AVG Technologies began in 1991 and is now one of the biggest players in the antivirus software market with corporate offices in Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. AVG Anti-Virus is one of a handful of the best-performing antivirus software products in the world.
One of the most respected and objective independent IT-security institutes, AV-Test, torture tested AVG Anti-Virus and scored it for its ability to protect and repair. AV-Test also tested AVG for usability. The test results show that AVG is one of the very best-performing antivirus software products and makes it into the top handful of products in its category.
Features Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
AVG Anti-Virus software uses layers of protection. The first layer is traditional antivirus, which recognizes threats by matching them to a database of known threats. It also defends against spyware and adware in order to protect personal information. Another layer, AVG Resident Shield, prevents you from opening infected files. Every day there are new threats that aren’t in any antivirus software vendor’s database. AVG collects data on fast-breaking infections from the installed base of users who opt to share zero-day data and then updates customer PCs automatically. This security product monitors your protection level and reports back to the AVG lab if it finds a problem. The alert will pop up an Auto-Fix button, and if you press it, AVG will make the correction and set itself back to the best protection mode.
AVG does not intrude on you unnecessarily. It watches for idle time before it tries to scan. And it is intelligent enough to ignore any files that it has already scanned. It has a game mode so that you can concentrate on a multiplayer game without enduring scheduled updates and scans. AVG also guards your digital gaming profiles against hackers who crawl the web to steal your World of Warcraft pets and sell them for real money.
AVG Anti-Virus software protects against internet evils in quite a few other ways as well. Whenever you exchange links within Facebook, mySpace or Twitter, AVG checks them. The AVG Social Networking Protection feature activates upon installation. As you surf the internet, AVG will prevent you from landing on a site that looks suspicious. And it places a safety rating for any link returned by a search engine.
Help & Support Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
AVG helps users with any problems with the antivirus software. In-program help is available with a user manual and links to additional resources online. The online support center has a FAQs section and a knowledgebase. AVG offers email support for specific inquiries, but no phone support. More options and professional assistance with virus removal are available by paying for premium support.
Summary
AVG Anti-Virus software is an effective performer with well-considered features. It scores highly in tests conducted at independent software testing labs. It maintains a database of known threats so that it can block them, and it uses cloud technology to quickly deploy defenses against zero-day threats almost as quickly as the hackers can hatch them. It understands how to protect you and warn you against internet attacks. And it protects you in social networking contexts. Support is excellent, and AVG goes the extra mile by providing live chat.
18 Kasım 2011 Cuma
F-Secure Anti-Virus 2012
F-Secure Anti-Virus is among the best antivirus software programs. It is streamlined, fast and effective. With advanced protection technology and additional integrated security features, F-Secure protects against viruses, spyware, worms and Trojans. F-Secure can also locate and eliminate rootkits. This antivirus software also protects against viruses spread through emails, cookies or malware that attempts to infiltrate the PC registry.
AV-Test out of Germany places F-Secure among the leaders when it comes to performance. F-Secure is also among the handful of antivirus software products to win an Advanced A+ rating from AV Comparatives. The Virus Bulletin found F-Secure right on par with most of the best antivirus software competitors.
Features Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
Taking F-Secure Anti-Virus from start to scanning is straightforward. The installer automatically removes any other antivirus software you have installed (as they interfere with each other). The software is a fairly resource-conscious program and protects without sacrificing resources.
Anti-Virus from F-Secure accommodates simple navigation and makes it easy to schedule specific scans or adjust settings. The main dashboard features quick access to the essentials (scan, update, statistics) and is visually striking. Most of the time you won’t even have F-Secure open since the updates and scans run automatically. The easy-to-understand icon in the lower-right taskbar will help you comprehend the status of your security. F-Secure uses a protection network, DeepGuard 2.0, that collects new threats in the cloud and pushes out updates to the entire user community.
F-Secure Anti-Virus uses heuristics, proactive protection against zero-hour threats that go undetected by the current virus signatures. All files accessed or opened on your computer are scanned by F-Secure’s on-access scanning. But you can always perform a manual scan. If you want to scan a specific file or folder, simply right-click on it and scan it immediately. F-Secure can scan compressed files and files on removable drives.
You can configure the software to clean the files (if possible) automatically, or they will be placed in the quarantine. The quarantine is where potentially dangerous files are kept where they can’t cause damage until you decide what action (restore, delete) to take. Updates are scheduled by default with F-Secure to renew (if needed) every two hours, completely automatically and in the background.
