Customer Reviews

Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 3.0 [Old Version]

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Having tested a good number of security software, I wanted to give Trend Micro's Internet Security Pro Version 3.0 a chance. With McAfee's Security program on one laptop, I wanted to see how Trend Micro's latest software compares on my other PC laptop.

I. INSTALLATION

When I install anti-virus or security programs, things usually take about 20-25 minutes but surprisingly Trend Micro's Internet Security Pro 3.0 took less than 10 minutes (and this on a laptop that is 90% full). Trend Micro advertises that the software is 20% smaller in file size and 20% faster in scan time and so far, that has remained to be true. Installation was easy, but it does require you to have an internet connection ready and also to enter your personal information before accessing the software (after installation). But this is probably the quickest Internet Security software I have ran thus far.

II. Interface

After installation, accessing the software is easy and quick. Updating the software is all within a click of a button. You get an overview, virus and spy ware controls, personal firewall controls, internet and e-mail controls, other settings and subscription and pro features. Interface is pretty basic and for newbies, it should be easy to navigate. When checking each section, there is a button that shows on or off. So, you know what is working immediately.

Where most of the sections are self-explanatory, the Pro Features is quite interesting as it allows you to go further into Internet Security with:

- Trend Micro Vault - Password-protected vault folder where you store sensitive files that seals if you lose your computer. I definitely like this feature, especially the fact that you can report your computer as missing/stolen and the vault where sensitive files are stored will automatically seal.

- System Tuner - Improve the performance of your computer, recover hard disk space/cleans up registry files and safeguard privacy on the Internet. Personally, I didn't want to mess with the registry using this function until I did a back of files.

- Trend Micro Toolbar that checks the safety of the websites, hyperlinks and wireless networks - I tested this and where McAfee's test of sites would take you to their webpage with user-based reviews, Trend Micro's toolbar gives you a color code if it's safe.

- Protection for mobile telephones and PDA's from span and viruses. Another good feature for those who want to protect their smart phones and PDA's.

III. Overview

The virus scan was definitely quicker than any anti-virus software that I have used before and that is definitely a positive. The software does what it says on the back of the box, protecting the PC from viruses and spyware, prevents unauthorized changes, blocks e-mail and image spam, malicious downloads and also via "My Home Network", you can see who is utilizing your computer.

At first I was wondering why they separated the pro features but after checking them out, it's something that you don't want newbies messing with especially if it deals with registry and a automatic sealing vaults. So, it makes sense to keep the pro feature as something you need to self-install and limits the user-errors.

So, which is better? McAfee or Trend Micro? Personally, I think that they are even but with McAfee, they have a better looking graphical interface, they've been around longer and the online checker has more integration with their website. But Trend Micro is quicker, faster and is quite simple for the beginning computer user. Quite simply both offer similar protection.


Similar to McAfee's Internet Security 2010, Trend Micro's Internet Security Pro 3.0 offers a 3-user license and a one year license agreement. Also, 2GB of online storage and ability to back up critical data to a secure online site.

Overall, Trend Micro's Internet Security Pro 3.0 is a solid release. Both are solid brands known for their security service. McAfee is known for anti-virus, Trend Micro for anti-spam. So, really it all comes down to which brand you prefer and price. But one thing that Trend Micro's Internet Security software does have an edge versus its competitors is speed. Install, scanning and registry/system cleanup is very quick. So, if speed is a factor in your decision-making, Trend Micro is the way to go!

I have used Kaspersky anti-virus software for the last few years after using and being disatisfied with McAfee. I thought I would try Trend Micro Internet security for the first time. The setup was fairly easy and similar to the method Kaspersky uses. The software is comprehensive with virus and spyware protection, a firewall, internet and email protection. However, this software includes protection for mobile devices which my copy of Kaspersky anti-virus does not. Then again, Trend Micro Internet security is more expensive than Kaspersky anti-virus, so if you don't have a mobile device to protect, a less comprehensive software suite may be for you. Overall, this is a very good product and is recommended.

Warning: Trend Micro's focus is getting you to renew, not on protection. When the renewal period ends, Trend Micro switches off ALL your virus protection (yes, you read that correctly; it doesn't just stop updating the program on you PC as in previous years - IT TURNS THE ENTIRE PROGRAM OFF. Leaving you totally exposed - the software you bought last year is inactive until you renew.).

Here is the warning email I received from Trend: "Tomorrow, your computer could stop running. Your data could go missing. Your personal information could be hijacked and used against you. All because your PC will be exposed to viruses, spyware and other malicious online threats when your subscription ends." Well, yes - since you, Trend Micro, turned off the software I own, now I am fully exposed to all those dangers, not just the small number of viruses and other malware that might be identified between the last daily software update and the subscription expiration.

