Kaspersky Internet Security 2009

Kaspersky Labs has been one of the best antivirus software developers in the world for over a decade and now Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 only strengthens that reputation. Founded by Natalia and Eugene Kaspersky in 1997, this Russian company is often the first to find and identify new viruses. Long used in Russia and Europe, Kaspersky is now making inroads in the North American market. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 is one of the most effective antivirus packages in the world today and boasts a great interface with easy to use and intuitive controls.

Like so many of the other antivirus packages including BitDefender, Kaspersky Anti-Virus comes with an antispyware component and therein lies the weakness in this otherwise excellent software. Kaspersky's software is among the best products in the world, but at $39.95 for a one-user for one-year license, it’s on the high-end of the software we reviewed. There are no complaints about Kaspersky's effectiveness or ease­-of-use. As a result, Kaspersky Anti-Virus is the “TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award” winner. If you're looking for antivirus protection for small business, you might be interested in Kapersky Anti-Virus for File Server.

Kaspersky's Standout Features

• Highly Effective antivirus/antispyware protection
• Light on computer resources
• Nearly all features are configurable
• Great interface, easy-to-use and intuitive

Kaspersky Video Review

Antivirus Overview

Kaspersky Anti-Virus Screenshot

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Ease of Use:

Kaspersky has always been among the best samples of antivirus software on the market, but has been less than simple to use. With the release of version 7, Kaspersky dramatically improved their interface giving this software an interface that matches the quality of the overall package. Further improvements have been made for the 2009 version. From a geek’s perspective, Kaspersky's interface is probably the best of all the software reviewed. That being said, it may not be ideal for someone who's not interested in fine-tuning and tweaking their antivirus software. Every feature is configurable and controllable with intuitive and easy to use controls in Kaspersky Anti-Virus.

Effectiveness:

Kaspersky Labs has always been known for its ability to effectively detect and remove viruses as well as or better than any software program on the market. Like BitDefender, Kaspersky was able to remove over 98% of all viruses it encountered in the most recent (1Q 2008) objective tests of AV-test.org. Kaspersky is also certified by all of the major virus/malware testing laboratories. Tests confirm Kaspersky's effectiveness. It found every virus on the test computer.

Although Kaspersky is excellent at detecting viruses and malware, it could use some work in the detection of spyware. Independent tests by AV-test.org showed that Kaspersky allowed 8% of adware/spyware to go undetected. Furthermore, Kaspersky’s proactive/heuristic engine failed to meet the high standards set by BitDefender, NOD32, F-Secure, Panda and some others.

Like other software with proactive/heuristic engines to detect malware before their signatures are available, Kaspersky's scan is relatively slow. The time and resources demanded by these proactive/heuristic engines slows these scans, and relatively slow scans may be the price we pay for this level of protection. Of the antivirus software packages reviewed, only NOD32 (see “TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award” winner) scored high on both proactive detection and scan speed.

Updates:

The best antivirus software packages provide virus signature updates on a routine basis. Both Kaspersky and BitDefender update their signatures every hour. That may seem like overkill until a new virus rapidly begins to spread around the globe and your antivirus software only updates every week. That may be too late for you! Since it does its updates automatically, you get the best protection with no effort on your part.

Feature Set:

Kaspersky's feature set is one of its strongest assets. While BitDefender’s interface is primarily an enable/disable feature set, Kaspersky is the software-tweakers dream with controls for nearly all of its features. Like most of the antivirus packages in our review, Kaspersky protects your computer from spyware as well as viruses. Scanning for both viruses and spyware simultaneously is far more efficient in terms of time and resources than stopping to do both separately. Like Bit Defender, “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award” winner, Kaspersky scans email and port 80 traffic (port 80 is the port that receives web traffic and must be open while browsing the web) so that this excellent software can detect and block online viruses, Trojans, and various other malware before they can cause you trouble.

Kaspersky also has a proactive defense for your computer. Kaspersky watches for unwanted adware, dialers, rootkits, remote access utilities and locks specific registry keys that malicious code may target to damage your computer. Furthermore, Kaspersky now includes protection from viruses while using IM and ICQ.