Help & Support Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
F-Secure Anti-Virus has a number of useful resources available online for additional product support. You can contact technical support 24/7 by phone, email live chat. Online they feature several help articles and a knowledgebase. Direct in-product help is in the form of a user manual.
Summary
F-Secure Anti-Virus is great antivirus software. Delivering excellence in technology and implementation, F-Secure is a solid solution. Complete with proactive protection, cloud security and simple usability, F-Secure Anti-Virus is a compelling piece of software.
AV-Test out of Germany places F-Secure among the leaders when it comes to performance. F-Secure is also among the handful of antivirus software products to win an Advanced A+ rating from AV Comparatives. The Virus Bulletin found F-Secure right on par with most of the best antivirus software competitors.
Features Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
Taking F-Secure Anti-Virus from start to scanning is straightforward. The installer automatically removes any other antivirus software you have installed (as they interfere with each other). The software is a fairly resource-conscious program and protects without sacrificing resources.
Anti-Virus from F-Secure accommodates simple navigation and makes it easy to schedule specific scans or adjust settings. The main dashboard features quick access to the essentials (scan, update, statistics) and is visually striking. Most of the time you won’t even have F-Secure open since the updates and scans run automatically. The easy-to-understand icon in the lower-right taskbar will help you comprehend the status of your security. F-Secure uses a protection network, DeepGuard 2.0, that collects new threats in the cloud and pushes out updates to the entire user community.
F-Secure Anti-Virus uses heuristics, proactive protection against zero-hour threats that go undetected by the current virus signatures. All files accessed or opened on your computer are scanned by F-Secure’s on-access scanning. But you can always perform a manual scan. If you want to scan a specific file or folder, simply right-click on it and scan it immediately. F-Secure can scan compressed files and files on removable drives.
You can configure the software to clean the files (if possible) automatically, or they will be placed in the quarantine. The quarantine is where potentially dangerous files are kept where they can’t cause damage until you decide what action (restore, delete) to take. Updates are scheduled by default with F-Secure to renew (if needed) every two hours, completely automatically and in the background.
Help & Support Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score Product Feature Score
F-Secure Anti-Virus has a number of useful resources available online for additional product support. You can contact technical support 24/7 by phone, email live chat. Online they feature several help articles and a knowledgebase. Direct in-product help is in the form of a user manual.
Summary
F-Secure Anti-Virus is great antivirus software. Delivering excellence in technology and implementation, F-Secure is a solid solution. Complete with proactive protection, cloud security and simple usability, F-Secure Anti-Virus is a compelling piece of software.
3 Kasım 2011 Perşembe
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete
Pros
Excellent protection from malware; very good malware cleanup. Online backup and file-sharing. Powerful password management. Android support. Online console manages protection, backup, and passwords. Cleans up useless files.
Cons
Less effective phishing protection. Firewall doesn't identify exploits. Some features of online console not yet available. No antispam or parental control.
Bottom Line
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete is the smallest and lightest security suite ever. It does lack parental control and antispam, but not everyone needs those and its antivirus protection is superb. Its third-party licensed online backup and password management are also very good.
The installer for Webroot's 2012 antivirus is so small it would fit on a 3.5" diskette with plenty of room to spare. I was amazed to learn that feeding a different activation code into this same installer causes it to install Webroot's full security suite, Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete ($79.95 direct for three PC and three mobile licenses).
The core components of the installed suite occupy less than 600KB of disk space. The backup and password management components are licensed from SugarSync and LastPass respectively, and they haven't been painstakingly rewritten for small size the way Webroot itself has. Together these components take a bit over 50 MB.
Even with the third-party add-ons this suite is still tiny. The last ten suites I reviewed averaged about 450MB apiece. Bitdefender Total Security 2012 ($79.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars), while very nice, set a size record with over 1 GB of disk space needed.
Specifications
Type
Business, Personal, Professional
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
24/7 Web support; 24/7 automated support; free US-based phone support.
More
View Slideshow See all (20) slides
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Totally New
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Antimalware Tools
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Protection Statistics
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Firewall Helper
More
Impressive Antivirus Protection
The suite's antivirus protection is the same as what's found in the standalone Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus ($39.95 direct, 4.5 stars). Please read the antivirus review for full details; I'll summarize the good news here.
Webroot runs a scan immediately after its lightning-fast installation. After any scan that finds threats, it runs another scan to clean up remaining traces, continuing until it finds no more. Each scan takes just a few minutes.
