Customer Reviews

Trend Micro Antivirus + Antispyware 2009 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

For me anti-virus software has always been a necessary evil. It's "blackbox magic" is something I've accepted as long as I don't experience either of the two major pitfalls: (1) extreme performance degradation of your system and (2) contraction of a virus. The problem I have is that unless you experience either of these issues you usually have no reason to complain.

Trend Micro AntiVirus' basic offering accomplishes the two major requirements I have of my anti-virus software.

I've been running the program for a few weeks now and I have not noticed any slow down in my system. I've also noticed that Trend Micro AntiVirus uses heuristic analysis to pick up on questionable actions taken by your PC. I noticed that when a scheduled online backup was about to take place, Trend Micro AntiVirus prompted me to make sure that it was okay to allow the program to continue. Then again, if I turned on the Windows Firewall I would have gotten the same end result. Windows would have alerted me that a program was trying to reach out to the Internet.

So, Trend Micro Antivus does a pretty good job of protecting your PC, but the problem I have is there are better options available for free. First, I am not a fan of either McAfee or Norton. I think these products have their place in a large company, but I feel like they consume too much system resources and slow down my PC. I am a fan of Microsoft's One Care and have recommended it to a number of people in the past, but Microsoft has decided to discontinue the product, so that's not a good route to take either.

Recently, I've enjoyed using AVG Free, which provides the same basic features as the Trend Micro AntiVirus, plus it adds in a few more web surfing options for free. The built-in link scanner (also available on one of Trend Micro's other offerings, but at a higher price tag) has been a life safer on a number of occasions. Sometimes search results can lead to websites that don't always have noble intentions. The link scanner has pointed out these sites to me on a number of occasions and I have yet to be misled. I've also used Avast! (another free program) in the past, but prefer AVG.

So in summary, if you're looking for a basic anti-virus program to protect your computer do the following:

* Skip purchasing this or any other basic anti-virus package
* Download AVG or Avast! for free and get more features than some of the standard paid offerings
* Browse the web with Firefox or turn on your Internet Explorer settings to the highest possible security level
* Use the NoScript add-on (Firefox only) and turn off all JavaScript by default, since you can always enable it as needed per site and the add-on will remember you selections. It can be a pain the first few weeks of use, but the chances of you contracting a virus are greatly reduced using this add-on.

If you want more than the basic anti-virus features, then I would suggest NOD32 or AVG Anti-virus Pro.


********* I received this product for free as part of the Amazon.com Vine program. Nonetheless, I review the product in the same manner as I would if I had purchased it myself. *********

Now let me preface this review by stating that we have, in the past, used & been quite content with Trend Micro updating annually to their latest version, that was until we tried out a few other ones! What can i say.......WOW, there is a HUGE difference!
Now that I have tried about every AntiVirus software from Kaspersky to McAfee and Trend Micro has got to be about the worst software out there. For example, Trend Micro uses 284MB of RAM, now Vipre will only use 67MB at the most! Also, Trend Micro will sometime find a virus and will not let you delete, or quarantine it. Also, it is INCREDIBLY SLOW! While running a scan on my 4GB of RAM computer, it reduced it's speed by over half! So in short, it does the job, but slowly, it misses trogans, worms, and presently almost any other virus software is better. (But I do recomend Kaspersky for our needs)
At one time Trend was number 1 in my book, but as with all tecnology, if you don't improve, someone else will.............& that is what has happened.

First off let's be clear: you are probably better off buying the entire suite from Trend Micro (or Norton, or McAfee, or whoever) so that you get a unified firewall, anit-spam, anti-virus, and anti spyware package. That being said if you have an older computer that tends to choke on those big suites and you have a hardware firewall (included in most wired or wireless routers) and you have the free Windows firewall turned on (in XP or Vista) then this would be a good option. Just make certain your turn on the anti-spam provided by most internet service providers (which conveniently, runs on their servers).

Now to this product:

If you need the very best Anti-virus protection this isn't for you. It's good, it's just not the best. If you really need the best you probably want Eset or McAfee. If you're okay with "decent" protection read on since Trend rates average for Anti-Virus detection and above average for scan speed (according to Consumer Reports).

If you need the best Anti-spyware then you probably want this product, or the Trend Micro Internet Security Suite. Trend ties with Norton for the best Anti-spyware. It also gets top marks overall for ease of use (as above, ratings are from CR).

In my own experience I've found the user interface really easy very simple to use and written in refreshingly plain language. I have this on my notebook and McAfee on my home server and with McAfee I'm always trying to figure out just what a given setting actually does. It might be powerful but users who are not very computer literate might not configure it correctly and end up worse off than if they have bought a less powerful but easier to use product like this one.

I have a Intel Pentium 4 hyperthreaded, with 2 GB RAM, Windows Vista Ultimate. I use IE and Firefox and Opera sometimes.

Installation: Took around 15 minutes. The process went smoothly.

Start-up Speeds: Surprisingly, it didnt really slow down my PC much, although I expected it too. So good points in that.

Virus Scan: Has the usual virus scan, automatic signature updates, full scan, quick scan. I dont really have a lab to actually inject viruses and test, but seems to work on par with other players in the field.

Firewall: Does prompt me to allow or not allow access to programs requesting access to network, or personal resources. Didnt notice any bugs here.

Surfing: Scans the web pages requested and tags as safe to browse or not. Noticed that it considerably slowed down my Gmail as it was scanning each and every email I was opening. I shut that down as I trust my ability to go to correct safe pages. However, if you turn this on, this does slow down internet access. This needs to be optimized better.

