computer c scan tabb. We found the prograam interface mainly clearr and easy to o navigate.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Kingsoftt does not ch hange the seearch servicee of the Inteernet Explore er. The user iis offered th he chance to “proteect” his or her h browser by b changing the default browser pag ge to either a Kingsoft page, p the portal site hao123.com or to a blank b page. A Additionally, Kingsoft prrovides its oown Internet browser, b default, although a thee user can deselect d it when w startingg the installlation of which iss installed by Kingsoftt Internet Security.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning & reactivatiion: The RTP can be dissabled from the program m GUI by deactivaating one or several elem ments on the proactive taab.

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Clicking the “Enablle proactive defence” bbutton in th he menu orr the respecctive button n on the a protectioon features. Expert use ers can acti tivate/deactivate the proactivee tab will reactivate all proactivee features on ne by one on n the respecttive sub-tab..

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Scannin ng Availablle scan opttions: On th he main proggram window, Kingsoft offers only Cloud Scan. On the Computeer Scan tab Kingsoft K add ditionally offfers Completee Scan, Custtom Scan, Sttrong Scan, USB-Scan U and Antii-Hacker Scann.

Right-cllick scanningg: There is a Scan with KKINGSOFT enttry in the context menu of Windows Explorer, allowingg files, folderrs and drivess to be scannned by right--clicking.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: This can n be deactivvated from the t system tray menu aand from wiithin the program without adm ministrator credentials. c Uninstalling the pro oduct: This requires r adm ministrator crredentials. uld not be alllowed to dissable the pro otection. We feel tthat standarrd users shou

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: No warnin ng is shown w when the user attempts to downloadd the EICAR test t file.

Help an nd Support Kingsoftt does not prrovide a locaal help file. Via the men nu in the upper-right corrner users caan access the Kinggsoft Weiboo and Kingsoft blog. O n the Kingssoft Weibo page the uusers can seend their question ns directly too Kingsoft su upport staff.. On the sam me page, use ers can find vvery brief an nswers to ten common questioons. he Weibo serrvice might be a new aapproach to product sup pport, we beelieve that at a least a While th simple loocal help fille should be provided, a nd that the support info ormation avaailable onlin ne should be expan nded.

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Addition nal points o of interest Local viirus definitiions: Per deefault, the llocal Avira engine e does not have llocal virus definition d databasee.

We belieeve that in n a security product eaach local engine shoulld have an initial set of virus definitioons.

Summa ary KINGSOFFT Internet Security S 2013 has kept aall the simplicity and cllarity of earllier versions but also providess many featuures for experienced userrs. However, we have som me suggestioons for improvement. We belieeve that all local enginees should com me with an initial set of virus definnitions. It would also be betteer to let the user decide whether to accept the end-user e lice ense agreemeent, and wheether the Kingsoftt browser sh hould be installed alonng with thee Security product. Thee installation n of the Kingsoftt browser shoould definiteely not be th e default sellection.

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Lavaso oft Ad-Aw ware Free Antiviruss+ 11.4.6792.0

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: The T user can choose from m a wide sellection of la nguages, change the installattion folder, choose scheme, an d install as a second c whetther to join Lavasoft’s data-sharing d line of defense only.

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There aree also option ns for installling Ad-Awarre Web Proteection:

We were impressed with w the range of languaage choices, and liked th he option too install with hout realtime prootection, for use as a seccondary scan ner.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the unin nstaller: Theere is a Chaange option provided. H owever, thiss did not work in oour test, prooducing the same s error m message on two t differentt test machinnes:

Removal tool: We coould not find d a separate uninstaller. m be usseful, if it worked. Lavvasoft inforrm us that they are We think the Change option might investigaating this

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Wiindows Acttion Centerr: Ad-Aware Free Antivvirus registeers as antivvirus and antispyw ware:

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Action CCenter alertts: If real-tim me protectioon is disableed, Windows Action Cen ter shows itts normal alert in tthe System Tray: T

Location n of main p program fea atures System status and Scan S can botth be found on the homee page. S Computeer, Modify Se Settings. Additionally, Update: A definitions update can be run bby clicking Scan the proggram checks automaticallly for updatees every hour. We feel that accessing the upd date functionn is not verry intuitive, although itt is describeed in the manual. ption statuss is not applicable, as thee product is free. Subscrip Help: Th here is a “ccollapsed” menu m bar, a ccessed by clicking the e graphic att the bottom m of the window, as shown beelow:

ol in the hiddden menu, shown above which opeens help and d support There is a question--mark symbo options. Logs: Loogs can be found by clicking Real- Time Protecttion in the left-hand meenu panel, Detection History, View Details.. Quaranttine: This can n be seen byy clicking Scaan Computer on the left, then View QQuarantined Files. F Although h most functtions are reaasonably eassy to find in n Ad-Aware’ss program innterface, we feel that the botttom menu bar, b which contains the Help button n, is effectively hidden.. The graphic at the bottom oof the windoow is very su ubtle, and wee suspect some users at least will eitther not see it at all, or not reealise that itt has a functtion. Lavasofft tell us that they are co onsidering thhis issue.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Toolbar:: An Ad-Awaare toolbar iss installed iff the user seelects the Ad d-Aware Webb Protection features during setup (pleasee see the Installation secction above). Search sservice: Thiss is one of th he optional W Web Protection features. It is Yahoo--based. Ratings for search results: Theese are not displayed in n Bing, Goog gle, or the pproduct’s ow wn search service. ‐ 104 ‐ 

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Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and reacti vation: If real-time r protection is disabled, th he status display cchanges to Protection In nactive on a red backgrround, as shown below. Clicking thee Options link dispplays a short menu witth the entryy Fix probleem now (reccommended),, which imm mediately reactivattes the proteection.

