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BitDefender Review: Internet Security Software |
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| For those who want top-rated protection without the interruptions. New features help improve performance and give users a few more options for security. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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[Editor's Note: BitDefender is offering a $20 discount to cover 1 PC for 1 year, or a $10 discount to cover 3 PCs for 1 year. The deal is offered to NextAdvisor visitors, no coupon code required. Just follow any link to BitDefender from NextAdvisor to receive the discount.]
Want to protect your computer without all the annoying security software notification pop-ups? BitDefender Total Security 2012 is the security software for you. It's new AutoPilot feature keeps its myriad of features silent so that you can enjoy BitDefender's top-rated protection without being harassed. Installation Installation was simple and efficient. The system produces a timeline and status bar to tell you exactly what the program is doing and how long it should take. Unlike other streamlined installation processes, such as Norton, you will need to restart your computer after BitDefender installs. Interface: For the 2012 version, BitDefender completely revamped the design of their interface. It's reminiscent of Norton's slick, dark interface that streamlines the numerous features that BitDefender Total Security 2012 offers. The bar at the top of the main page shows your threat level (green = safe; yellow = problems that need attention; red = major threat), as well as the Events, Settings and AutoPilot buttons. The Events page tells you any security activity that has happened to your computer since you last visited BitDefender. Settings, of course, allows you adjust the settings on the different tools. And AutoPilot simply lets you turn on and off the AutoPilot feature. Below, the ten different features are highlighted on the main screen and can easily be reordered to prioritize which features are important to you. The slick Web 2.0 interface lets you manage all ten features seamlessly and intuitively. Antimalware and Antivirus: Although BitDefender has never been consider a big dog in the Internet security software world, it has always performed very well when it comes to antivirus and antimalware testing. Historically, BitDefender has always scored high on the antivirus tests performed by independent testing body AV-Comparatives, scoring another 3 out of 3 stars in the most recent Whole-Product Dynamic Test. It had the third highest overall score from the recent testing, falling just behind Norton and F-Secure. It also was one of the best at not blocking clean domains, a problem that Norton struggles with. We did our own antivirus testing on the new version, and, as expect, BitDefender thwarted every test virus that we threw at it. The parental control monitoring was hit or miss, depending on what sites we were visiting, and the spam blocker flagged a few sites that were clean, although you can adjust the "sensitivity level" to make the spam blocker a little more lenient. Performance The biggest performance update to BitDefender is obviously the new AutoPilot feature. AutoPilot sets all of BitDefender's notifications to silent, unless there is a major threat to your computer's security. It collects all the activity that it has silently been accomplishing into the Events section of the main page, so you can still access any activity that has happened while AutoPilot was turned on. BitDefender also gained another star from AV-Comparatives this year, bringing it up from its lowest score, a one-star rating, to a respectable two-star rating. It scored a "very fast" rating in almost all of the testing categories, a big improvement over last year's performance. Other Features Along with the standard antiviral and antimalware features, BitDefender 2012 has a slew of other interesting features including parental controls, a system performance optimizer and easy-to-use online backup. The parental controls interface is very user-friendly, allowing you to customize the controls for each of your children. The system performance feature, called Tune-Up, monitors the usage of the programs on your computer and offers options to optimize your web use. And the online backup, called Safebox, isn't exactly intuitive but does a good job of letting you specify which files to back up. Conclusion With its new AutoPilot feature and wide, wide range of features not found in other mega-suites, BitDefender is a great system for everyone from tech newbies to established businesses. It's easier to use and has more features than most of its competitors, and has made vast improvements in its performance to match other Internet security software. System Requirements: Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Vista AV-Comparatives ratings on a variety of tasks related to the antivirus and anti-malware product. "Known Malware" refers to a product's ability to catch pre-identified viruses, while "Unknown Malware" refers to its ability to detect brand new viruses. Older scores may reflect previous software versions.
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**Score indicates impact of antivirus product on system performance. August 2010 test by AV-Comparatives. 
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