Customer Reviews

Bitdefender Total Security 2010 - 3Pc/2Yr [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

I have been using Bit Defender Total Security 2009 for the past year and it has served me well, so I was very eager to try the 2010 edition when it became available. Overall I am happy with the new version and can recommend it but there are some surprises that merit mention.

First, the installation was not smooth. Rather than uninstall the old version I simply popped in the CD and let it go. Bit Defender recognized that the old version was present and uninstalled it before proceeding with the new install, which would have been nice had it been successful. After it installed itself my system did not work quite right, though basic protection was there. I did a complete uninstall, wiped directories and even did a defrag (one application complained of no disk space, though I had 50GB free) and installed fresh. This time, Bit Defender identified 5 applications that it did not like and wanted to uninstall, yet it would not list which applications and telling it to uninstall them did nothing. From this point, installation was actually smooth and uneventful.

Once installation was finished, everything was clean and ready to go. The first noticeable change is the boot time at initialization. Bit Defender 2010 is definitely faster to load than the 2009 edition and as a result the system comes up to a ready state faster.

A lot of changes have been made to the user interface, making the dashboard look much more up to date and organized. I run the dashboard in expert mode, which gives access to everything that can be set, and my overall impression is that, while most settings remain and are available as they were, more thought went into the interface to make it more intuitive. Though predominantly cosmetic, the updated interface is welcome.

I threw some tests at the firewall and was unable to get it to fail. It leaves no ports open, and it does not allow two-way traffic without checking or at least notifying the user. The operation of the firewall has not changed - it is solid.

One feature of the firewall I have grown to really appreciate is the activity monitor and process list. I like being able to look at the network traffic and see what processes are "calling home", eating up bandwidth (though the firewall notifies the user when initially allowing access to an application). It does not allow you to directly terminate a connection, but it at least shows what is happening so that you can take some action if necessary.

The initial scan done by the antivirus took a couple of hours and it scanned over 600,000 files. Overall this is not the fastest antivirus I have ever used but it is not the slowest either. In testing it seems to do an acceptable job. With the 2009 edition I got an occasional false positive, but so far I have not seen any with this new version.

There is one setting that caused me some grief and required some research to identify and correct. By default, Privacy Control is turned on, and for most that may be fine. In my case it interferes with my connectivity for some reason, breaking my connection to my POP3 server. After turning this off, my connectivity was fine. I am not sure why this is so, but it was frustrating until I figured it out.

Parental controls seem to work better now, though I think they are perhaps a little too aggressive (better that than being too permissive). When I turned them on for my account, it identified me as a teenager and blocked me from news sites. I switched my profile to adult and it corrected the issue. It seems a bit odd that news sites would be blocked for anyone, but it demonstrated that parental controls work. There is also a new option for specifying time frames in which applications can be run, which is a nice-to-have feature when there are kids in the house.

The Total Security edition includes a few extras not found in the other editions that may or may not be of use. The tune-up section of the interface provides an easy-to-find connection to some of the system tools like the defragger and a file shredder. Also provided is an online backup feature that offers 2GB of free storage (2GB is not a lot of space but it is sufficient for documents and most data files).

Bit Defender Total Security is a nice package and has been my solution of choice for the past year. The 2010 edition offers some improvements over the 2009 edition that make it even better. There are some rough spots in it that should be taken into account when installing and using, but there is nothing that cannot either be worked around or turned off. My experience with Bit Defender has been a good one and I can in good conscience recommend their security suites.

BitDefender 2010 Total Security is internet security software the way it should be built.

The installation asks you what type of user you are, with the choices of typical, gamer, parent, and a fourth choice I forgot. It then asks if you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced computer user. It then sets up the software based on your answers. Though advanced, I choose intermediate since I do not want to think about computers when I get home. I think the setup turned out perfect for me.