Kaspersky, in its ever-vigilance against viruses and other malware, now helps you create a rescue disc in the case that your computer is hit by some malicious code that makes your system unbootable. Although this effort to prepare users for the computer equivalent of Armageddon is commendable, the process is tedious and difficult. If you downloaded your operating system or the system disc is lost or unavailable, this feature will be unavailable to you.

Ease of Installation:

Kaspersky is among the easiest pieces of antivirus software to install. Its rather compact 50MB file downloads quickly and installation and activation are a snap. After rebooting, Kaspersky was on the job protecting our test computer. One complaint is that Kaspersky did not automatically remove the antivirus software already on the test computer. This is bound to lead to problems with the average user. Invariably, some will unknowingly end up running two antivirus programs and problems will ensue. With two antivirus packages running, computers run more slowly and error messages become an issue. On a positive note, Kaspersky does come with its own uninstall utility and after running it, no traces of it were found still in the registry. Some of the other antivirus manufacturers should take note: How much confidence can customers have in you, if you don't even know how to completely remove your own software?

Help/Support:

Software should be intuitive and easy to use, and if you still have a question, the software manufacturer should have excellent help/support to resolve your issues quickly and easily. Software should not be a source of stress, but instead, should make your life easier and simpler. When a question does arise, Kaspersky has devoted adequate resources to address them. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 provides context-sensitive in-program help files. This is a great idea, and some of the other software developers should do likewise. In addition, there are active user forums and FAQs available online. Finally, you can email or call a toll free number for live technical support.

Summary:

Kaspersky is among the best antivirus software packages on the market today. It’s highly effective, has a great interface, and it’s easy on computer resources. Kaspersky is an excellent choice and was barely edged out by BitDefender, receiving the “TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award.”

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NOD32 Anti Virus Review

ESET's NOD32 is rapidly becoming one of the best pieces of antivirus software on the market today.ESET's NOD32 once again has delivered an excellent product that is highly effective, and now, easy to use. The strength and beauty of this software is its light footprint, relatively fast scanning and superior ThreatSense® Technology that detects malicious software before it has been reported. Its interface is intuitive and easy to use for the average home user, but can be configured and tweaked by the advanced user. The one-user, one-year package is priced at $39.99, which is the middle range of the antivirus software products reviewed. ESET’s NOD32 receives “TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award.”

Standout Features

• Effective antivirus protection (98%)
• Light footprint on your computer (34M)
• Excellent scanning speed
• Excellent proactive protection
• Is one of the few companies still offering products for legacy O/S's such as DOS and Windows 95, Windows 98, etc.

ESET Nod32 Review

Antivirus Overview

ESET Nod32 Screenshot

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Ease of Use:

ESET's NOD32 is simple to use right out of the box (figuratively speaking … it’s a download) and requires little or no configuring for the average user. Yes, it’s an “install and forget program! The interface is clean and simple with enable/disable toggles and a configure option for those who are into tweaking their antivirus software. Unlike Kaspersky, which allows you to tailor their software based upon the perceived threat and the level of protection desired, advanced configuring NOD32 requires a bit more knowledge of your system. Fortunately, NOD32 works as it should in its default configuration and most users will never have to do anything but simply install this excellent software.

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Effectiveness:

ESET's NOD 32 is among the most effective antivirus software products on the market today. Independent tests show that NOD32 removed about 98% of the virus threats it faced, putting it on par with BitDefender, “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award” winner, and Kaspersky, “TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award” winner. In addition, NOD32 is certified by all the major independent testing laboratories the world over. Of the major antivirus software packages tested, NOD32 interfered less with our other computer operations than any of the other products reviewed. Its spyware protection is a little weaker than one might like, putting it on the same level as Kaspersky's 92%. Where NOD32 stands head and shoulders above its competitors is in its proactive detection and protection.