We feel the warningg shown is clear, and th at reactivatiing the prottection from the Optionss menu is straightfforward.

Scannin ng Availablle scan optio ons: Clicking g Scan Compuuter provides quick, full and custom scans:

Right-cllick scannin ng: Scan with h Ad-Aware is added to Windows Exxplorer’s conntext menu, allowing files, follders and drives to be scaanned by rigght-clicking.

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Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: After insstallation, tthe program prompts the user to crreate a PIN for such access. A Any user witth any type of Windows account theen has to enter the PIN before being able to access seettings. Uninstalling the product: p Botth the Uninnstall and Change optio ons in Conttrol Panel produce a Windowss User Accouunt Control prompt for addministrator credentials. Lavasoftt have effectiively secured d Ad-Aware aagainst non--administrato or access.

Malwarre warningss EICAR ttest-file aleert: The following alert is shown when w the EICAR test fille is downlo oaded. It disappeaars after a feew seconds. Clicking on the alert has no effectt, so users w who want to find out more havve to look in n logs/quarantine.

The alerrt makes clear that the malware ha s been deleted. Howeve er, the writi ng is small, and the messagee closes afterr just a few seconds, s so m many users will w not have e time to reaad it anyway..

Help an nd Support Manual: A compreheensive 114-p page manual in PDF format is downlo oadable direcctly from thee Support Center page of the program. p It covers c all asppects of instaalling, config guring and uusing the pro ogram. Online k knowledge base: There is an FAQ section on Lavasoft’s website, w also accessible from the program’’s Support Center. C This appears to hhave the sam me content as the manuual, in the form f of a searchabble web pagee. We weree very impresssed with th he manual. IIt is laid outt in a very simple, easy--to-read form mat, with clear insstructions. These T are so o lavishly illlustrated witth annotated d screenshotts that it iss actually hard to ffind a page without a sccreenshot. Thhere are no bookmarks, b but b topics caan be accesssed easily from thee clickable coontents pagee.

Addition nal points o of interest A reboott is required after installation. The w wizard remind ds users to save their woork first.

Summa ary We found Ad-Aware Free Antiviru us+ to be sim mple to instaall and use. We W liked the option to use it as a secondarry scanner without w real-ttime protecttion. The intterface is larg gely clear annd user-frien ndly, with the exceeption of thee help functiion, which w we feel is mo ore or less hiidden. Userss who manag ge to find it will bee able to dow wnload an exxcellent mannual. ‐ 106 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

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McAfee Interneet Securityy 2015 (1 12.8.992))

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: Th here is a chooice of Compplete or Custo om installatiion. The lattter allows the user to choose which w components to insstall:

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At the eend of the seetup wizard, the user caan also decid de whether to t share dataa with McAfeee. When Internett Explorer is first started after the installation, a McAfee dialog box prompts thee user to activate Secure Searcch:

s servicce. We optedd for the deffault setting, i.e. using tthe McAfee search We like tthe choice of o componen nts in the seetup wizard. Although se etup is fairlyy simple, thee installer took aboout 15 minuttes to download and insttall the comp ponents we had h selectedd.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uniinstaller: Thhe only optiion is wheth her to delette or retain personal settings.. Site Advisoor (URL blockker) has to bbe uninstalled separately:

19 Removal tool: Theree is a removaal tool availaable called MCPR. M

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http:///download.mccafee.com/pro oducts/licenseed/cust_suppo ort_patches/M MCPR.exe ‐ 108 ‐ 

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Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Wiindows Actiion Center:: McAfee In nternet Secu urity registeers as firewaall, virus protectioon and spyw ware/unwanteed software pprotection:

Action CCenter alertts: In our test, no Actiion Center pop-up p alert was shownn when the real-time protectioon or firewaall was disab bled. Whilst an exclamattion mark ap ppeared on M McAfee’s Sysstem Tray icon, thiis would not be apparentt to many ussers, as Wind dows 8.1 hides this icon by default. McAfee have demon nstrated to us that on their test systems, s a McAfee M alertt box (shown below) ested this thhoroughly on n our own appears jjust a couple of secondss after the RTTP is switcheed off. We te test systtems (all 644-bit Window ws 8.1 Updaate), but weere not able to replicatee this behavviour. On some off our machines, the aleert appearedd two or three minutess after real--time protecction was disabled; on others, it did not ap ppear at all.

m effectivve and persiistent than the t Windowss Action Center alert. We feel McAfee’s aleert is much more Howeverr, it would apppear to us that t it does not always work w perfectlly on all systtems.

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Location n of main p program fea atures System status, scaan, update, subscriptioon status, help and lo ogs (securityy report) caan all be ntine can be found by clilicking the Navigation N accessedd directly froom the program’s home ppage. Quaran button in the top rigght-hand corrner of the s creen:

portant featuures in McAffee’s interfacce. We liked the Navigatiion page, We had no difficultyy finding imp which is rather like the t site map p of a websitee. It providees an overvie ew of all the available functions.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Toolbar:: A McAfee tooolbar is installed. It ha s a search box, and show ws a rating ffor the page currently open in the browser.. Search sservice: McA Afee’s own Yaahoo-based ssearch servicce is made th he default, iif the relevan nt option is chosen n after instaallation. Ratings for search results: r Ratings for searcch results arre shown for Bing, Googlle and Yahoo o:

ngs for searcch results strrike us as verry useful. The ratin

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Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Firewalll warning an nd reactivattion: If the firewall is deactivated, d the overall sstatus displaay at the top and the firewalll’s own tile both show a warning. An A overlay displays d a Tuurn On butto on, which immediaately reactivaates the prottection:

Real-tim me protectio on warning and reacti vation: If real-time r protection is disabled, th he status display and virus-protection tile display vvery similar alerts to those t for thhe firewall. In some situation ns, however,, the overlayy with the Tuurn On butto on is not sho own, meaninng the user has h to go into the settings to reactivate th he protectionn:

S prrotection warrnings by As with all the progrrams in this review, we ttested McAfeee Internet Security’s using itss own interfaace to disablle the protecction. If we selected the option to ddisable the protection permaneently, and reestarted the computer, tthe overlay with the Tu urn On buttoon was show wn. If we chose a shorter timee, or did not restart the ccomputer, th he overlay wa as not shownn.



