Super antivirus distributors have included “2011″ in their product names since the summer of 2010. Now that the year 2011 has came it is time for a new look at the complete collection. Many of the newest additions try to crank up protection by running two different anti-virus engines, and some actually succeed. This batch as well provides a new Editors’ Option for free super antivirus and a new shared Editors’ Choice for commercial antivirus.
Remember, when I declare “antivirus” I mean a utility that shields against all types of malicious software program, not just viruses. Trojan viruses, spyware, rootkits, keyloggers, adware, scareware – an ideal anti-virus must handle all of these.
Standalone or Suite?
Most of this year’s products blur the line between standalone anti-virus and protection suite. In the past the presence of a personal firewall software has been one determining suite element; not any more. There’s a fully-functional firewall inside Panda Antivirus Pro 2011. eScan Anti-Virus 11 and McAfee Anti-virus Plus 2011 also provide firewall protection. Norton AntiVirus 2011 doesn’t include a complete firewall, but its intrusion prevention feature is more effective against exploits than most full-blown suites.
Spam blocking is another component normally found in a suite. The spam filter included in BullGuard Antivirus 10 is fairly precise and very helpful at setup time. eScan also offers a spam filter, but it’s not something you would inflict on your Inbox.
StopSign Internet Protection 1.0 contains an optional firewall with spam blocking built in. Probably none of the independent labs have tested it, though, and its performance in my own malware blocking and elimination tests was so bad that I did not bother analyzing those optional features.
BitDefender Anti-virus Pro 2011 provides complete remote management of other BitDefender installations over the network. McAfee enter in the rank of cual es el mejor antivirus and can easily check additional installations remotely and repair problems.