Bitdefender is one of the leading Antivirus and security solutions provider for PC users. Today we will be talking about Bitdefender Total Security 2012 which projected as a all in one solution for your PC which includes tools like File Shredder, File Encryption, Tune-up and Safebox – Online Backup & File Synchronization, in addition to features provided by the usual Internet security solutions.

PRE- INSTALLATION

The first thing that I expect while installing any Antivirus or security suite that it should detect any existing Antivirus or security suite on the system and ask you to uninstall it first. Bitdefender total security did found the existing Norton Antivirus 2012 on the system and asked to uninstall it first. After that it even detected the Malwarebytes AntiMalware too on the system, but I choose to ignore it.

INSTALLATION

The installation went smooth, but if you are using a web installer which is the default installer, you need a good working internet connection. The reason, it needs to download large number of files to finish the installation otherwise you should install it using the offline installer which is >250 MB in size. During the installation it scanned the system for possible infections and removed few infected files or viruses which is good, but it didn’t provided the details of what it removed or the location of infection which it should have. It didn’t ask for a reboot of the system after it finished with the installation which many Antivirus solutions ask for.

MEMORY FOOTPRINT

First thing that usually I check for while using any new Antivirus solution, is that how much memory the security suite or the Antivirus is consuming on the system on a normal run. The test system configuration was not too much i.e a Pentium D processor 2.4 GHz and just 1 GB RAM (the minimum requirement) running Windows XP SP3. Still, I didnt experienced any slowndown in the system performance. When I checked the memory usage in task Manager, two processes from Bitdefender were running and if we add up the memory consumed by both the processes, it was ~10 MB which is much lower than even what is consumed by a idle browser.

SYSTEM BOOT-UP TIME

Now it was time to test any effect on the boot-up time of the system due to Bitdefender Total Security. I didn’t noticed any noticeable change in the boot-up time of the system. It was almost same as what was before. Keep in mind, I hadn’t measured the boot-up time using any tool, the opinion here is just based on my own measurement without any tool which may not be accurate. The system booted quite fast.

ANTIVIRUS, FIREWALL, GUI ETC.

Just like any other internet security solution, it comes with a real-time Antivirus, Antimalware, Parental control and firewall protection. 2012 version comes with a new single interface instead of three interfaces which were in Bitdefender 2011. The graphical user interface or the GUI looks much better with each component being put into Blocks which can be dragged and moved from one place to other withing the GUI. Also, each block comes with drop-down menus which when clicked gives you the various options which can be performed. Even the options or configuration GUI is much better and organized with all options being categorized into different categories. Even a single category is divided into different horizontal tabs. All this makes it very easy for anyone to find a relevant option or configuration setting quickly.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

  • Rescue mode – Needed for cleanup or restoration of system by rebooting the computer in a trusted environment
  • Virtualized Browser – Its like the sandbox environment which isolates the browser from the operating system.
  • Scan Dispatcher – It triggers system scans when resource usage falls below a certain threshold.
  • Autopilot – If you want full silent operation of the Antivirus solution, it does everything on its own without interrupting you
  • Social Network Protection – It filters the links on Facebook and Twitter including monitoring of privacy settings
  • Search Advisor – Gives advance warning of risky websites right in your Google and Bing search results
  • Safebox – Automatically backs up files and folders to a secure remote server and allows file sync between your computers.

Safebox provides just 2 GB only storage capacity. Honestly, 2 GB is too low as we have many tools available like Dropbox which provide a better solution for backing up and syncing files provide 2 GB account for Free.

NO REBOOT AFTER UPDATE

One of the options which is enabled by default lets you avoid reboot of the system after Virus definition updates. This option is good as often we are in the middle of work but the Antivirus solution keeps asking us to reboot after a virus definition or program update.

VIRUS DETECTION

As I am not a expert on how to test Antivirus Software’s and  come out with a conclusion on how effective it is, hence I wont be commenting on how effective it is. You need to consult some of the Anti Virus comparative test sites on the web who do the testing on various Antivirus and Security suites.

Giveaway

Thanks to Bitdefender, we are giving away 15 license keys of Bitdefender Total Security to readers of Avinashtech. Just follow the simple rules below to enter in this draw.

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