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Scannin ng Availablle scan options: Clickin ng Schedule and run scans on the antivirus ti le on the home h age allows sccheduled scaans to be seet up. Clickinng Scan You ur PC on the same page provides a choice c of quick, fuull or custom m scans:

Right-cllick scannin ng: There is a McAfee SScan entry in the conttext menu oof Windows Explorer, allowingg files, folderrs and drivess to be scannned by right--clicking.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: The prottection cannnot be turneed off by a standard usser, and the program does nott prompt for administrato or credentia ls. Uninstalling the product: Thee product caannot be un ninstalled without admiinistrator crredentials being prrovided. McAfee h have effectivvely secured the program m against unaauthorised non-administtrator access.

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: If the EICAR test file iis downloadeed, the following alert iss shown:

The alertt remains un ntil closed byy the user. ‐ 112 ‐ 

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We feel the alert makes perfecttly clear tha t the malwaare has been n dealt with and that no further action iss necessary. We like that fact that iit stays untiil closed by the user; hoowever, furth her alerts can be eeasily blockedd if the userr so desires.

Help an nd Support On the pprogram’s Help and Suppo ort page, theere are links entitled McA Afee Support Website and d Help. The form mer opens MccAfee’s Produ uct Support200 page in a browser, b from m which the user can buyy support services (e.g. “McAffee Set-Up and Optimisee” for £49.99 9 (GBP), equ uivalent to aabout €60. Users U will m here to the t technicaal FAQ with a further 5 clicks, rep resenting opening 4 be able to get from nician. differentt pages and closing an alert that enccourages thee user to try the McAfee VVirtual Techn The Helpp link eviden ntly attemptts to open ccloud-based content in the program m’s own window, but providedd a variety of o problems in our test. These inclu uded a 404 Not N Found m message, and d a script error meessage, both shown below w:

We also frequently experienced e a blank pagee in the help p window, wiith no conteent shown att all. This o attemptss to access tthe help servvice were persistedd for a numbber of minuttes each timee. Some of our eventuallly fruitful, with w a help function in thhe style of a Windows He elp file beingg displayed:

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http:///home.mcafeee.com/root/su upport.aspx ‐ 113 ‐ 

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We cannot describe McAfee’s hellp services ass satisfactoryy. The Help feature f proveed unreliablee in our test, andd slow on the few occasions when it worked at all. We feel th hat the Prodduct Support page serves prrincipally to push premiu um support sservices, and d that getting from theree to the tech hnical FAQ page requires soome persistence from thee user.

Summa ary We foun nd McAfee In nternet Secu urity 2015 laargely very straightforwa s ard to use. TThe program m window makes itt easy to find importantt features, annd we liked the clear an nd persistentt malware allerts. The suite cannot be disabled or rem moved by ussers without appropriate e credentialss. We would however suggest that the local help service could be improved.

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Microssoft Windows Defender (4.5 5.218.0) for f Windo ows 8

Note ab bout the pro ogram This review covers Windows Deefender for W Windows 8, which is a complete aantimalware solution. note that Wiindows 7 and Windows Vista also have h an integrated progrram called “Windows “ Please n Defender”, but that this is not a complete aantimalware solution and should be supplementted by an antiviruss program. Microsoft Seecurity Essenntials can be b installed additionallyy on Window ws 7 and Windowss Vista, and provides com mparable prootection to the t Windowss 8 version oof Windows Defender. D A compaarison of Win ndows Defender for Winddows 8 and Microsoft M Seccurity Essenttials can be found on 21 the Winddows websitee .

Installa ation This is not applicablle, as the pro ogram is preiinstalled witth Windows 8. 8

Uninsta alling the prroduct This is aalso not appllicable. The program cann be complettely disabled d under Settiings | Admin nistrator | Turn on this applicattion. It can be b reactivateed from the Windows W Defender icon inn Control Panel.

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http:///windows.micrrosoft.com/en n-us/windowss/security-esseentials-download ‐ 115 ‐ 

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Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Action n Center: Wiindows Defen nder is show wn as antiviruus and antisp pyware:

Action CCenter alertts: The standard Action Center alerrt is shown if Windows Defender’s real-time protectioon is disableed:

As is to be expectedd of a Microssoft product,, Windows Defender D co-o ordinates peerfectly with Windows Action CCenter.

Location n of main p program fea atures System status, scan n, update, help, logs annd quarantin ne can all be accessed di rectly from the t home page. Th he History tabb shows logss and quaranntined items together. The proggram window w makes it veery easy to fiind importan nt functions.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion This is not applicablle.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and a reactivaation: If RTP P is disabled, the alert bbelow is show wn in the status seection of thee program wiindow. The TTurn on butto on immediately reactivattes the proteection.

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Windowss Defender makes very clear that protection is switched d off, and makes it simple to reactivatte it.

Scannin ng Availablle scan optio ons: Quick, full f and custtom scans caan be started d from the m ain program window:

Right-cllick scanningg: This is no ot available.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: If a stan ndard user atttempts to disable d real-ttime protecttion, a Windows User Account Control prom mpt appears, demandingg administrattor credentia als. Uninstalling the pro oduct: Not applicable a

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: If the EICAR test file iis downloadeed, the following alert iss shown:

This fadees away after a few seconds. We feel tthe alert is reasonably r clear, and proovides no opportunity to let the malw ware run.

