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Bitdefender is a behemoth in the Antivirus industry, but before trusting an antivirus with your inestimable data, you need a solid background check (Just like you need with your kid’s nanny, yeah I said it, data is as precious as one’s own kid).

I installed the new Bitdefender 2014 in my laptop and ran an extensive background check, which included- downloading viruses, visiting malware webpages, inserting pen drives/hard-drives infected with viruses and installing keyloggers.

See Also: How we test security tools and malware blocking [A Brief overview]

Bitdefender has been selected as no. 1 antivirus on top10reviews — proving to be a strong competitor to the Russian security giant – Kaspersky. Here is a detailed review and test of the new Bitdefender Internet Security 2014.

 

Installation:

The installation is easy, can be downloaded from here – Bitdefender internet security 2014. You can also refer to company’s website for more options – Bitdefender Antivirus.

The initial download is 5.44 MB, which seems very small, isn’t it?

Well, unless you have bought a hard copy of the software by your retail shop, you’ll need to download the actual setup with the help of the installer that you’ve downloaded, which requires you to download additional file of size ~400 MB (which is original setup file).

Real troublesome? Not really! You just need to run the intial setup file you downloaded from their website and it controls the rest.

After the whole setup is downloaded, you see a screen where you can choose if you want to share your scan results and the virus logs with Bitdefender (the screen also includes Bitdefender patting itself on it’s back, just saying).

Well, I know that no one reads the End User License Agreement, so here is a summary-

• Bitdefender does not collect your personal data/information.
• You are not supposed to sell the software.
• You will get into trouble if you tamper with the verification process.

The installation is a piece of cake, you just need to hit the install button.

Then BOOM, another freaking download, yeah this gets a little annoying, they could have just given one installation step which includes download, for the sake of common sense.

But then, you don’t need to press many “Next” buttons (only if you didn’t choose the “Customize my Installation” option, if you did they just ask you the directory where you want to install the antivirus). You are done with the installation, restart your computer and you’re good to go.

 

Tour:

Not the tour you were expecting, it’s just the tour to the security tools and options the antivirus has to offer!

When you run the antivirus for the first time, it asks to run an update, this will not take long if you have downloaded the software from their website, for it is regulary updated, but if you purchase the CD it may take long. After running the update you can freely use the software, you are greeted with the screen shown below.

To get to the screen on the right, you need to hit the right arrow four times (how convinient).

 

The good thing about the Home-Screen of this antivirus is that it’s fully customizable, you can choose the order in which the options are shown, by clicking the “Grid” icon next to the scroll bar.

 

The antivirus comes with an interactive and rather useful widget, which can be used in Windows Vista, 7 and 8. The widget has the following options:

• Events: When clicked, this takes you to the virus detection log, where you can choose to delete or allow specific files, it also shows the virus details and the known threats. (When connected to the internet.)
• Settings: Here you can customize the usual antivirus settings, like creating scan exception locations and setting automatic scan timings.
• My Bitdefender Login: You can login to your Bitdefender account from here, but you can choose not to, no restrictions there. I would recommend signing in, they have 24 hours support.
• Firewall Settings: Here you can change the firewall settings, turn it on or off, create exceptions or block specific websites.

The Virus Scanner:

Now, the most important part of an antivirus and an Internet security program, “The virus scan.” The process is comparatively faster than most of the antivirus softwares available in the market. The scan process is pretty simple and just one click away, you can scan specific folders and files by right-clicking on them, or you can create custom scan and add the drives you want to scan.

You can also select the “Quick scan” option, it just scans the C drive (The one with the OS installed on it.) And it shows the threats found in realtime. You can also click on the “Events” on the widget and choose the action to be taken on the file while the scan is in progress.

The antivirus also comes with a “Bitdefender Wallet” feature, this feature securely stores your billing information which includes your credit/debit card number and the code. They do not access the information, it’s just securely stored, eliminating the risk of Keylogger programs, as many of the premium keyloggers are immune to antivirus softwares.

You just need to allow the “Bitdefender Wallet” extention on the Chrome browser, the extention also comes for Mozilla Firefox.

Hope, you enjoyed the tour, now comes the most IMPORTANT part, the test.

 

THE TEST:

The test, as important as it is, it puts the computer to a great risk. But then, as mentioned earlier, it is the most important part of determining the worth of an antivirus. I downloaded two deadly viruses, one “not-so-known” virus and one virus created by the digitfreak team, the software performed exceptionally well.

It detected the two viruses as soon as they were downloaded and quarantined them (It also showed a warning just before the download was started.) The antivirus also has more than three brain cells, it could tell the difference between a software crack and a virus. It did warn about the crack being harmful. The antivirus performs well when it comes to the virus detection.

After the scan has been completed, you get a screen which shows the scan results, which includes the list of viruses detected and it also shows if a file needs your attention. It also shows an option to check the antivirrus logs, which is vividly detailed. The log includes the viruses detected in the last scan, number of files scanned and the number of threats detected.

The screen below shows the events screen, which is just the non-detailed summary of all the viruses detected.

 

The firewall also performs really well, I went to a ton of popular malware infected webpages and a couple of very discrete malware webpages. It instantly displayed a warning page even when Chrome didn’t show a security risk page. The firewall is completely customizeable, you can create exceptions and block specific websites.

 

THE VERDICT:

Well, honestly, I’m impressed, the only thing I didn’t like was that, the installation included two downloads. The antivirus performs exceptionally well, the firewall is good and customizable, the Wallet feature is really thoughtful, considering the amount of online shopping these days, the antivirus also has parental controls. It detects viruses in realtime and we can also choose the action to be performed on them, by clicking on the widget events while the scan is still in progress.

 

PROS:	CONS:
Impressive User Interface. Exceptionally well antivirus performance. Bitdefender Wallet. The widget. 24 hour support.	Two downloads during the setup. Need to press the right arrow four times to get to the new home screen. (Each click displays just one new option.)  Cost.

Source: BitDefender (official website)