Webroot detected 94 percent of the threats infesting my test systems and scored 6.9 points for removal. Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) didn't detect as many but did a better job removing what it did find. With 7.1 points Norton is the only product tested using the current malware collection with an overall malware removal score higher than Webroot's. Webroot also scored well at removing rootkits and scareware. For an explanation of how I test malware removal, see How We Test Malware Removal.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete malware removal chart
The way Webroot handles protecting a clean system from malware attack is a bit different from most. Its heuristic analysis detects some threats the moment they load into memory. A program that makes it past this initial check will be watched closely. The moment Webroot's behavioral analysis recognizes a threat it wipes it out and rolls back all changes made by the program. After detection it runs a quick scan to clean up remaining traces.
This unusual system definitely works. Webroot detected 100 percent of the sample threats and scored a perfect 10 of 10 points for overall malware blocking, rootkit blocking, and scareware blocking. see How We Test Malware Blocking.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete malware blocking chart
If there's no Internet connection Webroot can't communicate with its online database to evaluate the behaviors it detects. Since the vast majority of malware attacks enter your system via the Internet that's not such a big problem. Even when offline, Webroot tracks and record the behavior of all running processes. When the connection is restored it checks recorded behaviors against the cloud database and wipes out any it deems malicious.
I re-tested the product by cutting the Internet connection, launching malware samples, and then restoring the connection. Even with one arm metaphorically tied behind its back Webroot still managed better than average malware blocking.
Normally I would also check with the independent antivirus testing labs, to see how the product fared in their tests. However, this totally new product has not yet been tested by any of the labs.
Other Shared Features
Webroot's suite and antivirus both work to steer users away from fraudulent (phishing) sites. Webroot protects Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, and Chrome, but rather than waste space on a plug-in for each it filters out frauds before they reach the browser.
In my antiphishing test, Webroot's detection rate was 55 percentage points behind Norton Internet Security 2012 ($69.99 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars). It did manage to beat Internet Explorer's built-in Smart Screen Filter by 9 percentage points, but only because Internet Explorer had a very bad week for phishing detection. The article How We Test Antiphishing explains exactly how I derive these scores.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete antiphishing chart
Despite their tiny size, both the suite and the antivirus pack along a surprising number of security tools for expert users. You can view all active processes and kill or monitor specific ones, run a suspect process in the "SafeStart Sandbox," where it can't do any harm, and even leverage Webroot's behavioral records to remove a program along with its Registry traces. An average user shouldn't touch these or the other advanced tools unless advised to do so by tech support.
Excellent protection from malware; very good malware cleanup. Online backup and file-sharing. Powerful password management. Android support. Online console manages protection, backup, and passwords. Cleans up useless files.
Cons
Less effective phishing protection. Firewall doesn't identify exploits. Some features of online console not yet available. No antispam or parental control.
Bottom Line
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete is the smallest and lightest security suite ever. It does lack parental control and antispam, but not everyone needs those and its antivirus protection is superb. Its third-party licensed online backup and password management are also very good.
The installer for Webroot's 2012 antivirus is so small it would fit on a 3.5" diskette with plenty of room to spare. I was amazed to learn that feeding a different activation code into this same installer causes it to install Webroot's full security suite, Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete ($79.95 direct for three PC and three mobile licenses).
The core components of the installed suite occupy less than 600KB of disk space. The backup and password management components are licensed from SugarSync and LastPass respectively, and they haven't been painstakingly rewritten for small size the way Webroot itself has. Together these components take a bit over 50 MB.
Even with the third-party add-ons this suite is still tiny. The last ten suites I reviewed averaged about 450MB apiece. Bitdefender Total Security 2012 ($79.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars), while very nice, set a size record with over 1 GB of disk space needed.
Specifications
Type
Business, Personal, Professional
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
24/7 Web support; 24/7 automated support; free US-based phone support.
More
View Slideshow See all (20) slides
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Totally New
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Antimalware Tools
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Protection Statistics
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete : Firewall Helper
More
Impressive Antivirus Protection
The suite's antivirus protection is the same as what's found in the standalone Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus ($39.95 direct, 4.5 stars). Please read the antivirus review for full details; I'll summarize the good news here.
Webroot runs a scan immediately after its lightning-fast installation. After any scan that finds threats, it runs another scan to clean up remaining traces, continuing until it finds no more. Each scan takes just a few minutes.