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Help an nd Support Clicking the Help iccon in the program wi ndow openss a Windowss Help pagee, entitled “Why “ use ble to find a couple of oother articless relating Windowss Defender?””. Using the search box, it is possib to Windoows Defendeer, although these are veery brief. Theere is a Micro osoft forum222 where userrs can ask question ns about Microsoft prod ducts, includding Window ws Defender. Using thee search boxx on the Windowss home pagee23 to search for “Window ws Defenderr” will also find f some reelevant articlles about the prodduct.

Summa ary We found Windows Defender to be simple aand easy to use. Alerts are clear, im mportant feaatures are very easy to find, an nd the progrram is entireely unprobleematic in use e. Help facillities are fairly basic, but the ssimplicity off the program m means thaat extensive support s shou uld not be reequired.

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http:///answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows//forum/windo ows_8-securityy?auth=1 http:///windows.micrrosoft.com ‐ 118 ‐ 

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Panda Free Antivirus 15.0.4

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: The user caan choose th he installatio on folder, laanguage, wh hether to install th he Panda tooolbar, and ch hange searchh/home-pagee options to Yahoo:

After insstallation, th he user is pro ompted to crreate a Panda account, though this ccan be postp poned. Installattion is very simple, and we liked thhe clear info ormation abo out the searc rch service and a home page. ‐ 119 ‐ 

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Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the unin nstaller: Theere are three Panda entriies in Prograams and Feattures, for the antiivirus compoonent, toolb bar and URLL filter. Thesse can be uninstalled u sseparately frrom each other. Removal tool: An un ninstaller can be downlooaded from th he Panda we ebsite24.

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Windows W Acction Centeer: Panda Free F Antivirrus registerrs as antivirus and antispyw ware:

Action CCenter alerts: If real-tim me protectio n is disabled d, Windows Action A Centeer displays itts normal alert:

Location n of main p program fea atures System status, quarantine, log gs and scan are all on the t home pa age of the pprogram, wheereby the Threats bblocked tile represents r th he logs. Help is iin the menu in the top right-hand r coorner of the window. We had tto search a little l bit to find f logs, bu t otherwise the importan nt features aare easily acccessible.

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http:///www.pandaseecurity.com/reesources/sop//UNINSTALLER R_08.exe ‐ 120 ‐ 

Summary Reeport 2014

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Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Toolbar:: This is instaalled if seleccted in the s etup optionss.

Search sservice: Thiss is changed to Panda’s YYahoo-based service if se elected in thee setup options. Ratings for search results: r No search s ratinggs are applied to Yahoo, Bing or Gooogle search reesults.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and a reactivaation: If RTP P is disabled, the status tile changess to show this:

Clicking on the tile opens the antivirus seettings page, where the protection can be switched on again ussing the swittch in the top right-handd corner:

We feel tthe warning is clear and that reactivvating the prrotection is straightforwa s ard.

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Scannin ng Availablle scan options: Clicking the Scan ttile on the home h page opens o the scaan dialog bo ox, which has a choice of Full, Critical areas and Custom m:

n the home page. p Scheduleed scans can be set by cllicking the s tatus tile on Right-cllick scannin ng: The entrry Scan withh Panda Freee Antivirus is added too Windows Explorer’s E context menu, so that drives, folders and file les can be scanned by rig ght-clicking.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protection: Standard users caan disable protection without enttering admiinistrator credentials. Uninstalling the product: p Thee product caannot be uninstalled without w adm min credentiaals, as a wing deinstalllation. Windowss User Accouunt Control dialog promptts for these before allow There is the option of o password--protecting tthe product in i the settings. We suggeest that the setup wizard should promppt the user to o set this, too prevent unauthorised access. a

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: The alert below is shoown when th he EICAR testt file is downnloaded. It fades f out after aboout 10 secon nds.

We feel tthe warning makes clear that the maalware has beeen dealt with.

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Help an nd Support Local heelp file: There is a web-b based help fe feature, whicch is very sim milar in layouut to a Windows Help file. Thiss lists topics on the left, and displayys details of the topic on the right:

The coveerage strikess us as comp prehensive, and the insttructions are e clearly wriitten, althou ugh there are unfortunately noo screenshotss.

Addition nal points o of interest The main program window w can be customissed by clickiing Edit at the t bottom of the wind dow. This Process moniitor and WiFii are available) or movedd around. Th here are a allows exxtra tiles to be added (P total of 3 pages thaat can be dissplayed, provviding more than enough room for aall the tiles. We note that twoo of the defaault tiles, Firrewall and W WiFi, relate to o features no ot included iin the free version v of the proggram. Clickin ng on them prompts p the user to buyy and enter a licence keyy for the Pro o version. This is in ndicated by the shopping g-trolley ico n in the corn ner of each tile. t We likedd the customisation featu ure, but lookked in vain fo or a means to t restore thee default layyout.

Summa ary We woulld describe Panda P Free Antivirus A as a simple and d straightforw ward antiviruus program. We liked the abiliity to custom mise the hom me page of tthe program. Our one su uggestion forr improvemeent would be to proompt the useer during settup to passw word-protect the program m settings.

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Qihoo 360 Inteernet Secu urity 4.9.0 0.4902

Program m version teested Please n note that th he product version reviiewed here is not the same as thhe version commonly c availablee in China. Whilst W the user interfacee is similar, there are te echnical diffferences betw ween the two, succh as the enggines used and a default ssettings. Qih hoo 360 deciided to take part in various tests with thiis English version (ww ww.360safe.ccom), which h has the Bitdefender and Cloud engines activatedd by defaultt, but the Avira A and Q QVM enginess deactivated d. Users of the Chinesee version should n not assume that the efffectiveness of the Eng glish product is necessaarily relevan nt to the Chinese product theyy use.

