Iobit software review: January 2008

Friday, January 25, 2008

BitDefender Free Edition

BitDefender Free Edition is your chance to use one of the world's most effective antivirus engines for free!

BitDefender Free Edition uses the same ICSA Labs certified scanning engines found in other BitDefender products, allowing you to enjoy basic virus protection for no cost at all.

BitDefender Free Edition is an on-demand virus scanner, which is best used in a system recovery or forensics role. If you are on an "always-on" Internet connection, we strongly advise you to consider using a more complex antivirus solution.

Features

Virus scanning and removal
On demand scanning - Powerful scan engines ensure detection and removal of all viruses in the wild every time you need it.

Scheduled scanning
The Scheduler lets you plan ahead, and schedule full system/drive scans in the off hours, when you won’t be using your computer.

Immediate scanning
With just a right click you can check your files and folders.

Skinable interface
You can express yourself, designing new interfaces, or you can use those drawn by others.

Quarantine
By isolating the infected files in quarantine, the risk of getting infected diminishes. You also have the possibility to send these files for further analysis to BitDefender Labs.

Reports
When launching a scan you may choose to create a report file where you can see statistics about the scan process.

System requirements:

Pentium MMX 200 Mhz or higher processor

Minimum 64MB of RAM Memory (128MB recommended)

Minimum 40MB available hard disk space

Operating platform:

Windows 98/NT-SP6/Me/2000/XP IE 4.0(+)

Other Products:

BitDefender Mobile Security v2 , BitDefender Total Security 2008 , BitDefender Internet Security 2008 , BitDefender Antivirus 2008 , BitDefender Mobile Security v2

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Symantec Norton Internet Security 2008

Symantec Norton Internet Security 2008
from: http://www.pcworld.com/

Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2008 suite offers solid security protection and features, including the best behavior-based defense against unknown threats.
Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2008 security suite ($70 for up to three PCs) is easy to use and comes with a host of extra security features, such as a separate Security Inspector scan that warns about unsafe browser settings and other potential security holes. It was the only suite in our testing for "All-in-One Security Suites: Tried and Tested" that didn't cry wolf by reporting at least one false positive.
It detected an above-average 91 percent of AV-Test.org's 674,589 malware samples. This results put the Norton suite close behind the Avira Premium Security Suite, BitDefender Internet Security 2008 , Checkpoint ZoneAlarm Internet SecuritySuite 7.1, and Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0 packages, each of which detected 95 percent or more of the malware samples. Nevertheless. a 4 percent difference in detection rates represents a difference of 26,983 undetected samples. Symantec's suite produced the second-worst showing on AV-Test's heuristic tests, catching only 10 percent of samples when required to use one-month-old signature files to detect unknown malware based on similarities to existing code.
The Symantec suite did outperform the other programs at getting rid of infections. It cleaned up 80 percent of all files and Registry entries added by malware. In particular, Norton was a champ at fighting rootkits--malware designed to hide other malware. It detected every active and inactive rootkit sample, and successfully neutralized those infections. Symantec's suite was one of only two programs (Checkpoint was the other) to detect and block unidentified malware based solely on the way it behaved, but even so it caught just one sample out of five.
In our tests, on-demand (user-initiated) scans were more than 50 percent faster with Norton than with the next-fastest suite (Avira Premium), yielding an impressive data-analysis rate of 16.07 megabytes per second. And those on-demand scans look inside file archives, where crooks frequently hide malicious payloads. (On the other hand, Norton's automatic scans, which check files as your system saves them to the hard drive, won't check file archives unless you change the default settings).
Symantec's firewall is polished. It successfully blocked attempts from outside to scan a protected PC for information, and it did better than most competing suites at refraining from issuing unnecessary warnings about benign apps such as Firefox and Internet Explorer.
In addition, Norton Internet Security displayed an apt warning when it detected an unencrypted wireless connection, and it incorporates various safe-browsing features. For example, its Norton Confidential toolbar, designed for Firefox and Internet Explorer, blocks phishing sites; and its Browser Defender checks for known vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 6 and 7. Though the suite's Identity Safe feature protects sensitive data, such as credit card numbers, from inadvertently leaving your PC, you'll must manually tell it what information to protect--a standard but laborious process. It has no antispam or parental controls, but those features are freely downloadable from Symantec's site.
The interface is well laid-out, and the software's pop-up detection alerts are generally understandable, though they provide little information, such as where a threat was found. Its impressive log entries simplify the task of finding out what the program has been up to--but again they lack information about where a given threat was discovered.
Our one major criticism of the suite is that when we uninstalled it, it left behind the separate LiveUpdate component. You have to know to go back and remove LiveUpdate as well.
Norton Internet Security 2008 has a good design and an appealing feature set. It could be better at blocking malware, but it's the best choice of the eight we looked at.
-- Erik Larkin