A bit of background - I have been a long time Trend Micro User (5+ years). During this time I have avoided most virus infections, although we did have one on a family PC which the Trend Micro team helped us out a year or two ago. So I upgraded to Internet Security Pro last year. I bought the disk rather than the download in order to have a backup and as one of the 3 PCs to be protected is in another house where there is only a dial-up connection. So for 2009 paid for software in a box and to have it updated throughout the year...and now I have exactly...zilch!

I found the 2009 software to be a system hog, slowing down boot-up and then PC performance when it scans. I also had an issue with the firewall which their support ended up disabling (not an ideal solution).

But they claim the 2010 version is much less burdensome on system resources, and I was happy enough to plan to renew this year and planned to sort out my firewall issue with them. I received the regular "your subscription is about to expire" messages from Trend over the past few weeks, but being very busy (with work and a flooded basement following recent East Coast storms), I didn't really focus on renewing right away.

And then the expiry date arrives...and Internet Security Pro doesn't just stop receiving updates (as in past years). Instead they TURN OFF all the virus protection! I called the support line to check and was told that this is now the case with all of their internet security products. This is totally unacceptable.

I bought a software "product", not a "subscription". This is not a "cloud computing" application which sits on a server and which I run through a browser. If so, then I could accept no longer being able to use such a service. This is in fact software that resides on my PC/laptop and for which receives regular updates (just like Windows XP or Office).

I can just see the marketing meeting where they thought: "Hey, we can get our customers to sign up and reduce churn by de-activating their installed software when their yearly subscription runs out; this should have a great impact on our bottom line!" Well I plan to impact their bottom line at my level -- this forced renewal is getting the response it deserves. You better believe I'm focused on internet security now - as I check out the competing products, some of which are more highly rated.

As a person who has been on the net for many years, I can honestly say that I have tried most of the popular internet security programs out there. I have had computers get viruses with Norton, McAfee, PC Tools, and a couple that are no longer on the market (for good reason). I most recently used AVG free as my son in law is an IT consultant and he uses it. I found it slowed my computer when running a scan plus I wanted a total security package. I looked at AVG's suite but was put off by their customer service people and the price. They were evasive when asked how many people get a virus anyway when using their product and what the remedy was if that occurred. AVG was also around a hundred dollars for the three computer option. Trend Micro Internet Security Pro is less than half the price for three computers. Can't beat that.

Before AVG, I had PC Tools and found it really cumbersome and maddening. It hogged my computers memory and totally bogged it down when doing a scan. It also never remembered the permissions I put in so that it was constantly asking me if I wanted stuff to run. I uninstalled that after the first week. That was on my Dell 17 with 4 GB of RAM and lots of drive space left. No reason for it to run so slow. It's sitting in a box on the shelf. I won't even give it away to someone I don't like.

I recently purchased two new computers. One a Dell Insiron 17 and the other is a Dell Studio 19. The 19 was a want, the 17 was to replace a pretty new Inspiron that didn't survive an ice water bath. Both came with Vista Home Premium and a free upgrade to Windows 7. What better way to test this product that to see how it would work on both systems.

I can tell you that I have NEVER had a security system install so easily. I didn't have to read about "known issues". There was no need for the work arounds that I had to do with Norton. I didn't have to spend hours on the phone with customer service, figuring out what program I have that was causing the problem. Set up took minutes, not hours. No headache, no migraine from hunching over the computer trying to figure out what else the problem could be. No hours scouring the forums for how someone else fixed the problem. WOW!! I almost cried.

Next I waited for my Windows 7 upgrade kit to arrive. That does take a couple of hours to install but it went really well. When I did the final reboot everything, including Trends, worked! WOOHOO!I almost cried again, I was so relieved. So it works for me on Vista and Win 7 and No problems.

This system is really easy to customize on Vista or Win 7. As you can see on the pictures above, the screens are self explanatory. I am a over middle aged mother of eight and grandmother of eleven. If I can do this so can you. When it runs a scan I have no sluggishness. I can tell it how fast or slow to run the scan. It remembers my settings and is not constantly putting up pop ups asking me for the 100th time whether or not I trust something. It knows better than I do if a sight is safe. If it's not a safe sight it lets me know. There are a lot of settings. They are easy to understand and use. One of the best things is the cell phone protection. You can't find that everywhere.

This product is wonderful. I have never used anything so easy to install and use. I have had no problems with viruses so far. It has not froze up or caused any problems so far. I will update this if I have any problems in the future.