The newest version scans almost twice as fast as BitDefender 2009 and is far less resource intensive. I always thought BitDefender was efficient relative to other internet software, but 2010 has made another jump in performance. I was able to play Fallout 3, run a scan, and not notice a problem.

I like Total Security over other versions of BitDefender since it has all the features I want such as a registry optimizer and file backup. These are not available on other versions of BitDefender.

Of course, "Does the software protect well?" Results vary between different testers, but in general BitDefender does very well relative to others. But I work part time in IT security and I know keeping your software up to date and running scans regularly is more far more important than the type of software. Caveat, I do not use the parental controls or spam filter.

So why not five stars? I do not think there is such a thing as five star internet security software. All security software will have problems running on some computers. I have had Norton and TrendMicro not work on home computers, and read cases of Kapursky, and McAfee not running on other computers. I am sure BitDefender 2010 will have problems on some computers.

The main advice I tell people is go to an internet security site and try an evaluation copy. If it works and you like it, then buy a copy from Amazon where it will be cheaper. You can usually just plug the registration key in the software package into your evaluation copy. I have tried recent copies of McAfee, Norton, Kapursky, McAfee, TrendMicro and Avast. But with great software with a price for two years what others charge for one year (except Avast), I think you should start with BitDefender.

Update - Works great with Windows 7. And I am 80% sure a problem on my computer that I had to solve for the upgrade to work was due an evaluation copy of Norton 360 I tried earlier this year. We use Norton AntiVirus at work, but I would give it one star as a home use product.

Another Update - Used chat support and "Henry" was great.

This product didn't work for me. The installation took over an hour and I kept thinking it was locked up but eventually it would move on. Once installed, it would not activate. I contacted Customer Service and when they got back to me (through email from Romania) they said it was likely their servers. The next day I tried again and it was successful. Once activated, I had glitches with the registry cleaner and a couple other features...they would not work. I'd click on them and there was half the screen missing and no "next" button to continue on. I contacted customer service again after a week's back and forth through email they wanted to hook up remote to my computer to look around and that wasn't for me. While it was on my computer it would randomly say that they had turned it off and it would be grayed out. I just didn't feel like it was protecting my computer, so that combined with the glitches and slow response from customer service made me uninstall it and go back to Kaspersky.

I will preface this review with this: I am very hesitant to install a new anti-virus program on my PC. My experience, and I have a LOT of experience over the years with many different anti-virus programs, different versions, different manufacturers, is that when things go wrong they go HORRIBLY wrong. I can recall, more than once, having to reinstall all the software on my PC because of an anti-virus program that didn't work properly and wrecked my Windows installation in the process.

My belief is that an AV program should adhere to the Hippocratic Oath: "First do no harm."

Alright, OK. So what we have here is one entry into the increasingly crowded AntiVirus program field. This is the top of the line software for this manufacturer, so on top of the AV function, you get: a firewall (useful, but also available for free from ZoneAlarm and others, not to mention the simple version built into Windows); A "tune up" program (mostly a waste of time); A "file shredder" to ensure that when you delete a file it can't be recovered (mostly important if you are planning on nefarious activities or if you plan on giving/selling your hard drive to someone you don't trust); parental controls (OK, but never good enough to prevent the shrewd kiddies from circumventing them) and a couple of gigabytes of online backup storage (useful to store irreplacable stuff, as long as you don't have too much of that kind of stuff).

You get all of this, for 3 Pcs, and for a 2 year period, for a price that is considerably lower than competitive suites from the big names (Norton, MacAfee).

So far, so good. But how does it perform?

The answer, in my testing (Windows XP) is: Surprisingly well. The installation is painless and you have the option to choose what to install. Once it's installed, it performs auto updates and, depending on what user level you've chosen (beginner, advanced, etc.), leads you through some additional option based setups. For me, the key to an acceptable AV program is that your system not be slowed down (or made unstable). BitDefender managed to pass both tests. I usually run my PCs with AV protection limited to recurrent system scans and on demand scanning of individual files. I don't need or want the AV program scanning my Word or pdf documents every time I open them; that causes delays and I don't need it. Nonetheless, I tested the program in full mode to see what kind of impact it would have on daily activities. I found that while I could perceive a small lag when opening files, it wasn't nearly as bad as I've encountered with other AV programs. The small delay should be acceptable for anyone, I would opine.