Installa ation Choices in the setup wizard: Th he user can cchange the installation folder. f Installattion is very simple s and only requires one click.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninstaller: Alt lthough the button in Programs P an d Features is i named Uninstalll/Change, th he dialog box that open s does not provide any options othher than uniinstall, it merely aasks for feedbback on the product. Removal tool: We coould not find d a separate uninstall tool.

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Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Windows Actio on Center: Qihoo 360 Internet Seccurity registters as antivvirus and antispyw ware:

Action CCenter alertts: If real-time protectioon is disablled, there is no System--Tray alert shown s by Action CCenter or the program itself. We feel that showing a pop-up alert a when pprotection iss disabled is a valuable w warning, and d suggest that Qihoo 360 implement this in some way..

Location n of main p program fea atures System status, scan, update, quarantine:: All of these can be accessed a dirrectly from the t main window. f a help feature f as suuch in the program. Help: Wee could not find Logs: Th hese can be found f in the menu, just to the left of o the minimise button. The main n program window w makess all importaant features easy to find.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion No changes are madee to Internett Explorer.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and a reactivaation: If RTP P is disabled, the status display at the top of the winddow changes to show this, t and a Switch On button b appe ears, clickingg which imm mediately reactivattes the proteection.

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Although h the symbool and text of o the statuss display chaange to show w that prote ction is disaabled, we feel that as the coolour remain ns the samee, the warning could be b overlookeed. We sugg gest that changingg the text orr background d to red or o range would make the alert much moore prominen nt.

Scannin ng Availablle scan optio ons: Quick, full f and custtom scan opttions are ava ailable on th e home pagee. Right-cllick scannin ng: A Scan Now N entry iss added to Windows W Exp plorer’s conteext menu, so s drives, folders aand files can be scanned by right-cliccking.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: When wee logged on to our test PC with a sttandard userr account, a Windows User Acccount Controol prompt was w immediaately displayyed, before we had eveen tried to open o the program:

d protection; whhen we tried,, the following message was displayeed: We were unable to deactivate

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Uninstalling the prroduct: A further Window ws UAC prom mpt appeared d when we ttried to unin nstall the program, demandingg administrattor credentiaals. h we were un nable to swittch off proteection with a standard-usser account, we feel thatt the Although automattic appearancce of the UAC prompt whhen the user has just logged in may bbe confusing g to some people. The meessage statin ng that the ““Protection service s could d not be starrted” strikes us as misleading.

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: The alert below is sh own when the EICAR test file is dow wnloaded. Itt remains until thee user closes it.

The alerrt strikes us as very cleear, and we like the fact that it remains untiil the user closes c it, providing enough tim me to read itt.

Help an nd Support We couldd not find a help functio on as such.



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Addition nal points o of interest The men nu contains the t item Feed dback, whichh appears to be a means or reportingg bugs:

Summa ary We found Qihoo 3600 Internet Seecurity to bee simple to in nstall and usse. It has a largely well--designed interfacee that makees importantt features eeasy to find. Malware alerts are goood, althoug gh status warningss are not veery prominen nt. We suggeest that the user experie ence for stanndard users could be improvedd.

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Sophoss Endpoin nt Securitty and Con ntrol 10.3 3

Note ab bout the pro ogram Sophos EEndpoint Seccurity and Control is dessigned for use u in busine ess environm ments in which it will be manaaged remotelly from a cen ntral consolee. Readers sh hould note th hat because of this, the interface design m may differ froom products primarily inttended for home h users.

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: These T are thhe location of o the installlation foldeer; whether to t install Sophos CClient Firewaall (we chosee not to, whhich is defau ult); whetherr to remove existing AV software (not appplicable in ouur case). We found installation to be quitee straightforrward.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninsstaller: Therre are none. Removal tool: We coould not find d a separate uninstaller.



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Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Actio on Center: TThe default Sophos S insta allation (whiich does not include the Soph hos firewall) registers as antivirus annd antispywaare:

Action CCenter alertts: If real-time protecti on is disablled, there iss no pop-up alert from Windows Action CCenter, but Sophos itself displays an alert using the t Windows 8 notificati on system:

We feel tthe alert shoown by Sophos is just as effective as Windows Acction Center alerts.

Location n of man prrogram features System status: Theere is no ovverall system m status as such. The status s of reaal-time prottection is shown in n the top lefft-hand corneer of the winndow as On-aaccess scanniing. Scan: Sccans can be run r from Scan my computter on the ho ome page. Update: Signatures can be updated by righht-clicking the program’ss System Traay icon, then Update now. ption statuss: We could not find anyy informatio on regarding the subscri ption. Howeever, in a Subscrip businesss environmen nt, we would d expect the administrattor to see this in the adm ministration console, making iit unnecessaary in the end dpoint proteection client.. Help: Th here is a Helpp button on the toolbar, and a Help menu with further optionns. Logs: Th he View anti-virus and HIP PS log butto n on the hom me page ope ens the logs.. Quaranttine: There iss a link to qu uarantine in the status section s of the home pagee. We feel tthat the program interfaace provides appropriate access to im mportant feattures.

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Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion There aree no changes made to In nternet Exploorer.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and reactivvation: If reaal-time prote ection is dissabled, the On-access scanningg line changges to Disab bled. The usser has to go into the e antivirus ssettings in order to reactivatte the protecction.

Although h the producct is intended for use in a managed business envvironment, w we see no reaason why the proggram should not display a more prom minent alert and provide e the user wiith an easy means of reactivatting the prottection, such h as a “Fix-A All” button.

