Customer Reviews

Bitdefender Antivirus 2010 -3 Pc/1 Yr [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I installed and tried Bit Defender on my laptop, which has previously used Kaspersky internet protection and McAfee.

The program installed easily on my computer, without incident. I found Bit Defender to have a decent-looking interface that is difficult to use. Under the guise of targeting their product to different levels of users (novice/intermediate/expert), they have supposedly made things less complicated, but what that really means is that, at the lower two levels, one is stuck with automated options that cannot be changed without switching to expert mode, and believe me, some of these things are quite irritating.

I found several things troubling about the protection aspect of this software: the first being that at various times, particularly after rebooting, Windows informed me that I had no virus software turned on. I had to manually request it to turn on. And at least two times, for no apparent reason, I received the alert that Bit Defender had turned itself off to perform an update, leaving my computer vulnerable for this period of time. It happened while I was writing this review, and managed to turn itself back on within a minute or so. There was no pop up about this, either: I just happened to be looking at the "dashboard" at that time. The first time this happened to me, I manually restarted the program. This is most unsatisfactory.

This is part of a troubling pattern where the program rarely alerts the user to what is going on. Everything is running in the background -- even many problems. The program just quietly notes them and keeps them to itself. One finds them only by going to the Bit Defender Dashboard to check.

The other option is somewhat incomprehensible pop-ups. I had a problem for several days where I continuously had a pop up that updates could not be performed because the system scan was running. I had no idea what it was talking about. Finally I went to Bit Defender, and it informed me that there was a critical problem that the program had not updated itself in 2 days. It seems that this program spends an inordinate amount of time, at least with the program defaults, conducting deep system scans, which slow down one's computer and render the program unable to update itself, unless you tweak this setting yourself in the expert control setting. These deep system scans take between 2 and 3 hours on my computer and are performed constantly. I honestly have no idea why it needs to perform so many system scans to make sure no virus has gotten through the cracks.

Also, all problems are of equal weight. Don't have the program turned on? Don't have the latest Firefox update? Don't have the latest change to the Windows User Pack? Haven't updated the virus definitions in 10 days? Your system password is not strong? These are all CRITICAL issues, according to Bit Defender, but in reality, I think it's misleading. I don't think the lack of "non-critical Microsoft updates" (which included a picture and video file sharing program) should count as a critical issue affecting the status of an antivirus program.

And how does one know there is an security problem? The program does not go out of its way to alert you. There are no pop ups. There are no alerts. Nothing flashes. Nothing beeps. Instead, one has to go into the program to check on things. I have been unsettled at how many times I have been informed that, for example, no updates have been performed for 5 days -- simply because all updates are canceled if the window for the system scan is open (which is not visible on the taskbar, but only in the small icons in the lower right portion of the screen). Remember, the urgent alerts include both obsolete virus definitions AND not having downloaded some optional multimedia sharing program. Basically, the user assumes all is working well, but it's not; only by seeking out information does one happen to realize the computer may be vulnerable. This is a giant flaw, and it occurs when the program is off and when the system is out of date. This is so whether one is an expert user or a novice.

I did not like that it installed an Anti-Phishing toolbar on IE without consulting me. No toolbar was installed on Firefox.

And an oddity -- after registration, I realized (although I never specified my country of residence), the company had assigned me the country of Senegal. Reading others' reviews it seems that this is common.

So, although this program works for 3 PCs, I am honestly not sure I will install it on any other computers. I have found it to not affect system performance in some aspects -- my computer starts up quickly and doesn't freeze during updates as it occasionally did when using McAfee -- but virtually continuous system scanning and a program that does not really communicate its status in keeping my computer protected from viruses, shows a troubling deficiency in its most important feature.

UPDATE after 2 weeks of using it: It turned automatic updates off, and my computer is not able to obtain any virus definition updates (the updates screen is grayed out and says updates are not available). While awaiting a response from Bit Defender's tech support, I discovered that (judging from their user forum) that this is a very common problem. Tech support advised me to uninstall and then reinstall the product. I decided to uninstall it only.

The following is a note I sent to BitDefender customer support when requesting a refund on the unused portion of my 5 computer 3 year license. I have yet to receive a response from their tech support people on the 25 or so automaticaly generated fatal error messages that the program sent to them. Nor have a received a response or acknowlegement to the formal request I submited.
The problems began on January 23 2010, and there has been no response as of Feb 5, 2010.

Customer service denied my request, but offered to extend my license by 90 days, however what good is that when the product is non functional?

BitDefender Problems.
I have been a user of BD for a number of years including maybe 2 years prior to buying the 5 computer for three year license. Based on my very good experience and the good rating that you used to receive from Consumers Report I recommended your product to many of my friends and business associates and I committed to the 5 computer license.
Not long after buying the 5 computer license I encountered my first problems with BitDefender. I installed BD on my first Windows Vista computer. I went through a series of steps, re installs and maybe another different version before the problem was solved. The problem was an irritant in that Windows indicated no AV software was installed even though it was.

The most recent and most serious problem began on January 23. Our laptop computer (Windows XP Home), running 2009 became infected with "AntiVirus Live". This computer has not had any software installed for more than a year, is always behind a network firewall and also running Microsoft's firewall.
The AntiVirus Live infection rendered the computer un usable; BitDefender allowed it in the computer, BitDefender could not find it after the computer was infected. Many other issues also.

So I looked into BD's web site and there was not a mention of a problem!!! Upon doing a Google search I found many discussions of this problem, and instructions on how to remove the infection using Malwarebytes.