Then I had the program do a full scan of my system. I scan my system regularly with Kapersky AV, so I didn't expect BitDefender to find anything substantial. And it didn't. But it did find a few files scattered about that might present a menace if executed, and which Kapersky had missed. Reasonable enough.

I run ZoneAlarm normally, but I deactivated it to test the firewall in BitDefender. I found the firewall worked very well, asking me before allowing various programs to access the internet, and effectively hiding my hard drives from other PCs on my network when desired. I didn't observe any compelling reasons to use the BitDefender firewall over the free ZoneAlarm firewall, however.

I didn't fully test most of the other features of the software, as I don't need them, and in some cases ("tune up") my experience is that these types of features are as likely to break things as help. But the user interface for these features is very simple and intuitive and assuming they work as advertised, provide some nice additional added value.

On the whole, I was impressed by this package. The main component of this package, namely the anti virus program, worked properly, didn't destabilize my computer and wasn't a resource hog. The interface is nice. The installation is easy.

If you are in the market for an AV program, I would recommend this one as an excellent alternative (and cheaper) to the big name guys.

Since I only had 2G of memory and I've had issues with both Zonealarm and Macafee using up a huge amount of my system resources... I was thrilled to see this offered to me. I had already been dissatisfied with my current version of Zonealarm. Well, this is a HUGE improvement. Easy to work with, the program has many features that are above and beyond what the other anti-viruses offer. Bitdefender offers lots of control by the user without being overwhelmed with information. So expert or basic knowledge of computers, this program is for you.

After having used this for a month, I highly recommend it. It doesn't eat up my system memory like the previously mentioned programs, yet still has real-time protection like antiphishing, antivirus, email scanning, etc... Even with all that running, it does a nice, clean job. I love the fact that the program is "smart" too. Once you do the initial scan, the program acts intelligently and recognizes files that it has already scanned and deemed safe. So the scans are easier as you go along. Of course, you have varying levels of system scans you can do, as well... and you can also turn off the "safe files" function. Highly recommend, well worth the price!!

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After more than a year of using it, I was happy with it for about a year before multiple "updates" that just really made it have constant errors and issues. The newest version of Bitdefender is WAY too complicated for my computer, and the one great thing I loved about it (that it was easy on the computer!) became an issue. I don't know why every anti-virus place has to over complicate things! So frustrating.

After having tried Norton, McAfee, and the free AVG program, I decided to get this for my dad a while back. My dad watches a lot of movies and listens to a lot of music from various foreign websites. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a lot of computer know-how. Consequently, we were having to reformat his computer very often (so far 8 times this year, and the year isn't even over!). The malware slowed the computer and the incessant pop-ups were maddening - Norton, McAfee, and AVG helped minimally.

In the near 2 months my dad has had this program, his computer runs much faster and so far no problems. It probably seems to run faster since he's so used to it being slowed down by malware.

The software has expert, intermediate, and novice settings. My dad setup as a beginner, and all he needs to worry about is pressing buttons to perform a virus scan or check for updates. He setup the software all by himself. It's done pretty well eliminating threats during its scanning.

My dad and I are glad we found something that's user friendly and works on multiple levels: antivurus, antispyware, antispam, parental control, ID theft protection, etc. Oh yeah, the 2010 version is Windows 7 compatible too!

Bitdefender Total Security 2010 is one of the most comprehensive, most robust PC security solutions on the market. I can say this with confidence because I've researched all of them and tried several of them (which is really not fun, believe me).