Most of the reputable antivirus software developers now include a heuristic engine that attempts to detect malware before it has been reported. Some refer to this as “Day Zero” detection because it is able to detect threats before their signatures is has been identified. The idea here is that when the software finds some code that looks malicious, it executes the software in the background to determine if it’s a threat to your machine. ESET has refined this technique like no other antivirus software developer with their ThreatSense® Technology.

This ThreatSense® Technology delivers an excellent detection rate while offering a very fast scan rate. Other antivirus packages offer similar detection rates, such as BitDefender and Kaspersky, but in both of those cases, the penalty you pay are slow scan rates. NOD32 is the only software package reviewed and tested that offered both high detection rates AND fast scan rates, indicating these folks know how to write efficient and effective code (according to the company, NOD32 is written in assembly language, a very efficient, low-level language). ESET could be the sleeper antivirus company ready to take this market by storm in coming years.

Updates:

Unlike Kaspersky and BitDefender, ESET's NOD32 only updates its virus signatures once a day. That's probably a short enough interval considering that ESET has the power to “push” updates to your computer in the instance of attack. Also, with ESET's highly effective heuristic, proactive engine, it is very likely that NOD32 will recognize malicious code before the signature is available. These two features make us more comfortable with the slightly longer update intervals than some of its competitors have.

Feature Set:

ESET's NOD32 is all about effectiveness AND speed. This software uses fewer resources than any of the packages tested and this is a thing of beauty. NOD32 is a breath of fresh air in a world of bloated software in that its code is efficiently written. From the perspective of the average user, this means this software has a light footprint and fast scans, both very good things. Its ThreatSense® Technology’s proactive defense is among the best heuristic programs on the market.

NOD32 offers several layers of protection including real time email scanning, antivirus protection, antispyware protection and rootkit scanner. The email scanner integrates easily and directly into MS Outlook or any other standard POP3 email client. Disappointingly, NOD32 did not have a Parental Control option where parents can block and control what sites their children are able to access online.

NOD32 is among the few antivirus products that still supports such legacy operating systems as DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, etc. as well as Windows XP and Vista.

Ease of Installation:

Installation was prompt and easy. The package is just 34M making it among the lightest antivirus packages we have ever seen. We were disappointed, though, that ESET did not automatically remove the existing antivirus software on our system. Instead, NOD32 prompts you to remove any existing antivirus on your computer before installation.

ESET has made some excellent and necessary improvements in their interface with version 3, making the software far easier and more intuitive to use. Anticipating that the vast majority of people don't want to spend time messing with their antivirus software, but instead just want it to work, ESET crafted NOD32’s interface to be clean and simple. Most people can simply “install and forget” this software. The left-hand column features Protection Status, Computer Scan, Update, Setup, Tools and Help. The right windowpane is reserved for the active feature in use.

Although the features have an enable/disable toggle, the advanced user can simply click on “configure” in any of the features and find all of the advanced tweaks that anyone could ask for. Should you need to remove NOD32 from your computer, there is an uninstall option. After a reboot we found almost no evidence of the product on the machine.

Help/Support:

ESET's NOD32 provides extensive, context-sensitive help files similar to Kaspersky and this feature by both firms should be applauded. It’s about time the other software developers include similar help files. It’s simple and quick for the user and doesn't require much development cost for the software publisher. Online, ESET provides a fairly thorough 32-page PDF file manual for download, plus online FAQs for NOD32, links to an active user forum dedicated to the software, and a web form for contacting ESET customer support. While there is live telephone support offered, the call is not toll free and is available only during business hours, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT, Monday through Friday.

Summary:

ESET's NOD32 offers the antivirus software buyer one more excellent choice. Its sets itself apart from the competition with its scanning speed and light footprint on your computer resources. Its proactive approach to virus and other malware detection is among the best in the world, its virus detection is excellent, and now with an easy to use interface, this software ranks among the best available. There is no hesitation in recommending ESET's NOD32 and awarding it the “TopTenREVIEWS Bronze Award” for antivirus software.

for serials go to www.nod321.com

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CyberLink PowerDirector 7 Deluxe

Video editing software is something most people will turn to if they’ve ever been subjected to hours upon hours of Aunt Betty’s Disneyland vacation footage. While her video’s thoroughness can’t be argued, it certainly could have easily been condensed into a more compact presentation. What we really want to see are the highlights and lowlights, no matter how embarrassing.