All Symantec products:
Norton Internet Security 2008 , Norton Internet Security 2008 5 User Pack , Norton Internet Security 2008 10 User Pack , Norton 360 , Norton 360 - 5 User Pack , Norton 360 - 10 User Pack , Norton AntiVirus 2008 , Norton AntiVirus 2008 5 User pack , Norton AntiVirus 2008 - 10 User Pack , Norton Confidential , Norton AntiVirus 2008 and Norton Internet Security 2008 , Norton Confidential with 1 year subscription , Norton AntiVirus 2008 - 15% Discount , Norton Internet Security 2008 - 15% Discount , 10% Discount on all Symantec Backup Exec products: Symantec Backup Exec for NetWare Servers, Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Servers, Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Small Business Server, Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Desktop Edition, Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Server Edition, Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery Windows Small Business Server Edition , 10% Discount following Endpoint Protection products: Symantec Endpoint Protection Symantec Endpoint Protection for Windows XP Embedded Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition Symantec Multi-tier Protection , 10% Discount on Symantec pcAnywhere products. coupon code: 08EPPromo , 10% Discount on Symantec Ghost Solutions Suite 2. coupon code: 08EPPromo , Norton SystemWorks Basic , Norton SystemWorks Standard , Norton SystemWorks Premier , Norton SystemWorks 2006 , Norton SystemWorks 2006 Premier , Norton Ghost 12.0 , Norton AntiVirus 10.0 for Macintosh , Norton AntiVirus 11 for Macintosh , Norton AntiVirus 2008 and Norton Internet Security 2008 , Norton Confidential , Symantec pcAnywhere 12.1 Host & Remote Standard License , Symantec Ghost Solutions Suite 2.0 Standard License , Symantec's Norton AntiBot , SMB - Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 7.0 , Business - Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business , Business - Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 , Business - Symantec Multi-tier Protection 11.0 , Symantec Home and Home Office Storefront

All BitDefender products:
BitDefender Mobile Security v2 , BitDefender Total Security 2008 , BitDefender Internet Security 2008 , BitDefender Antivirus 2008 , BitDefender Mobile Security v2

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Technorati : Internet Security, Norton, Symantec, Symantec Norton Internet Security 2008

PC Tools Spyware Doctor 2007

PC Tools Spyware Doctor 2007

from: reviews.cnet.com

The good: Spyware Doctor's interface is intuitive and easy to use.

The bad: Spyware Doctor 5 suffers from software glitches; failed to identify or remove a test Trojan horse; returned a high number of false positive or extremely low-risk results; doesn't include telephone support.

The bottom line: Until this recent release, Spyware Doctor was one of the better antispyware choices. Nettlesome glitches and a low rate of spyware removal, however, keep us from recommending Spyware Doctor 5 for now

Reviewed on 3/22/07

Updated on: 4/23/07

Release date: 3/15/07

PCTools Spyware Doctor is one of the last independent antispyware apps on the market, and, until this recent release, was one of the better choices. Version 5 introduces new under-the-hood protection--and a number of nettlesome software glitches. In testing done by CNET Labs, Spyware Doctor did shield us from and identify already installed spyware in six out of eight test cases, but it failed to remove the load points for more than half the spyware samples within our test group.

Last year, we liked Spyware Doctor 3.2, praising its "sleek and easy-to-use interface" and noting that it "packs a lot of protection under the hood and is backed up by one of the most aggressive spyware identification programs in the business." What a difference a year makes. PC Tools appears to be heading somewhere significant with the changes introduced in Spyware Doctor 5; it's just not there yet.

Setup
From the start, we found the Spyware Doctor download process to be confusing. The Start Spyware Scan Now button on the PCTools site is the button to start the file download, but that could be made more clear. Once downloaded, Spyware Doctors launches an installation wizard that walks you through the process. We like that the Spyware Doctor Smart Update is automatic, and this is accomplished before first use. But the download files themselves are a la carte, with the option not to download and install any one piece, and you have to hit Next to continue the process. Dial-up users may be tempted to download only a few of the recommended updates, which would be a mistake.

Note: The free trial copy of Spyware Doctor will not remove any spyware found until you purchase the full product. You can also download the free Spyware Doctor Starter Edition via Google Pack, however you'll also be downloading a fair number of other apps that you may or may not want.

Should you want to remove Spyware Doctor 5, there's a handy uninstall icon provided in the All Programs list. After uninstall, however, we found several traces of Spyware Doctor still in the system registry. This surprised us, since most of the antispyware apps we tested had totally clean uninstalls.