For less than what some companies charge for a one-year one-PC license, you get two years of coverage for three PCs. This is, without question, the best price and best value on the market today. In addition to the solid antivirus protection, you get all the other goodies that companies like Norton and McAfee charge extra for.

Bitdefender is not the fastest antivirus software I've tried, but it definitely isn't the slowest. It is considerably faster and less resource-intensive than Norton and McAfee, and more reliable. Those of you who are into games (or who have family members who are into games) will greatly appreciate the game mode.

If you need comprehensive protection for more than one computer and don't want to spend big bucks, this is the one you want!

I had some apprehension about getting this particular virus protection software as I had some bad experience with the 2009 version. However, I have to say that I was a lot more impressed with this than I was ever with 2009. Bitdefender 2009 brought me nothing but heartache and brought my computer down because of different incompatibility issues with other software.

The installation of 2010 was very easy and it had even let me keep using my 2009 key if I wanted to. I had installed this on three different Operating Systems: two running Windows 7 and one running Windows XP. The first Windows 7 installation did encounter some problems but I was able to let it do a scan of my computer and then re-installed and it worked fine. The Windows XP one had the 2009 version on it and it went very fast without any problems. I had found that after installing 2010 on the Windows XP, that I had a lot less bugs than before. However, since my computer was just bogged down with too much applications and files on it, I did a new install of Windows 7. With the newest Windows 7, I installed 2010 and again, no problems whatsoever. It was smooth and ran very fast. In fact, I barely notice the antivirus running.

The backup is very easy to setup. Just note that the online backup is only for a limited amount of time. I believe it is for one year. All of the other features work great and the new look is so much better than before. It's less bulky and more attractive.

Overall, I am happy with this product and has provided a lot less hassle for me than last year's version. If you are apprehensive about getting this because of issues with 2009, rest assured it is a great improvement.

Original Review:

Surely this product works for some people, but it did not work for me. As soon as I installed Bit Defender on my 6 year old XP computer, it just locked up within 5 seconds after booting up the computer from a cold start. And after many attempts, I finally resorted to booting in safe mode and manually deleting the files in the Bit Defender folders. Then the computer went back to normal operation. So, at least on this computer I am using right now, it is absolutely incompatible.

So, I installed it on a brand new Toshiba laptop computer with Vista installed. Similar result. The computer would suddenly crash all the way down to the DOS text screen doing a memory dump, etc. After this happened randomly about 10 times, I decided it was time to uninstall this software. And back to normal afterwards.

UPDATE: July 25, 2010

My subscription to Vipre Antivirus software finally expired after a year, so I decided to install Bit Defender on my new Windows 7 based HP laptop computer - and it seems to work fine. I still like Vipre Antivirus better than Bitdefender, but maybe that is because I was accoustomed to using it for a year. I have two other desktop computers on which I plan to install Bitdefender, but that will have to wait until late September when I return to the United States. I live in Shanghai about half of the year. I don't know what happened to the XP desktop computer or the Toshiba laptop computer in my original review. Maybe there was a software bug and Bitdefender fixed it in subsequent releases.

I had this installed for about two months straight and out of all the virus programs I've used over the years, this has to be the worst.

First of all the program kept popping up saying it had viruses.. IN THE PROGRAM FILES FROM THE INSTALL. With both Windows 7 and Vista I was unable to correctly get the instant updates going so once I installed it, my PC wasn't able to get virus updates for two months. Oh and it never alerted me to this fact! Only upon further exploration before this review did I notice it!

"Gamer Mode" DOES NOT WORK on my PC with: World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, or even full-screen apps from Facebook (think farmville). As a matter of fact I found more popups and scans running while I was trying to play a game in gamer mode than when I wasn't trying to play a game. Again, in both Vista and Windows 7 this feature did not work.

In the end I ended up going with a free virus software download aimed at consumers, instead of this mess. It took a long time to uninstall and I had to do some manual file-deletion. All together this is one of the worst executed virus software packages I've seen in a long time, and I'm a very technical person and very familiar with such things!