Enter PowerDirector 7 Deluxe, with an effective, easy to use interface and a boatload of useful effects, transitions, and “magic” tools to clean up your videos and steady some of your shaky camera work. You can’t get any better than PowerDirector 7 Deluxe, which is why it’s the “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award” winner.

If you're looking for software that lets you author Blu-ray discs, you'll need PowerDirector 7 Ultra, the ultimate solution to all your video editing and publishing needs. Before you make a decision, check out our reviews of Corel VideoStudio X2 Standard and Sony Vegas Studio 9 Platinum.

CyberLink PowerDirector Screenshot

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CyberLink PowerDirector Screenshot

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Video Capture/Playback:

Capturing video in PowerDirector 7 is easy whether from a high end HDV camcorder, or an old SD camcorder like the JVC GR-AXM18U that we got on the cheap for thirty dollars. We combined that with a Dazzle DVC-80 analog to USB capture device and PowerDirector brought in our video at 1:1 speed. That means our 14 minute video was captured by PowerDirector in 14 minutes. A 1:1 capture ratio is standard except when capturing from Flash Drive Camcorders, Hard Drive Camcorders, and DVD camcorders, which go as fast as your USB 2.0 or Firewire interface can go.

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Playback was a little bit jumpy within PowerDirector, but not so bad that we couldn’t edit video. The systems we tested PowerDirector 7 with had dual core Intel processors, 2GB of RAM, plenty of hard drive space, and either NVIDIA Quadro or Intel graphics video cards. Overall, PowerDirector ran smoothly and didn’t slow us down more than a couple times.

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CyberLink maintains a convenient table of compatible HDV/DV Camcorders and Video Capture Cards, so make sure yours are supported before you buy. It must be noted that while the PowerDirector 7 Deluxe box advertises its certification for Windows Vista, the CyberLink website notes that the supported camcorders only work with PowerDirector in Windows XP. It could be a simple issue of their site not being updated to that effect, but it’s something that may give a consumer pause.

Editing Tools:

When editing video, you need the ability to split and trim clips, change the playback speed, stabilize shaky video, correct lighting and colors, zoom in and out, change the aspect ratio, and add text and audio tracks to your clips. Most of these functions are found in the best video editing software, so the differentiating factors are how easy a program makes it for you and how well the program does the job.

PowerDirector’s interface is easy enough to use, but there are a few screens where all the available options make it feel like information overload, and there were a few strange occurrences where the program hung for long periods of time for no apparent reason. This was seen on different computers, and we had issues dealing with PowerDirector Support. More on that later.

Paring down a video can be time consuming and tedious, especially for longer clips. PowerDirector 7 Deluxe gives you two options: manually trim and split your video, or use the Magic Cut tool.
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Manually trimming in PowerDirector 7 is easy: select a clip and click the Trim button. Select the ‘Mark In’ point and the ‘Mark Out’ point on your clip’s timeline, and press OK. Anything outside of these two points will be trimmed from your clip. It’s a simple and effective way of removing parts from the beginning or end of your video.

You can also use the Multi Trim function to remove multiple sections from a video. So instead of setting one mark in/out point, you set multiple points for PowerDirector to remove. PowerDirector’s Multi Trim function also includes Scene Detection, which automatically detects the beginning and end of scenes within your video and divides them accordingly. Nothing is cut from the video, but everything is divvied up into nice neat increments so you can add your own effects and transitions later.