A little bit of background. I have been in IT for well over 15 years and have always despised using BLOATED anti-virus/anti-malware software of any kind. That being said, I have chosen TREND's corporate products for most of the enterprises I have always supported. Naturally when this product was made available for review, I chose it so I could see what the experience would be for an end user that would purchase this product for their home or small business. Corporate products generally tend to be lighter since they are run in server environments and the load of their operation does not need to be on the end users pc but rather on the server. The packages that are sold by many vendors tend to be bloated in their nature and provide MORE then what is necessary for protection of computers.

The system used was a laptop with 4gb ram and Windows 7 x64 (64bit).

Now on to the review of this product, its pro's, con's, and performance.

Pros:
Windows 7 Compatible
32bit and 64bit Compatible
VERY low memory usage

Cons:
None as of this review

Details:
1. Once you insert the CD Rom for installation you are given a simplistic set of choices.
*Disable included Firewall (which may be something you would consider if you have a good router in place or you are comfortable with Microsoft's built in windows firewall solution)
*Scanning the system for malware/virus' before the product is installed

2. The installation is smooth and quick and immediately starts to protect your computer against known malware out in and around the internet. One thing to always remember is that after you have installed the product you should always run the updater (from the main console) to update the virus definitions so that it is updated against the latest and greatest. I can confirm that Trend is 99.999% on the ball and their updates are rather quickly made available after anything new shows up.....it helps you feel good knowing that the product developers are not sleeping on the job.

3. Once running, Windows 7 automatically recognizes that it has protection in place and does not notify you that you are lacking it. The Trend software uses a AMAZINGLY low amount of ram while running and sitting idle....852k...that is less then 1mb of RAM. I could not believe it myself and thus rebooted and tested on 3 other machines to find similar results...naturally the RAM usage was =/- 10mb on different machines..but that is IMPRESSIVE at the very least. Once the console is open it utilizes about 21mb of RAM..but the console is only required when running updates, changing settings, and or running manual scans etc.

4. One of the best features of this software is what are known as the PRO features. They include:
A) Trend Micro Vault - a password protected folder that allows you to save files which are encrypted and secure..only a user with the password can get to them.
B) System Tuner - a section which allows you to scan and clean the registry in Windows to get rid of old un-necessary entries, clean out temp files, adjust your start up programs, delete un-necessary instant messaging and browsing history, etc... A GREAT feature that helps you keep your system running at peak performance.
C) A toolbar which helps you as your browse to different websites by checking them against a blacklist that is maintained by Trend.
D) Trend Micro Mobile Security - this is a redirect to their website that allows you to download software for certain mobile devices that are supported. Excellent feature..although i worry about its necessity.

Overall this is a great product and I have no harm in recommending it to anyone with a 32 and or 64 bit operating system. It is a lean software and not bloated the way other commercial products tend to be.

My personal laptop has now been running this product for 2 weeks and I am quite satisfied with its performance and the fact that it does not interrupt my daily computing life. As with any antivirus product, you should remember that they are only 99.999% effective with the remainder being common sense and knowing what you are clicking on, viewing, etc.

I have no doubt that this product will win some accolades going forward and I stand behind it. I encourage you to ask me questions via comments so that I can answer them....

I installed this on a Windows 7 computer (Win 7 beta, Virtual PC installation running on a Windows XP host). The installation took a little over 13 min. from the time I stuck the disc in to the time the installed UI came up (although I could have shaved a minute or so off if I hadn't read through the EULA and if I had used the "regular installation" instead of the advanced/custom install--I wound up using all the defaults, anyway).

The initial update took another 8 minutes to download and install (the file was 35 MB and my DL took under a minute--most of the 8 min. was installation time). One quirk was that when the update completed, the windows just closed--they didn't give any other indication that they were done or what the success status was.

I ran a quick scan after the update was done and it took a mere 45 seconds and found 2 "potential threats" (cookies). I next tried a full scan and that completed in 43 seconds and found another 2 problems--I needed to install 2 Windows updates. That has to be the fastest complete scan I've ever done... it makes me a little suspicious... it really couldn't have looked at everything in that amount of time, right? I mean, my drive has 8.5 GB of files to search through. Assuming we look at the vast majority of the available files (since it is a FULL scan, after all), you would have to sustain nearly 200 MB/s from the hard drive. Even with my RAID (4 disk, 0+1) array, that's pushing it.

The suite sports a full set of features including a fully customizable firewall, parental controls, and a spam filter as well as 2 GB of online storage (2x the normal) and a nice "vault" feature which you can supposedly lock remotely if your computer gets stolen. I haven't played with that feature yet, but as far as I'm aware, it is a unique offering. I thought the parental controls were pretty good, but not as good as BitLocker's.