Interface
In general, we found Spyware Doctor 5 to be buggy. On different machines, the Spyware Doctor 5 sometimes crashed upon launch, or froze while finalizing a scan; in a few cases, we had to use the Windows Task Manager to kill the executable and start over. Once running, the Spyware Doctor's interface is intuitive and easy to use.

All of its features are clearly labeled and accessible. In addition to the expected spyware scanning, there's a host of system immunization and real-time monitoring features available in the OnGuard section. Spyware Doctor includes a powerful scheduler that allows you to automate full system scans, quick scans, and even live program updates.

But for every action--if we initiated a scan, or wanted to enable a feature, for instance--we noticed several personal firewall alerts; Spyware Doctor appears to call home for every detail. Even so, after a full system scan, our attempt to learn more about an item that Spyware Doctor had labeled as a high-risk cookie went unsatisfied.

The link for "more information" opened our default browser and took us to a PC Tools page, but it was a page that talked generally about phishing threats and not specifically about what Spyware Doctor found on our machine.
FeaturesOther than antispyware protection, Spyware Doctor 5 doesn't offer a lot of additional features; the improvements, we're told, are internal.

The enhanced antirootkit protection within Spyware Doctor 5 is disabled by default. There's a warning on the configuration screen that enabling this feature requires vigilance, as the PCTools antirootkit heuristic findings may include false positives.

Real-time protection can be enabled or disabled, a curious distinction. One might disable real-time protection, for example, to lessen the impact on system resources, relying upon a thorough scan of the system to root out any spyware that had recently installed.

But we found during various scans that Spyware Doctor never consumed more than 20 percent of our system resources.

PerformanceOverall, Spyware Doctor earned a slightly below average rating among the 10 antispyware apps we tested.

Spyware Doctor 5.0 did find more cookies than any other product we tested, although in a number of cases we were unable to confirm the severity of the specific cookies on independent antispyware sites, leaving us to wonder whether these suspicious cookies were truly dangerous.

In exclusive testing by CNET Labs, Spyware Doctor's active shields identified and blocked six out of eight spyware samples we attempted to install, missing only Compare-prices.zip and Marketscore. When scanning and removing existing spyware samples, Spyware Doctor also caught six out of eight, missing Compare-prices.zip and Clickpix.

But when it comes to spyware removal, in a majority of the cases-- five out of eight--Spyware Doctor didn't completely remove the registry load-point entries even on spyware it identified, lowering the product's overall score. In our tests, Spyware Doctor left traces of Compare-Prices.zip, ClickPix, JustFindIt toolbar, MarketScore, NewDotNet/eZula.

Support
Upon installation, PcTools offers Spyware Doctor users a Quick Start guide, a general one-page guide to the program's basic features. Online, we found the Spyware Doctor FAQ to be adequate. After viewing the FAQ, you can answer whether the questions and answers were helpful. Saying "No" moves you to an e-mail feedback page. PCTools offers 24-7 telephone technical support at 1-800-764-5783.

Conclusion
Within a year, Spyware Doctor went from version 3 to version 5, and along the way it appears to have encountered many problems, including some software glitches. We assume the software will be fixed soon enough, and we look forward to seeing future enhancements of this Spyware Doctor--including antivirus protection--in next year's review.

Other PC Tools products:

PC Tools Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus, PC Tools Desktop Maestro - Registry Cleaning, System Monitoring & Privacy Cleaning, PC Tools Registry Mechanic - Improves PC Reliability & Performance, PC Tools Free PC Scan - Spyware Doctor, PC Tools All-in-one Security featuring, PC Tools Software Awards, PC Tools Internet Security product information

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RISING Antivirus

RISING Antivirus protects your computers against all types of viruses, Trojans, worms, rootkits and other malicious programs. Ease of use and Smartupdate technology make RISING Antivirus install-and-forget product that lets you focus on what you really want to do.

Key Features :Smart Virtual Machine with Behaviour & Packing Pattern Recognition

RISING Antivirus comes with an integrated smart virtual machine, which is used for virus scanning and malware recognition. RISING's proprietary smart virtual machine technology provides the additional safety for your computer without slowing down your system.
Suspected code and program can be run in this virtual machine for RISING Antivirus to check for potential malicious behaviour. RISING's Behaviour & Packing Pattern Recognition allows to test such potential malware thoroughly without influencing the performance of your PC and protects your system against new viruses and unknown viruses.

Startup Scan
Protect your personal computer before the Windows login. RISING Antivirus can conduct a full virus scan before the startup of your operational system is complete and provides an additional layer of protection against certain malware which is hard to eradicate from within Windows.