Or you can let PowerDirector’s Magic Cut do the work. Magic Cut will automatically condense a video to your specified time duration and will even automatically apply transitions between scenes. It’s easy: select your clip, click the Magic Cut button, choose how long you want the clip to be (e.g., the original clip is 15 minutes long, and you tell Magic Cut to make it 12), whether or not you want transitions automatically inserted, and which ones to use. We found Magic Cut did a good job of condensing our 14-minute clip into a solid 12 minute time frame. So it’s great for quick editing, but if you want more precise control, get used to trimming and adjusting the timeline manually.

Once your video segment is divvied up into nice little clips, you can use the timeline or storyboard to order and reorder the clips to your heart’s content. Just click a clip and drag it to the desired spot.
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That takes care of basic cutting and reordering, but what if you want to enhance your video clips? Sometimes parts of the environment are too dark or the colors don’t translate well to the tape. Thankfully, PowerDirector 7 has Magic Clean. It’s not the same “magic cleaning" done in movies where you have CIA suits in a situation room telling a computer geek to zero in on a license plate from space; but you can adjust brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, sharpness, and white balance with simple sliders, and you see the results in realtime. We liked this feature, as it cleaned up our wakeboarding and tubing footage nicely.

Magic Fix is PowerDirector’s tool for fixing shaky video. Our wakeboarding and tubing clips were shakier than anything short of an 8.1 earthquake, but Magic Fix did a decent job of steadying some of the less drastic movement.

Export/Production:

PowerDirector 7 can export to a variety of formats, write back to a DV or HDV tape and even upload to YouTube.
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When exporting to a file, your choices are DV-AVI, AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (for iPods and PSPs), and AVC MPEG-4. If you’re going to stream your video, you can export to WMV, RealVideo, and QuickTime (MOV) formats. We created files with both of these methods and didn’t encounter any problems.

Editing Effects/Transitions:

PowerDirector 7 Deluxe has a good library of effects and transitions, and it’s very easy to add either to your videos. The library is 72 effects deep, with everything from old movie filters to ripple effects. We added the Spotlight, Old Movie, and Text Sepia effects to parts of our video and were pleased with the results.

There’s also a Picture-in-Picture track and 67 canned PiP objects like a top hat, a stop sign, a bouquet of roses, and more. Given our video was of our review team on a wakeboarding partay (because that’s how we roll); we wanted a PiP pirate who would pop up whenever our illustrious captain shared his vast nautical knowledge. Enter DirectorZone, PowerDirector’s online community where other PowerDirector users share their custom made DVD Menus, Title Templates, Motion Objects, Frames, and Static (PiP) Objects. It’s free, and as of writing this review (September 2008), DirectorZone has:

• 511 DVD Menu Templates
• 555 Title Templates
• 450 Motion Objects
• 1,173 Frames
• 538 Static (PiP) Objects

That’s a lot of free extras at no added charge.

Transitions help your scenes smoothly segue from one to another. Whether you use the Lucasfilm wipe, the fade in/out that was the staple of 50’s movies, or the Soap Opera blur, they’re an essential part of movie making. With PowerDirector 7, you can have the scenes automatically detected and transitions inserted for you with Magic Cut. Magic Cut worked surprisingly well when applied to our 14 minute clip, but we felt it could use a little more fine tuning. So we trimmed our video into separate scenes and manually inserted a few of the 142 transitions – most of it was drag and drop work – and it didn’t take much more time than Magic Cut did to complete the job.

Finally PowerDirector comes with 9 Motion Objects (animations), 13 Frames, and 70 title Templates.

Disc Creation:

Creating discs in PowerDirector 7 involves choosing a menu template (or downloading one from DirectorZone), editing the menu and music, and burning your movie to a disc. You can burn to a dual-layer DVD, a Video CD (VCD), or a Super Video CD (SVCD). PowerDirector comes with 20 menu templates, and if you need more all you need to do is check out DirectorZone. We had a few problems we could’ve done without when editing templates, whether already installed or downloaded from DirectorZone. Other than that, we successfully burned to DVDs and CDs.

If you need to burn to a Blu-ray disc, you need to upgrade to both PowerDirector 7 Ultra and a Blu-ray burner. PowerDirector 7 Deluxe does NOT burn to Blu-ray Discs.