MalwareBytes, and the web procedure removed the offending software.
Because BitDefender 2009 allowed all of this to happen, I elected to update to 2010 thinking that surely you must have fixed this!
Well then the big problems began; following the instructions on your web site I uninstalled 2009 using your uninstall tool, re booted and then installed 2010. The install seemed to go normally, however the program icon indicated a problem with the delta symbol in the icon.
So I tried to open the software to set configuration and run updates, and each time I tried the software instantly faulted and requested information be sent to BD. Each time I complied, I would guess that information was sent to BD as many as 25 times. Windows was always notifying me that no AV software was present.

So I went through several other steps (also checked your web site). I ran your web based scan on the computer to look for a remaining problem; I also created a rescue disk and also ran it to check the computer. In both cases nothing was found! And as of this moment there has been no response from BD regarding the 25? Automatically generated error messages. Nothing on the web site either.

So I tried several other things; I ran the uninstall again using both your tool and the windows install method.
I took these actions in both the real mode and the safe mode, and then re installed 2010 and the same problem remained! Your web site still had no information, none of the 25 submissions had been responded to!
A Google search for this problem revealed that many other customers are having the same issue, with no solution forthcoming from BD.

The computer involved in this BitDefender mess is critical to our income tax records. I uninstalled BD again and removed all traces of BD from the Hard Drive and the registry and then installed Avira which is working well.
At this point I logged into your web site and filled out a support form detailing my problems that was a week ago. The submission was not acknowledged or responded to, nor were the other 25 submissions.
I did not provide this much detail, but I think they know what the problem is.

I have lost all confidence in your product and your company.

Installation on my system was easy and relatively quick. The installer detected another antivirus solution that was installed and warned me that having multiple products installed could cause stability issues (This is applicable to most if not all Anti-Virus packages, not just BitDefender).

After a quick reboot, the install configuration Wizard started. You are first asked to pick a profile for the install asking if you are a "typical" user, a "gamer" or if you want to run through a custom profile. I selected the custom profile not really understanding the difference between the first two.You are also asked if you are a novice, intermediate or expert user.

Overall, Bitdefender is a solid product, but the "extras" feel like cheap add-ons - definitely not bringing value-added tools. BitDefender fell down a bit with the 2010 version - hopefully next year will see some additional innovation. Even with the lack of a few of the nice extras from last year, I'd still recommend Antivirus 2010 due to the price and performance of the package.

I experienced a number of issues - enough to uninstall it and choose another product. It seems that all of the anti-virus software publishers are revising their software in a big way - previously highly rated programs have a new version published and what once was good is now problematic. Unfortunately, that seems to have happened to this version.

I don't usually do written reviews but since its an antivirus well here goes.

I got this for my pcs at home, I don't usually like to install antiviruses on PC's since I don't surf the web that much and the few sites I visit often are secure and virus free, also I'm a gamer and I need most of my PC's resources free so that when I game my machine doesn't bog down.

I installed it and everything worked fine, I liked how the antivirus has 3 modes, depending on how much you like to customize your antivirus, I feel in love with the Game mode that the antivirus has, not only does it run silent but it wont affect your gaming (at least not in my case) it's like you dont have an antivirus installed at all thats how good the game mode was and I loved it. I used it for a few months and everything went smooth, no viruses, the antivirus self updated (you can change how often you want it to check for updates) until I got a new netbook, I didnt install the software due to lazyness and thanks to that I got my first virus in months (so much for my safe web surfing habbits).

The package comes with a DVD and code, in case you want to install it on a netbook you can download the software and just use your code, with the package you get a license to install it on 3 machines (which pretty much covered all my pcs in the house).

I must say I was pretty impressed with the antivirus and will continue to support it.

so, I had BitDefender 2008 anti-virus 3pc/3yr -- can't complain.
then! since it expired I've purchased th 2010 anti-virus 3pc/1yr.
but! one PC now can't boot and on the other PC the BitDefender
didn't register with Windows Security and it asks for the product
key each time we boot, and still shows "Trail" in its banner.
and! it can't download updates w/o any meaningful status, just
punt... it seems that this vendor is so bent on expired license
from 2008 version that it left a trail of inconsistent setup
and drivers, or whatever. likewise with my son's laptop.
so! I told him to remove it clean and download a trial from
AVG or Trend or any other but this one. it's Windows XP and
Vista PC (s) that are now on the floor, after an install
session of this product! please, don't try this on your PC!

This disk ia a gateway to a 106 meg internet download that's buggier that hell.
Wasted 4 hours, finally gave up and deleted this worthless program
that caused the 2 computers I was attemping to install it on ...freeze up.

I've used Bit Defender with great success for 2 years prior to this nighmare
on 7/23/10.

Unless you like dealing with support issues, get another product.

New customers can buy protection for 3 computers fairly cheap.
However, when this av expires and requires a new license key, Bit Defender
rakes you over the coals. Unless you delete the existing BD
there no easy fix installing a new one.

Really made a mistake by buying BitDefender....
Only had it installed for a couple of weeks and on this past Saturday 3/20/10 it completely
shutdown my computer when doing a update...Could not even reboot my PC because it blocked everything
on it...I went online on my other computer and it had messed up everyones PC...I had to take it off
my desktop the same day so it would not lock it up....And I had to spend 2 days reinstalling
my complete system on my laptop....Needless to say will never trust BitDefender again.....

Sincerely: Roger Raby 3/27/10

Bit Defender 2010 takes almost 3 minutes to actually start!!!!! This leaves your PC wide open. Do NOT buy!!!!!!! Worthless protection.

I bought the one that is supposed to go on three computers but it would not let me put it on more than one. I emailed customer service and they never responded. It also crahsed one of my computers that I tried to load it on and took hours to try to get the application off. Would not recommed this product.