8th Generation Antivirus Scan Engine with Smart Speedup

After each virus scan, RISING Antivirus 'remembers' clean files on an internal white list. This memory function has strong built-in safety features. The key characteristics of previously scanned clean files are constantly monitored. As soon as these characteristics change, files are again subject to a full scan. With every update of virus definitions, all files on the Smart Speedup White list are rescanned for viruses.

Patented Scanning Technology for Unknown Viruses

Rising's scanning technology for unknown viruses is protected by patents in the United States of America and Europe. This technology protects your personal computer before new virus definitions are available.

Integrated Multiple AutoProtection Features

AutoProtection provides you real-time, auto protection for your computers.

Low Resource Consumption

Rising Antivirus 2007 consumes minimal resource of your computer.

System Requirements:

OS: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista
CPU: PIII 500 MHz or higher RAM: 64 MB or above
Display: Standard VGA, 24-bit true color
Others: CD-ROM drive

Languages

Rising Antivirus is available in Traditional Chinese, English . English version can be applied in Windows of all languages. More languages will be supported in the near future.

Other International Pty Ltd products:

Rising Antivirus plus Firewal, Rising Antivirus, Rising Personal Firewall

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Technorati : AntiSpyware, Antivirus, RISING Antivirus, Spyware, rootkits, trojans, viruses, worms
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Trend Micro's AntiVirus plus Anti-Spyware 2007

Trend Micro's AntiVirus plus Anti-Spyware 2007

Trend Micro's AntiVirus plus Anti-Spyware 2007 came in dead last in our "Virus Stoppers" antivirus roundup test of eight products. Its disappointing finish was primarily due to its lackluster performance at detecting malware samples: The program missed almost one in five samples, for a poor catch rate of 82 percent.

Trend Micro did somewhat better at proactively detecting unknown malware using one-month-old signature files, but even here, its 43 percent detection rate was the third-worst showing. Coupled with a relatively expensive $40 price tag and no renewal discount, Trend Micro's performance leaves much to be desired.
On the plus side, the program installed smoothly, was easy to use, and includes good default settings for the average person, such as an automatically scheduled full-system scan. The software provides a user-configurable scheduled scan and checks for definition updates every 3 hours. These defaults are a snap to change via an intuitive and smooth interface that will appeal to even the most nontechnical user.

One particularly useful feature scans for known Microsoft product vulnerabilities. If a machine is missing an important security patch, for example, the application guides the user to Microsoft's Windows Update site to download and apply the appropriate updates and patches.

Trend Micro's AntiVirus scans e-mail traffic over the POP3 and SMTP protocols, but unlike almost every other program we tested (except for Grisoft AVG 7.5 Anti-Virus Professional Edition), it does not scan HTML traffic. Also, Trend Micro's product stands alone in being unable to launch a manual file scan through a right-click within Windows Explorer, a weakness that the company says it will remedy in future updates. And the application's antispyware protection has an annoying habit of labeling tracking cookies as dangerous spyware.

We tested the Vista version of TrendMicro AntiVirus plus Anti-Spyware 2007 for our "Virus Stoppers" roundup. An XP version of the software is also available.

-- Ryan Naraine

by http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130912/article.html

All Trend Micro products

Trend Micro AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware 2008 - 20% Off , Trend Micro Internet Security 2008 - 10% Off , Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2008 , Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security , Trend Micro PC-cillin 2008 , Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2008 Multi-Year Licenses , Trend Micro PC-cillin 2008 Multi-Year Licenses , Trend Micro Internet Security Pro , Trend Micro AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware 2008 , Trend Micro Anti-Spyware 3.0 , Trend Micro AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware 2008 - Windows Vista Certified , Trend Micro Internet Security 2007 - Windows Vista Certified , Trend Micro Internet Security 2008

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Saturday, January 19, 2008

new version of Advanced WindowsCare Personal

02.21.07 - IObit has released the new version of Advanced WindowsCare Personal, a powerful and free Windows Vista/2000/XP utility that analyzes and fixes Windows problems in one click, all the while protecting you from spyware and from threats to your privacy. The latest version can work fully compatible with Windows Vista. It is your one-click solution to true computer maintenance and protection.

Download IObit Advanced WindowsCare Pro

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Technorati : Advanced WindowsCare, Advanced WindowsCare Personal, IObit, IObit Advanced WindowsCare Personal, WindowsCare Personal, new version
Ice Rocket : Advanced WindowsCare, Advanced WindowsCare Personal, IObit, IObit Advanced WindowsCare Personal, WindowsCare Personal, new version