Audio and Photo Editing:

PowerDirector 7 Deluxe has quite a few sample audio files, but they’re just snippets of the complete versions. With PowerDirector, you either purchase audio tracks from SmartSound.com or import your own. Audio file types accepted include mp3, wav, and wma files, and once imported, it’s easy to drag and drop them onto either the voice or music timeline. Adjusting volume levels at any point in the music or voice track is easy with the Audio Mixing Room. You just select the audio clip, press play, and move the volume slider up or down to match your needs. Cross fade between audio tracks is done similarly to Multi Trimming video files. Instead of mark-in and mark-out buttons, you press either the fade-in or fade-out button at the desired point in the track and PowerDirector does the rest.

The photo library in PowerDirector 7 Deluxe is sparse, so it’s up to you to import your own JPG, GIF, BMP, TIF, or PNG files. You can import entire folders as easily as individual files, and they’re available as PiP objects or for creating your own custom menus. Like anything in PowerDirector, you can also specify the size, placement, and duration of photos as PiP objects, by right-clicking the object in the timeline.

Sometimes, you need to do more than resize your photos, and you may not want to open another program to do so. CyberLink includes PhotoNow! With PowerDirector, and there are a few basic photo tweaks available. They’re not only convenient, they’re easy: most adjustments are accomplished with the click of a button, and there are sliders to change brush size and stroke length when applying effects. You can also edit PiP objects directly in the preview window, which is conveniently placed in the upper right hand corner of PowerDirector.

Help and Support:

We ran into some minor snags while using PowerDirector and made use of CyberLink’s email support. While response times were within a few hours, the responses themselves were of the canned and neither relevant nor informative variety. We also searched CyberLink’s knowledge base and forums for answers and came up short. One minor annoyance for us was after we updated PowerDirector to the latest version. Every time we launched the program from that point on, a small box popped up thanking us for upgrading, and telling us we didn’t need to do anything more.

Summary:

Even though we weren’t entirely pleased with CyberLink’s support, we liked PowerDirector’s features and found it fairly easy to use. Having some prior knowledge of video editing is helpful, but not necessary, when using PowerDirector as, CyberLink has done a good job of guiding users through a complicated process.

For the ultimate in video editing and publishing, try Cyberlink's PowerDirector 7 Ultra, which lets you publish to Blu-ray and AVCHD discs.

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Advanced System Optimizer

Advanced System Optimizer contains a powerful set of utilities and diagnostic tools that will help you boost your PC’s performance. The navigation style for Advance System Optimizer compliments Windows XP, making the program user–friendly for the registry novice.

Right now, when you purchase Advanced System Optimizer from online retailer, Herman Street, you also get the award winning anti-spyware software, Spy Sweeper from Webroot, FREE.

Advanced System Optimizer Screenshot

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Advanced System Optimizer Screenshot

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Ease of Use:

Advanced System Optimizer is extremely simple. The navigation is divided into categories, so if you want to clean your system, you can go to the section devoted to system cleaning. If you are familiar with the look of Windows XP, you will love the design of Advanced System Optimizer.

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Feature Set:

Advanced System Optimizer combines an excellent registry cleaner with an outstanding utilities package. The package applications include System Cleaners, System Optimizers, System Tools, Privacy and Security, Internet and Email, Organizers, Backup and Restore, Safe Execution, Files and Folders, and a Beautify Windows Section.

The Auto-Start manager lets you have instant access to programs that start automatically when you logon to your computer. This feature will show you exactly what is running on your machine at logon and allows you the option to delete or disable troublesome startup items.

With this program, you can easily customize areas you want the registry cleaner to avoid. Another useful feature is the System Analyzer and Advisor—you’ll receive expert advice on how to optimize your computer; you may choose to either implement or ignore the advice. If you adopt the recommendations, the program automatically adjusts your computer settings using the advice specifications—you don’t have to implement changes yourself.

This utility pack also comes with a spyware detector. While there are more powerful spyware removal tools on the market, experience shows that two spyware nets are better than one.

