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BitDefender Total Security 2009 review

£39 inc VAT (1 PC, 1 year)

Manufacturer: BitDefender

Our Rating: We rate this 3.5 out of 5 User Rating: Our users rate this 2 out of 10

By | 23 September 08

'Total Security' is a bold claim, so BitDefender Total Security 2009 has a lot to live up to - and, by and large, it does.

'Total Security' is a bold claim, so BitDefender Total Security 2009 has a lot to live up to - and, by and large, it does.

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So what's new in this year's BitDefender? On top of the usual improved anti-malware/firewall, anti-phishing, ID protection and parental controls BitDefender Total Security 2009 includes such goodies as flexible online backup, 2GB's worth, with support for incremental or differential backups, a secure storage space, aka File Vault, protecting personal information on your PC, IM encryption for Yahoo and MSN Messenger, central management of BitDefender installed on home network PCs, a less intrusive games mode (it helpfully spots ‘full screen' apps and asks if they are games) as well as better performance with lower resource consumption.

Another cute feature of BitDefender Total Security 2009 is the automatic scanning of devices you plug in, such as USB memory sticks or CD-Rs. A list of interesting additions, in other words.

The BitDefender Total Security 2009 user interface (UI) is largely unchanged - you get a choice of two; a basic, ‘big-button' dashboard to appeal to novices, and an advanced UI, for those who like to tweak. Either way, it's easy enough to master.

Scanning speeds are better with this version, although not the first time round - BitDefender Total Security 2009 ignores unchanged files, which noticeably shortens scan times.

Sometimes it can take several successive scans to remove persistent infections. And if BitDefender Total Security 2009 finds a damaged file that has been backed up online, it'll automatically replace the damaged file with the backed up one.

The firewall keeps those annoying pop-up questions to a minimum but not to the minimal levels of, say, Norton 360. Nevertheless, BitDefender Total Security 2009's is one of the better ‘suite' firewalls. Spam filtering is just as good, if a little slow.

When it came to efficacy, BitDefender Total Security 2009's ability to detect the various categories of malware is slightly unbalanced. The recent AV-Test.org test of security suites gave BitDefender an impressive 97.6 percent detection score when it came to malware but only a so-so score of 87.8 percent for spyware. This was more or less the same scores achieved by the 2008 version so detection rates haven't improved. Its rivals have, however, moved on and you can get near 100 percent scores from the likes of Avira and Avast.

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BitDefender Total Security 2009 Expert Verdict »
Post Review

Reviewed by mkn on Wednesday 02 September 2009

1 star rating

Duration of ownership: 5 months

Strengths:
Inexpensive.

Weaknesses:
Instability. High CPU usage. Horrendous memory usage. The top usage was 390MB of virtual memory. Slowed down everything - even SSH shell let alone desktop apps.

Overall Evaluation:
An absolutely bad product. I have used, installed and even supported AV software since 1990 and never had such a bad experience. The upcoming 2010 version sounds even worse. Try before you buy.

Reviewed by manuelonas on Wednesday 20 May 2009

1 star rating

Duration of ownership: 6 months

Strengths:
When it works its great, and the game mode seems to be good as well.

Weaknesses:
I have experienced a lot of crashes. I am fed up of it and soon I would never renew or use again.

Overall Evaluation:
Good quality product, and at the same time very poor, because I never get to use it.

Reviewed by jhay610 on Saturday 04 April 2009

2 star rating

Duration of ownership: 90 days

Strengths:
When it works, it's a pretty good suite; keeps most of the bad stuff out.

Weaknesses:
Hogs system resources; poor user interface; impossible to close the program; built-in uninstaller doesn't remove the program from your system (download the real one from the website)

Overall Evaluation:
After 2 months or so Bitdefender started really acting up and basically slowed my system to a crawl. It was a pain and a half to uninstall this program - when you think you've finally rid yourself of it some random BitError will pop up; no telling how many bad keys are floating in my registry now. Customer support is slow to act - stay away from this thing for now.

Reviewed by Clerk on Monday 09 March 2009

5 star rating

Duration of ownership: 10 months

Strengths:
Easy installing and configuring. Advanced and Basic view for newbies. Does not affect system performance. Frequent updates. IM Encrytpion and Backup. Network Management system.

Weaknesses:
I really don't see any weaknesses in this product, because it never caused trouble.