Scannin ng Availablle scan optio ons: Standarrd and custoom scans can n be run from m Scans on thhe home pag ge. Right-cllick scannin ng: A Scan with w Sophos Anti-Virus en ntry is added to Window ws Explorer’ss context menu, soo files, foldeers and drives can be sca nned by righ ht-clicking.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: A user without w admiinistrator prrivileges cannot disable RTP, as thee controls are greyeed out. Uninstalling the prroduct: A Windows UAC prompt appeears, demand ding adminisstrator credeentials, if mpts to unin nstall the prooduct. a standaard user attem Sophos h have effectivvely secured the product against unaauthorised acccess.

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: The alertt below is s hown when the user triies to downlload the tesst file. It remains for about 10 1 seconds and a then faddes out. If the t user cliccks on the aalert, the Sophos ESC window opens at thee quarantine page.

d fairly clearr. There should be just about enouggh time to read and We feel the alert is simple and understaand it beforee it fades outt.

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Help an nd Support Local heelp file: Theere is a comp prehensive loocal help fille. As is to be b expected for a producct of this type, thee instruction ns appear to be aimed att IT professio onals rather than t home uusers.

Manual: The producct’s download d page also has a link to t the Stand dalone Startuup Guide, which w is a concise guide to in nstalling and d configurinng the progrram for stan ndalone usee, i.e. witho out being nsole. Althouugh the guid de has 22 pages, only haalf of these are a actual controlleed by a manaagement con configurration instructions. The manual is cclearly laid out o and writtten, but un fortunately does not have anyy screenshotts. Online k knowledge base: Theree is a Sophoos Support website w with h a knowledggebase25. Th he search function can be usedd to find ansswers to speccific queries or informatiion relating tto specific keywords. k

Addition nal points o of interest The maiin program window loo oks remarkabbly similar (from a gra aphic designn point of view) to Windowss XP’s defaullt Explorer window. Winddows XP is no o longer sup pported by M Microsoft, meeaning no more seccurity updatees for system ms still runniing it. We wo onder whether the associiation is a good one.

Summa ary Sophos EEndpoint Seccurity and Co ontrol is straaightforward d to install and use. Readders should be aware that it iis intended for use in a managed bbusiness environment, which w is refleected in its interface and helpp features.

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http:///www.sophos.com/en-us/su upport.aspx ‐ 132 ‐ 

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Tencen nt PC Man nager 10.3 3.15564.218

Program m version teested We testeed the standdalone version availablee on the maanufacturer’ss main pagee. On the saame page Tencent QQ PC Man nager can be b downloadded as comb bo version together t witth Kingsoft Internet Security or as standaalone version n for the prootection of Windows W XP.

Installa ation Choices in the settup wizard: In the setuup wizard, the t user can only chooose the locaation the program should be installed to. During the iinstallation process the user can savve a very sim mple user guide too the desktopp in form of a single grapphical file in n PNG formatt. While wee liked the extremely e sim mple setup, w we missed th he importantt step of giviing the user a choice to familiiarize himsellf/herself witth the end-uuser license agreement. a

Uninsta alling the prroduct The unin nstallation of o the produ uct is pretty straightforw ward. During g the uninsttallation process, the user is ggiven the chooice to delette any patchhes for third party progra ams, and Tenncent QQ PC Manager configurration files, on o the computer:

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Removal tool: No reemoval tool is i offered. t handle eveen for absolu ute beginnerrs. The Tenccent uninstaller is easy to

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Action n Center Tencent PC Manager registers as a antivirus and antisp pyware. As the t product does not contain c a firewall, the Window ws Firewall is still enabledd.

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Action CCenter alertss: If real-tim me protectionn is disabled d from the prrogram winddow, an Actio on Center alert is ddisplayed:

Location n of main p program fea atures The sub--tab “AV scaan”, “cleanin ng”, “tuning”” and “tool box” b can be reached fro m the main complete check-upp window. The stattus of the reeal time pro otection staatus as resullt of the lastt check-up iis shown in the main program window. An onlin ne help webssite can be accessed from m the main menu m in the upper right ccorner. Logs andd quarantinee can be acccessed from tthe bottom of o the AV sca an sub-tab. We found the prograam interface in general vvery clear an nd easy to na avigate, withh the most important features available att-a-glance in n the main w window. We feel the log file is hard to locate, especially e for begin nners.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Tencent PC Manager does not change Inteernet Explorrer. The use er is offeredd the opporttunity to “protect” the current browser byy changing tthe default home h page to either Tenncent’s hao.q qq.com or b this is nnot bundled with the to a selff-defined paage. Tencentt offers its oown Internet browser, but Tencent PC Manager..

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on alert & reactivationn: If the RTTP is disable ed in the prrogram settiings, the status off the RTP, an nd a fix-all button, b is shoown on the main tab:

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Scannin ng Availablle scan options: The Sca an Options caan be accesssed as a pulll-down menuu on the scan n AV tab. The options quick, fuull and custo om scan are provided:

ng: There iss a Scan wit ith Tencent PC Manager entry in thhe context menu of Right-cllick scannin Windowss Explorer, alllowing files, folders andd drives to bee scanned byy right-clickiing.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectio on: This cann not be deactiivated witho out administrrator credenttials. Uninstalling the pro oduct: This also a requiress administrattor credentia als. Tencent PC Managerr prevents non-administ n trators from disabling or o removing the program m in any way, whiich we find ideal. i

Help an nd Support Local heelp file: this is shown in i the screeenshot below w. The user can c save a ggraphical help file in PNG-form mat, either during d the in nstallation prrocess or later on, from the t main meenu.

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Online k knowledgebaase: From th he main men u the user can access an n online know wledge base, which providess simple answ wers to comm mon queries,, and a produ uct forum to post questioons or browsse through questions posted by oth her users.

We weree particularlyy impressed with the onnline knowledge base of Tencent PC Manager. Topics are clearly aand succinctlly explained,, with screennshots provid ded wheneve er this is obvviously useful.