Advanced System Optimizer also comes with a cool little posting notes application. This program allows you to create little sticky notes, but these notes don’t clutter the border of your monitor. You can quickly access notes on the bottom icon panel.

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Ease of Installation:

There were no complications during the installation of Advanced System Optimizer.

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Help/Support:

The help and documentation segment for this program is excellent. The package comes with a manual that is easily accessed through the Help button. FAQs and email support can be accessed from the SysTweak homepage and from the program.

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Safety:

Advanced System Optimizer does a great job identifying potential problems. The program makes you place a system restore point before you are permitted to delete any material—this precaution makes it simple to restore your machine to its original state if there are problems booting up again. You can also restore changes you made during previous scans.

The program breaks errors into groups identified by familiar Windows XP Icons and gives a brief description on why the file was marked as an error. Another safety feature–can double click on an error and it will take you directly to the error in the registry.

Advanced System Optimizer does not rate the severity of each error, so it’s challenging sometimes to make an informed choice about which items to fix and which items to delete.

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Summary:

Advanced System Optimizer is an excellent registry cleaning system. It is extremely user friendly and offers a wide variety of tools to improve your machine performance.

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BitDefender Antivirus 2009

Overview

For those seeking the best antivirus software for the money AND an “install and forget” proposition, BitDefender is the right choice earning the “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award.” Not only does it protect your computer and files, but BitDefender is easy to use, light on your computer and, maybe most importantly, light on your pocketbook.

No matter how technically capable any piece of software may be, the productivity enhancement it offers is only effective if people use it. This is especially true in antivirus software. The primary reasons people fail to protect their computers from a variety of malware are the cost and the 'burden' of installing and maintaining antivirus software. The best protection in the world is worthless if people find it cumbersome and distracting to use.

The same holds true for price. This is the beauty of BitDefender: It provides comprehensive protection, takes up little space on your computer, costs less and requires little maintenance. If you're a gamer you should consider the special GameSafe edition of BitDefender Antivirus.

BitDefender Standout Features

• Effective antivirus protection
• Light footprint on your computer
• Excellent value (One user license for one year at $24.95.)

Bitdefender Video Review

Antivirus Overview

BitDefender Antivirus Screenshot

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Ease of Use:

Most people want antivirus software they can install and forget and BitDefender does just that! In less than a half an hour, you can download, install, follow the prompts, re-boot your system and voilá, you're protected and can forget about viruses, trojans, spyware, worms, and malware. Nobody wants to spend time tweaking antivirus software when they could otherwise be getting work done or watching the latest videos on Youtube. We all want protection without the effort or expense and now we can have our cake and eat it too.

When tested right out of the box with the default setting, BitDefender did exactly what it was supposed to do. It scanned boot-up files, recently accessed files, packed files and incoming and outgoing emails. For those who want more aggressive protection, BitDefender can be enabled to scan HTTP blocks on port 80 and 443 for malicious ActiveX and JavaScript which is nice, but not necessary. Simple installation of the program using the default setting is recommended for the average user.

One of the best advancements in the latest version of BitDefender has been the increase in scanning speed. Softwin makes BitDefender capable of logging when files were last accessed, and if a clean file hasn’t been used since the last scan, BitDefender skips it. This has made scans much faster than they used to be, which is nice because scan speeds were BitDefender’s prior weakness.

Effectiveness:

You might think antivirus software that’s this easy to use and this inexpensive might not be as effective as products with bigger brand names and bigger price tags, but you would be wrong. AV-Test.org is among the most prestigious, independent research laboratories in the world for testing antivirus software. In recent tests, BitDefender received their highest rating for having removed 98% of all viruses and spyware in their rigorous tests. In addition, BitDefender has received the highest ratings for effectiveness by Virus Bulletin (VB100%) and AV Comparatives.org, and was certified by ICSA2007, Checkvir.com and West Coast Labs for its ability to detect viruses and virus replication while minimizing false positives (detecting viruses that are not there).