Things I was concerned about, but I suspect have only to do with my VM setup and so may not have any bearing:
1) Upon starting the installation, I got the following pop up:
This computer's clock speed falls below the minimum recommended for Trend Micro Internet Security Pro. Installing the software will slow down this computer. Do you still want to continue?
I'm running a Core2 Quad Q6600 over-clocked to 2.7 GHz. I know the VM only sees one of those cores and I'm not sure what clock speed it is seeing, so this is probably a non-issue. The box says that Win7 needs 1 GHz (800 MHz minimum), so let that be a guide for you.
2) After installing, my computer kept crashing, but I suspect that has to do with the fact that I'm using a beta OS. This is far to obvious to be an issue on released OSs. On the plus side, I found out that the virus scanner has a special "safe mode" scanning function you can use. I thought that was pretty cool.

Bottom line: a solid offering from Trend Micro. Scans are very fast (if not too fast), the install was easy and there are plenty of bells and whistles to keep advanced users happy.

I just recently installed Trend Micro Internet Security "Pro", I thought it would be an upgrade from Microsoft Security Essentials, and I have had trouble from the very start. I guess I should have known better, after the free trial version of the Trend Micro Internet Security that came installed on my new computer, sent me a message, stating that a recent update installed by Trend, may cause the computer to shut down, but that a future fix may correct the problem. After installing the Pro version, I noticed that the feature that is supposed to provide little green cirlces with check marks in them for links in Google that are known to be safe and red ones for links that are know to be bad, wasn't working. The main reason I choose Trend, was because I heard they were better at that than any other company. I got online with their customer support chat, and after 2 times and a couple hours they sent me a fix. When I first installed the fix, instead of one check box it would give me up to 9 of them, the tech had me do something else to get it to only one check box, which gives me the impression that that is how many there is supposed to be. Later it started showing multiple check boxes again so I chatted with another tech, when I explained the problem they told me "congratulations it looks like your fix worked." The thing is,after my previous experience, I'm not sure I believe her that that is the way it's supposed to work, so I have unistalled the product, and I'm returning it, because I just no longer have confidence that it's working the way it's supposed to.
I have now uninstalled the Trend and have gone back to using the Microsoft Security Essentials, which has recieved good performance reviews, and my computer performs quickly and efficently. I don't know why I felt the need to switch in the first place, I have been using Microsoft Security products for a couple years and have not had any problems with viruses or performance.

I have been using Trend Micro on my main computer for around four years now, and my wife has as well. Our experiences have been mixed. While it does really well at nixing cookies (which is true for this as well), it sometimes doesn't do so well at other viruses, though. In our experiences, we have had good results by scanning, defragmenting the drive, and then scanning again. Repetition of this pattern for some time got rid of one pernicious virus that we had, but I have caught something on my computer that this product hasn't caught, yet.

As far as this particular program, we have been running it for about a week and a half. So far, it seems to perform about as does the more mainstream version. There are a wealth of more complex options, all of which seem to be designed to, essentially, protect you from yourself. If you are careless enough to need these, odds are good that you didn't bother to turn them on. Basic virus protection is good, and this product will probably suit most people's needs. Unless you visit a lot of warez sites and spend too much time downloading torrents, you probably won't get a virus that this can't handle. And, if you do, computers have a half life of something like a year and a half before replacement, so you probably shouldn't worry too much about that.

A major plus was the install. We installed this on a netbook that has no digital media reader (i.e., no CD/DVD ROM drive.) By using the website, we bypassed this need. The key on the CD worked with the online download, which was both nice and surprising.

Overall, its a good program. It does what it is supposed to do. If you buy it, you probably won't be disappointed. If you don't, there are a few comparable products, including McAfee's software. Either of these are good, take your pick.

Harkius

I have been using Trend Micro virus and spyware software for several years. During that time I have not had any issues. The program finds and deals with virus's, trojan horses, & spyware very effectively and does not require me to spend a lot of time fixing problems caused by those malicious software. I recently upgraded to the professional version and have not seen any difference. I am not sure what benefit it really provides over the standard version. This is the only reason that I rated it 4 stars instead of 5. In general, this type of software should be rather transparent and just work. There should be no compatibility issues with other software and hardware. It should never let anything slip through and cause problems with my computer's operation. In both cases this software has delivered. I have had other competitive software that has not. I recommend Trend Micro software as the protection software of choice. I just do not know if the Professional version is really worth the extra cost. I have the next year to decide before I need to renew again.

Quality protection at a reasonable price. I have been using Trend Micro for 6 years and have no problems or infections.