BitDefender Total Security 2010
| Websites: | Homepage |
| Category: | Security |
| Manufacturer: | BitDefender |
| Platform: |
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The Good:
Complete protection from malware, secure data backup, easy to use parental controls, light on system resources
The Bad:
More detailed and powerful Tune-up utilities would be welcome
| Installation: | 8 / 10 |
| Ease of Use: | 8 / 10 |
| Features: | 8 / 10 |
| Performance: | 8 / 10 |
| Product Support: | 8 / 10 |
Overview
BitDefender Total Security 2010 provides the ultimate proactive protection for your PCs, without slowing them down. It combines advanced protection against viruses, spyware, hackers, spam and other e-threats. Moreover, its system maintenance and backup tools keep your PC running fast and protected from data loss. Instant Messaging Encryption keeps your conversations private on Yahoo! and MSN Messenger. File Vault securely stores personal information or sensitive files. It also features improved Parental Controls that block inappropriate website and limits time they spend online and playing games.
Installation
Installation is straight forward and you can choose a Typical or Custom installation. A typical install should be fine for most home users as you can change custom settings later.
It will need to have Microsoft .Net Framework on the machine and will download and install it automatically if you don’t.
A restart is required to complete the installation.
Features
There are several features for protecting almost every aspect of you machine from threats. The main interface is intuitive and starts up with the Dashboard where you can get an quick overview and start running scans.
Under Security you can control and customize the Antivirus, Update, Firewall, Antispam, and Antiphishing protection features.
Tune-up lets you clean up old and duplicate files, clean the registry, or defrag the hard drive to keep your machine running smoothly.
It comes with a File Storage module that helps you keep your data not only safe, but confidential.
The Network module allows you to manage the BitDefender products installed on your home computers from a single computer.
There are three different interface layouts for Novice, Intermediate, and Expert mode. Game Mode temporarily modifies protection settings so as to minimize their impact on system performance.
Antiphishing protection for Firefox and / or Internet Explorer.
Securely shred data files so your important data is not recoverable.
Ease of Use
Setup is easy through the configuration wizard. Just select the type of user you are with the machine its installed on and it picks the appropriate settings.
The user interface is intuitive and lets you easily set things up and make changes. Most of the features are wizard driven which makes setting up advanced tasks easy.
Configure the amount of settings based on your computer skill level. The default settings should be adequate for most users, but if you want to tweak every setting, you can do that in Expert mode.
Parents will love the Parental controls available where you can easily configure different web and application settings.
You can limit the times when your child can be online based on a schedule.
If they try to access a blocked site they get a message letting them know.
Setting up your network type for protection after installation is very easy.
Right-click on a file to scan it quickly from the context menu.
Extra Tune-up utilities are easy to run by the click of a button.
You can access different menu options from the taskbar icon.
The firewall is easily configurable, if it blocks a program you can allow it or not and tell it to remember the selection.
Performance
We ran our test on a Windows 7 machine with a dual core processor and 4 GB of RAM and it performed smoothly. There was a bit of lag on apps while multi-tasking during full scans, but that is to be expected in most Antivirus apps.
Product Support
They provide free technical support for the entire duration of the license. There is a neat in-product technical support feature that lets you find answers to commonly related technical questions.
There are also several ways to get support from BitDefender online including downloadable manuals, an online Knowledgebase, Chat, Phone Support, Forums, or filling out an online form and creating a help ticket.
![sshot-2009-10-22-[19-58-47]](http://www.howtogeek.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/sshot20091022195847.png "sshot-2009-10-22-[19-58-47]")
![sshot-2009-10-22-[20-06-23]](http://www.howtogeek.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/sshot20091022200623.png "sshot-2009-10-22-[20-06-23]")
Conclusion
BitDefender Total Security 2010 is more stream lined and is easier to set up than previous versions. The configuration wizard let’s you set it up based on how you will use your PC from beginner to expert. It also has a lot more than protection from malware to offer. While it does provide real-time protection against malware, hackers, SPAM, identity theft, and more — it also provides Parental Protections, System Tune-up Utilities, Secure Data Backup and more. The user interface is light, easy to use and navigate, and is lighter on system resources than some other full featured security suites. The extra Tune-up tasks are easy to run and do an adequate job, however they are basic and experienced users will want to use more advanced utilities for these tasks. The easy setup based on the type of user you are is also an added bonus. They offer a free 30 day evaluation to test before you buy and is $79.95 after that for a full license that allows you to protect 3 separate PC’s.
Works with Windows XP SP2, Vista, and Windows 7
Rating
- Installation: 8
- Ease of Use: 8
- Features: 8
- Performance: 8
- Product Support: 8
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Comments (3)
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Have been using BD forever, before it was “discovered” here in the US. It has stopped every infection. Never had a problem with any of my pcs over all these years. Have installed it on hundreds of pcs and notebooks and none of those folks have had problems. My father had N installed on his pc. Constant problems all the time and he was unhappy with his pc. Removed N, installed BD. End of problems. Even he is recommending it.
Have I had “problems”? Yes, but BD solved them. I know there are some free apps out there and 2-3 good ones. I am a big fan of BD and wouldn’t change unless there was a compelling reason. Haven’t seen one.
I’ve been using BitDefender 2010 since it appeared in august and it was indeed a very pleasant surprise!! It’s easy to use, very effective and stable on a w 7 computer. I like the game mode setting that I use very much and the home network! I definitely recommend it.
I used totalsecurity 2009 last year with my Windows XPand was impressed out of my socks. Easy to use, blocked viruses from the naughty sites, didn’t slow down PC performance at all. The TotalSecurity 2010 is still good as far as detecting and cleaning viruses and the other utilities are great as well. But, my PC has slowed down almost to a crawl, it literally takes an whole hour to do a deep system scan. Some web pages take forever to open and some email messages don’t open at all. When I uninstall TotalSecurity, PC performance gets back to normal. And, don’t try to get tech. support…you can forget that.