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Addition nal points o of interest Default installation n without virus definiti on database e: Tencent PC Manager iss by default installed without the Avira virus definitio on database. The only reminder of th he missing daatabase is a question mark on the Avira iccon on the AV scan tab. Even if this database is NOT installedd, the user can c reach 1 The Heaalth Score iss shown afterr Tencent’s Check-up C (quiick scan). a “Health Score” of 100.

Summa ary Tencent PC Manager has kept alll the simpliccity and clariity of earlierr versions, annd remains extremely e easy to uuse. We partticularly liked the fact thhat Tencent does not bu undle their oown browser with this product. We would suggest some impro ovements, h owever. We believe that an initiaal set of lo ocal virus definitioons for the Avira A enginee should be included in the installa ation packagge. We also feel that Tencent should remind their ussers more vi sibly to install missing virus definiitions. Without virus definitioons downloadded and insttalled, a userr should not be able to reach 100 “heealth points”.

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ThreattTrack VIP PRE Intern net Securiity 2015 (8.0.3.3))

Installa ation Choices in the settup wizard: The only o ptions are the t location of the insstallation follder, and whether to join ThreeatNet, VIPREE’s data sharring scheme.. e and can be completeed with a co ouple of clickks. Installattion is very easy

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninsstaller: The uninstall pro ogram has a repair optioon. Removal tool: We coould not find d a separate uninstaller. The repaair option is a useful add dition to the uninstaller, we feel.

Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Action Center: VIIPRE Interneet Security re egisters as fiirewall, antivvirus and antispyw ware. Window ws Firewall iss disabled:

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Action CCenter alerts: If real-tim me protectio n is disabled d, Windows Action A Centeer displays itts normal alert:

d, Windows Firewall is automatically a y activated, and thus no o alert is If the VIPRE firewalll is disabled shown or needed by Action Centter.

Location n of main p program fea atures System status, scan n and update e are all founnd on the ho ome page. ption statuss and help arre found on tthe Account page. Subscrip Quaranttine and Loggs (Antivirus History) are found on the Manage pa age. Although h important functions and informattion are foun nd on three different paages, we fou und them logicallyy organised, and it is eaasy to switchh between th he pages usiing the threee tab button ns at the top. We liked the lin nk to a web page p that ex plains the new interface design.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Toolbar:: A VIPRE tooolbar is instaalled, which displays thee safety ranking for the ccurrent site:

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Ratings for search results: r Thesse are addedd to search reesults for Bin ng and Googgle:

h ratings to be b useful. Thhe VIPRE too olbar uses qu uite a lot of sscreen spacee, and we We found the search wonder w whether the functionalitty could be sshown elsewh here.

Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and a reactivaation: If RTP P is disabled, the text Youur Computer is Safe & Protectedd disappearss from the blue b status information box, but iss not replacced by an equivalent warning.. The arrow symbol s next to Antiviruss changes fro om green to orange, andd the text sttates that the compponent is dissabled:

Firewalll warning an nd reactivatiion: The fireewall status display d changes in a sim milar manner to RTP if the compponent is dissabled. When RTTP is disableed, the statu us text statees clearly Acctive Protection is off. H However, we feel the alert is rrather subtlee and that so ome users miight not notiice the problem.

Scannin ng Availablle scan options: Quick, full, schedulled and custtom scans can all be run from the ho ome page of the prrogram:

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Right-cllick scanning: Windows Explorer’s coontext menu is modified with a Scann with VIPRE entry, so scanningg files and folders f by rig ght-clicking is possible. We note th hat this doess not apply to entire drives, h however.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protection: This caan be disabbled by a non-adminisstrator accoount withou ut admin credentials being reqquired. Uninstalling the product: p A Windows User Accou unt Control dialog dem mands admiinistrator p credentials if a standdard user atttempts to unninstall the program. nternet Securrity does nott prevent staandard users disabling th he protectionn, and we co ould not VIPRE In find any means of seetting accesss control. Th is may be a disadvantage on e.g. a ffamily compu uter, as parents cannot preveent their children switchhing the antiivirus off.

Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: The alert below is shoown when th he user attem mpts to dow wnload the EIICAR test file. It rremains for about twentty seconds. CClicking the Learn More link opens the relevantt page of ThreatTrack’s online virus encyclopaedia.

v clear th hat the threaat has been stopped, s and d is displayedd for long en nough for The messsage makes very the user to read it coomfortably.



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Help an nd Support The helpp feature alloows the user to type a seearch term in nto a search box in the pprogram win ndow; the results aare displayedd in the brow wser as a pagge of the online knowle edge base. AAnswers inclu ude stepby-step iinstructions for common n tasks, as shhown below:

We found the help articles a clearr and very w well illustrateed with anno otated screeenshots. Users should note thaat search ressults may incclude articlees relating to o older versions of the pproduct, so including i “2015” iin the search term may help producce more relevant results. We also noote that som me of the search reesults relate to discussio on forums as well as actu ual help articcles.



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Addition nal points o of interest After insstallation, VIIPRE promptss the user too state wheth her the curre ent network is private orr public:

The coloour scheme can be chang ged to black as an option n:

We likedd the ability to change the colour sscheme, as some s users find f white te text on blackk hard to read, wh hereas otherss may find an n all-white i nterface rath her dazzling..

Summa ary We likedd the clean new n design of o VIPRE Inteernet Securitty 2015 and found it easy sy to locate necessary n functions and inforrmation. Aleerts are goood, and thee online help feature pprovides cleear, wellillustrateed articles. Our O one sugg gestion for iimprovementt would be to t enable paassword protection of the settiings.

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Trend Micro Intternet Seccurity 201 15 (8.0.1 1133)

Installa ation Choices in the setu up wizard: The user can choose the language for the interfaace, and thee location nstallation foolder. of the in We found installation to be very simple, requuiring only a couple of clicks to com plete.