Censoring: The software does allow restricting internet access to various categories, for eg, you may want to set particular access for children. I have not used this feature as my child is less than a month old right now :)

WiFi: It has a Wifi client similar to windows or other numerous ones which tells you about security status of a wifi hotspot, if you want to connnect. I use the Windows client.

Optimizer: This feature is supposed to clean up your disk, registry, temp files etc and optimize your PC. This can be achieved by freeware too, and don't think its a huge gain. But not bad to throw it in with the rest of the software.

Spyware: I really didn't visit bad sites to test this.

Overall, I would say, its a nice product.

For home-use anti-virus/anti-spyware, I'm looking for three things:

1. Easy to install and easy to use

2. Operates light and doesn't slow down my laptop

3. The software works.

Trend Micro met all three of those expectations, so much so that I bought the full Trend Micro Internet Security Pro package for three users. After years of frustration with McAfee and Norton - software incompatibility and system resources bogged down - I am pleased with the Trend Micro experience.

I've also switched from IE to Firefox, which eliminated the frozen screens and slow Internet surfing. I recommend Trend Micro and Firefox, especially if you spend a lot of playing and shopping on the Internet.

I installed this program on my newest laptop without any reservations as Trend Micro has always had a good name with me. This is a good basic antivirus, antispyware program. It doesn't slow things down and it doesn't get in the way, but seems to do its job as one would expect.

As others have mentioned, it is easy to install and easy to configure. There are a lot of settings so you can really get in there and customize the program to your needs, yet it is not at all complicated even for the novice user. I actually found it to have many more individual settings than other programs I have used over the years. I'm not one for big, bloaty softwares when I can get softwares that do the job they are supposed to be doing without taking over the whole computer and getting in the way. In that regard, I think this program is worth what they get for it.

Please be advised that this software (Trend Micro Antivirus + Antispyware 2009) is just for antivirus and anti-spyware protection while online. This does not protect against email spam, stop malicious downloads from websites, have backup and restore options, protect against identity theft or have parental controls. With that being said, Trend Anit-Virus and Anti-Spyware program has been consistent in alerting me of possible threats such as worms and trojan horses, and it will notify me of any unauthorized changes to applications. It will scan your emails but it will not give you the option to control spam or stop unwanted images. With the recent updates to Windows, I really found no need to have a program that did everything since my system has a firewall, I can maximize my computer performance and I am able to backup my system using Windows. Windows Vista even has parental control built right in but I do not use that feature.

I previously had McAfee Internet Protection installed on my work computer and had 9 days left on my subscription so I decided to give Trend a try. Installation was easy. It only took 3 minutes to install the program and approximately 10 minutes to download the updates. During installation please be aware that Windows Defender will be automatically turned off to avoid any conflicts.

Since this program is a basic anti-virus, I have seen a dramatic difference in my system's speed. I guess the more your anti-virus software does, the more memory it uses and slows done your computers performance since it is continuously running in the background. I have been pleased with this software's performance and I have had no conflicts or issues arise. I mostly shop online, check my Yahoo email and interact in Facebook. If you are looking for a program that offers more than just the basics, this program does give you the opportunity to upgrade to Pro from Basic if you are looking for more protection.

I was excited way back when I got this software. Sadly, my excitement was short lived. Some of my disappointment comes from not reading the box more carefully.

Trend Micro is a big name in the anti-virus business. They have sold millions of copies of their anti-virus software. You would think that it would be a leader in this industry. I have also used Kaspersky and Norton, so I have some comparison. Anyway, I installed Trend Micro on my computer and was ready for virus-free operation. Well, not quite.

The first problem I noticed immediately is that Trend Micro reduced the speed of my computer significantly. My recommendation: you should have more than the 256 MB minimum memory; at least 1 GB is more like it. In addition, 1 GHz clock speed is the recommended minimum speed. Forget the 1 GHz; try 2 GHz.

Okay, so the Trend Micro slowed my computer. The big question is whether it works. Well, perhaps not quite as good as I would like. Recalling that my comparison points are Kaspersky (which I like a lot) and Norton, the answer is that Trend Micro is less aggressive than the others I have used. Trend Micro does not seem to prevent download of malicious software, though it will remove many, perhaps most, of them in a scan. Trend Micro also seems to be a bit short in the suspicious website notification arena, as in it does not seem to spot them before you get there. Again, if you do click through to a suspicious website and end up with something nefarious on your computer, Trend Micro seems like it will remove most of these things.

If you are a casual user of the internet and do little surfing and if you have a sufficiently powerful computer, Trend Micro could well handle your needs. If you do a lot of internet surfing and your computer is less powerful, then look somewhere else. I personally like Kaspersky, but there are other anti-virus programs including some that are free.

Positive Notes:

- Easy to set up and install.
- This program does seem to do a good job removing threats from your computer after the fact.

Negative Notes:

- Trend Micro seemed to slow my computer.
- This program does not seem to prevent you from visiting malicious websites.
- This anti-virus does not seem to prevent downloads of malicious software.

Good luck!

I rate it one star. The only reason it got a one star insted of five. is becuse of the fact that the pin code is Expired. I will update the review if the seller resolve the problum.

when i payed for this product and downloaded to my computer and it only had about a month and a haft left so i removed it from my computer and put it in a draw after that i went to staples and bourght me norton antivirus and that works prefect for my computer .