One of the key features BitDefender has developed is a virtual machine that runs invisibly in the background on your computer where it tests suspicious code, which is code that looks like a virus but doesn't currently match any of the known virus signatures. In this way, BitDefender can protect your computer from viruses no one has reported yet. In the same tests by AV-Test.org, BitDefender scored higher than Kaspersky, Norton, Computer Associates (CA) and McAfee on its proactive detection of viruses and other malware with this heuristic approach. BitDefender scans somewhat slower than some of its competitors, due (we believe) to this virtual machine running. Naturally, there's going to be a price for this type of protection, but other products like ESET's NOD32 have done a better job at minimizing it.

Although BitDefender is great at removing viruses and spyware, it excels at protecting your system from incoming viruses. The new BitDefender can actually strip viruses from your incoming HTML stream before the virus makes it to your browser. We think every new computer should be outfitted with this kind of protection.

Updates:

Virus signatures need to be updated regularly to maintain overall effectiveness. The heart and soul of antivirus software is recognizing malicious code and BitDefender does that primarily by matching code on your computer with known virus signatures.

BitDefender updates its virus signatures every hour unless you adjust it to a longer interval. Or if you are really into managing your antivirus software (does your photo appear in Wikipedia under the listing geek?), you can set it to “manual” and manually update the virus signatures and decide what other features you want updated. Otherwise, just sit back and know that your BitDefender is updating itself every hour, 24/7.

Feature Set:

In the spirit of “install and forget” software, BitDefender doesn't go in for the blinking red and green lights to notify you of its activity. Instead, a tiny red and black icon appears in the lower-right corner of your desktop, just above the system tray. This unobtrusive icon is the scan activity monitor. A green line indicates when files are being scanned for viruses and spyware. You can remove the monitor by going into the configuration settings.

The antispyware section of BitDefender includes Privacy Protection. This feature is disabled by default, but turning this feature ON is recommended. In the Advanced Setting link, you can enter your credit card numbers or other private information, and if any Windows application attempts to send these over the Internet, it stops and requires your active permission. Otherwise, BitDefender will refuse any program that attempts to send your personal information over the Internet.

BitDefender is the only antivirus software reviewed with a gamer mode. With gamer mode enabled, online gamers are protected without sacrificing much performance. Since online gamers are notorious for disabling firewalls and other protection to optimize performance, this could be a lifesaver for the family computer used for online gaming by members of your household.

Ease of Installation:

Here is where BitDefender really shines. Installation is easy and intuitive. BitDefender also easily and transparently removes any other antivirus software you might have on your computer. This is a requirement for effective use of your computer after installation. Two antivirus packages on your system do not give you twice as much protection, but rather play havoc with performance and diminish protection.

Bit Defender uses about 60MB of hard disk space (new computers average about 200GB hard drive so it uses about .03% of your hard drive space), which is more than Kaspersky and NOD32, but about 1/3 of the space required for Norton AntiVirus.

Help/Support:

BitDefender does its job without you having to fuss or tinker with it. BitDefender is much like your car or phone, ready when you are. It works without you having to. You can rest assured, though, in the rare case when you may need some help, BitDefender offers good live support either over the phone or through live chat online.

Previously, BitDefender phone support required you to fork out money for a long-distance call to Europe. But the manufacturer, Softwin, has since issued a FREE phone support line for you to use (1-888-868-1873), making it cheaper and easier to get support when you need it.

For common issues, BitDefender offers a FAQs page. BitDefender can also be reached via email at support@bitdefender.com, and they have been very prompt and effective in answering questions.

Summary:

BitDefender is nearly everything you’ll want in easy-to-use, highly-effective antivirus and antispyware software. When BitDefender upgrades their tech support and improves their uninstall utility, they will have a nearly perfect product.

BitDefender received the “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award” as the top antivirus software for its consistent high performance in protecting your computer, ease of use and installation. BitDefender is highly effective and offers trememdous value without making a dent in your pocketbook. For superior performance, protection, and price, we recommend BitDefender Antirvirus 2009.