Uninsta alling the prroduct Addition nal options in the uninsstaller: Therre are none, complete removal is thee only possib bility. Removal tool: Instrructions are provided onn the Trend Micro website26 for uninnstalling thee product using th he Diagnosticc Toolkit; this is alreadyy installed on the compu uter and so does not neeed to be downloaded separateely.

26

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Window ws Action Ceenter Registraation in Win ndows Actio on Center: TTrend Micro Internet Se ecurity registters as antivvirus and antispyw ware:

Action CCenter alertss: If real-tim me protectionn is disabled, Action Center displays its normal alert: a

Addition nally, Trend Micro M displayys its own allert, which reemains until the user clooses it:

Trend Miicro’s own alert is very prominent, aand as it remains until the user clooses it, impo ossible to miss. Wee feel that th his is a usefu ul security feeature, especcially for non n-expert userrs.

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Location n of main p program fea atures System status, scaan, help, subscription s n status, logs l (Securiity Report) and update e (latest protectioon) can all bee accessed directly d from the home page. Security Report is thee bar-chart symbol s to thee right of the Scan butto on. Quaranttine: We werre unable to find a quaraantine featurre in the pro oduct, or anyy reference to t one in the docuumentation. We feel Trend Micrro’s new pro ogram desig n makes it very easy to find impportant feattures and informattion easily.

Internet Explorer ccustomisatiion Toolbar:: A Trend Miccro toolbar is installed:

Search sservice: Thiss is not changed Ratings for search results: r Thesse are displaayed for Bing g and Google e searches:

M toolbar takes up quite a lot of o screen spa ace, given thhat there is only one We feel that Trend Micro’s icon in it. We wondder whether the button could be placed elsewh here, to savee space. Thee searchresult ratings are verry clear, and d a useful adddition.



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Status a alerts in pro ogram wind dow Real-tim me protectio on warning and reacti vation: If real-time r protection is disabled, th he status display in the main n program window w channges to show an alert. An obviouss Enable Now w button appears, which will reactivate r th he protectionn with a sing gle click:

d makes reacttivating prottection very easy. The status alert is veery clear and

Scannin ng Availablle scan optiions: The Scan Options m menu enablees quick, fulll and custom m scans to be run, as shown below. Scheduled scans can be set in Protection Settings. S

ng: Trend Micro adds a Scan for Security S Threa ats entry too Windows Explorer’s E Right-cllick scannin shortcutt menu, allow wing the user to scan driives, folders and files by right-clickinng.

Standarrd‐user access Real-tim me protectiion: Standaard users ccan disable the protection withoout entering admin credentials. Uninstalling the product: Adm ministrator ccredentials are a demande ed by a Winndows User Account Control ddialog box when w the user attempts tto uninstall the t program. It is possible to passsword protecct the protecction in Otheer Settings. We W suggest thhat the setup p wizard should pprompt the user u to activaate this, to pprevent unau uthorised acccess.

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Malwarre warningss EICAR teest-file alerrt: If the useer attempts tto download the EICAR te est file, the download is blocked, and the following alert shown in n the browse r:

pen this pagee, despite thee risk? the EICAR test fille is downloaaded, but If the usser clicks Stiill want to op immediaately deletedd by the reaal-time proteection. An alert a to this effect is shhown, which h remains until thee user closes it:

We feel tthe alert pagge in the bro owser is extrremely clear,, and provides a very obbvious defaullt option, Close thiis window. The T option to t continue to the site is much mo ore discreet, and emphasizes the risk. Thee pop-up aleert that appeears if the uuser continuees makes verry clear thatt no further action is required, and we likee the fact that it remainss until closed, so the use er has plentyy of time to read it.

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Help an nd Support Manual: There is a comprehensiv c ve 151-page guide to thee product in PDF format.. knowledge base: Clickin ng the quesstion-mark syymbol on th he main win dow or a diialog box Online k opens th he product’s support website at thee appropriatee page for the feature bbeing curren ntly used. There is also a search function.

s webssite to be cleearly written n and laid We found the instrucctions in botth the manuual and the support out, andd very well illustrated witth annotatedd screenshotts. The conte ext-sensitivee nature of th he online help is vvery useful in n showing th he user the rright informaation for the e current tas k. We would describe the help facilities foor Trend Micro Internet S ecurity 2015 5 as excellent.

Addition nal points o of interest The dow wnload page includes i a viideo on how to install th he product.

Summa ary We found Trend Micro Internet Security 20115 very easy to install and use. The program intterface is well desiigned, and status s reportts and alertss are clear an nd practical.. The help feeatures are excellent. e Our one suggestion for improvement is to pprompt the user u to passw word protectt the program during setup.

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Copyriight and Disclaime D er This pubblication is Copyright C © 2015 2 by AV--Comparativees ®. Any use of the resuults, etc. in whole or in part, is ONLY permitted with h the expliccit written agreement off the managgement boarrd of AVt any publication. AV-CComparativess and its testters cannot bbe held liablle for any Comparaatives, prior to damage or loss whicch might occcur as a resuult of, or in connection with, the usse of the infformation providedd in this papper. We take every possibble care to ensure e the correctness oof the basic data, d but liability for the correctness off the test rresults cannot be taken n by any reepresentativee of AVa guaranteee of the co orrectness, completenesss, or suitability for a Comparaatives. We doo not give any specific purpose of any a of the in nformation/ccontent provvided at any given time. No-one else involved pecial or in creatting, produccing or delivering testt results shall be liable for any indirect, sp consequeential damagge, or loss of o profits, arrising out off, or related to, the use (or inabilityy to use), the serviices providedd by the web bsite, test doocuments or any related data. For moree information n about AV-CComparativess and the tessting method dologies pleaase visit ourr website. AV-Co omparatives (January 20 015)

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