Overall Evaluation:
BitDefender TS is one of the best internet security software programs. It has a lot of features, it doesn't create problems, it protects very well (I also saw a lot of positive professional reviews that say that) and has a reasonable price for all that. So I highly recomend Bitdefender Total Security.

Reviewed by Kid1 on Saturday 31 January 2009

1 star rating

Duration of ownership: 5 months

Strengths:
None! There are not any.

Weaknesses:
Full of bugs, still after 5 Months. Slows down your PC to a crawl, have to check always if its active, installed it on a clean/new pc, had to format it!

Overall Evaluation:
Total Waste of Money! The helpdesk is totally Worthless only solution they have is uninstall/reinstall! Run away.

Reviewed by Jeffcoo7 on Monday 12 January 2009

1 star rating

Duration of ownership: 15 days

Strengths:
The CD fits in the CD drive real nice.

Weaknesses:
I have more problems now than I had before, because of this product. If it detects a Trojan, it says no action can be taken. If Bitdefender was a High School project, it would have got a C-

Overall Evaluation:
Bitdefender is a total waste of time and money...

Reviewed by woodrell on Sunday 21 December 2008

1 star rating

Duration of ownership: 4 months

Strengths:
Who knows, does it really catch stuff? It seems to be down the majority of the time

Weaknesses:
I have had nothing but problems since I purchased. The first few times they said to reload. Then after 5 or 6 times they said another program was causing a problem.

Overall Evaluation:
Lousy. If another program can shut down an antivirus program, such as an antispyware program or any other program, what good is it?

Reviewed by LocrianII on Tuesday 16 December 2008

1 star rating

Duration of ownership: 2 days

Strengths:
With all the problems, it's hard to evaluate any strengths. I've had to spend my time since installing it trying to contact support and read their forums.

Weaknesses:
Not really user friendly on either Vista or XP machines. Installed on three machines at once, only to find even if the phishing software is turned off, I can't gain access to websites I administer

Overall Evaluation:
After attempts to call support after sites not resolving, and messed up Vista gadgets, trying to join the forums, which don't send activation emails to .live accounts I found it much easier to format the comp. I only hope I can get it uninstalled completely from the other machines not set up for fast reformatting. Customer service is horrible.

Reviewed by kittfree on Wednesday 26 November 2008

1 star rating

Duration of ownership: 21 days

Strengths:
None - never worked for me at all.

Weaknesses:
Major conflicts with my brand new computer. Locked up my computer, continuously disconnected me from the internet, slowed everything down.

Overall Evaluation:
Poor product quality, obviously poor programming and testing before it was released, poor customer support, techs did not acknowledge problems through support though others were posting issues on the forum. Forum Admin was editing onsite complaints. Had to finally remove it and go with something else.

Reviewed by hevei on Thursday 30 October 2008

5 star rating

Duration of ownership: 2 months

Strengths:
Great new intuitive interface. Very good detection on new viruses. Far better firewall, but a little hard to configure. System utilities are a great addition.

Weaknesses:
Never found a real weakness for BitDefender until now.

Overall Evaluation:
Overall this product is a must buy and I found myself returning year after year to this product. It gets faster, better and stronger every year.

Reviewed by Lano on Wednesday 15 October 2008

1 star rating

Duration of ownership: 40 days

Strengths:
Catches infected emails, and the Spam filter is reasonable efficient - though doesn't handle Microsoft Outlook as it should.

Weaknesses:
Completely slows the system it is being used on, Internet connection speeds are seriously slowed, doesn't like having other vendors anti spyware products loaded alongside

Overall Evaluation:
I would have to rate the product as poor, and if I hadn't forked out for it would be changing to a different security suite.

800MHz or higher processor
300MB available hard disk space
Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (32/64 bit) or higher - 256MB RAM (512MB recommended)
Windows Vista (32/64 bit) and Windows Vista SP1 - 512MB RAM (1GB recommended)
Windows Home Server - 512MB RAM (1GB recommended)
Internet Explorer 6.0 (or higher)
.NET Framework 1.1
  • Ease of Use: We give this item 7 of 10 for ease of use
  • Features: We give this item 8 of 10 for features
  • Value for Money: We give this item 7 of 10 for value for money
  • Overall: We give this item 7 of 10 overall

BitDefender Total Security 2009 offers good but not state of the art protection, which is a pity as the product boasts a raft of neat features that make a small but noticeable difference.

There are currently no price comparisons for this product.
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