Webroot detected 94 percent of the threats infesting my test systems and scored 6.9 points for removal. Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) didn't detect as many but did a better job removing what it did find. With 7.1 points Norton is the only product tested using the current malware collection with an overall malware removal score higher than Webroot's. Webroot also scored well at removing rootkits and scareware. For an explanation of how I test malware removal, see How We Test Malware Removal.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete malware removal chart
The way Webroot handles protecting a clean system from malware attack is a bit different from most. Its heuristic analysis detects some threats the moment they load into memory. A program that makes it past this initial check will be watched closely. The moment Webroot's behavioral analysis recognizes a threat it wipes it out and rolls back all changes made by the program. After detection it runs a quick scan to clean up remaining traces.
This unusual system definitely works. Webroot detected 100 percent of the sample threats and scored a perfect 10 of 10 points for overall malware blocking, rootkit blocking, and scareware blocking. see How We Test Malware Blocking.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete malware blocking chart
If there's no Internet connection Webroot can't communicate with its online database to evaluate the behaviors it detects. Since the vast majority of malware attacks enter your system via the Internet that's not such a big problem. Even when offline, Webroot tracks and record the behavior of all running processes. When the connection is restored it checks recorded behaviors against the cloud database and wipes out any it deems malicious.
I re-tested the product by cutting the Internet connection, launching malware samples, and then restoring the connection. Even with one arm metaphorically tied behind its back Webroot still managed better than average malware blocking.
Normally I would also check with the independent antivirus testing labs, to see how the product fared in their tests. However, this totally new product has not yet been tested by any of the labs.
Other Shared Features
Webroot's suite and antivirus both work to steer users away from fraudulent (phishing) sites. Webroot protects Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, and Chrome, but rather than waste space on a plug-in for each it filters out frauds before they reach the browser.
In my antiphishing test, Webroot's detection rate was 55 percentage points behind Norton Internet Security 2012 ($69.99 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars). It did manage to beat Internet Explorer's built-in Smart Screen Filter by 9 percentage points, but only because Internet Explorer had a very bad week for phishing detection. The article How We Test Antiphishing explains exactly how I derive these scores.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete antiphishing chart
Despite their tiny size, both the suite and the antivirus pack along a surprising number of security tools for expert users. You can view all active processes and kill or monitor specific ones, run a suspect process in the "SafeStart Sandbox," where it can't do any harm, and even leverage Webroot's behavioral records to remove a program along with its Registry traces. An average user shouldn't touch these or the other advanced tools unless advised to do so by tech support.
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus
Pros
Installer and program are incredibly tiny. Very fast scan. Perfect score in my malware-blocking test. Very good score in my malware removal test.
Cons
Bonus antiphishing protection less effective. Bonus security tools too advanced for the average user.
Bottom Line
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus is tiny beyond belief, yet it achieved perfect scores across the board in my malware-blocking tests. It also did a very good job cleaning up malware-infested systems. This impressive product shares our Editor's Choice honor with Norton AntiVirus 2012.
When did you last see a 3.5" diskette? Those dinosaurs of storage are rare now, replaced by the ubiquitous USB thumb drive. But if you can find a 3.5" diskette (and a drive to read it) you can copy Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus ($39.95, Direct) onto it and have plenty of room to spare. The installer takes less than 600 KB on disk, as does the installed program.
Antivirus installers typically run from 50 to 100 megabytes and install dozens of files that occupy perhaps twice that much space on disk. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2012 ($39.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars), while quite effective, took nearly a gigabyte of disk space, so much that I had to delete programs from my virtual machine test systems to make room for it.
View Slideshow See all (17) slides
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : You Are Protected
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : Installation
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : Threats Detected
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : Initial Scan
More
Specifications
Type
Business, Personal, Professional
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
24/7 Web support; 24/7 automated support; free US-based phone support.
More
How can Webroot be so tiny? The answer is twofold. First, its handling of malware is almost entirely cloud-based. It uses only the tiniest local database of especially virulent threats. Second, the product was totally rewritten using the most economical coding practices possible.
Origins
The cloud-based behavioral detection featured in this product came from Webroot's acquisition of Prevx last year. In an impressive show of confidence, the company discarded the existing Webroot antivirus engine, relying strictly on the Prevx code.
Principals from Prevx moved over to Webroot along with the acquisition, including the company's senior software engineer Joe Jaroch. Jaroch's team wrote the entire user interface and local client using the unadorned C language. No libraries, no objects, not even any resources like button and checkbox controls. Everything you see is rendered directly to the screen. As Jaroch likes to point out, a bitmap screenshot of the main window occupies more space on disk than the program itself.
Because this product is brand-new, the independent labs haven't had a chance to test it. There's no point in reporting on existing lab results, as they refer to a completely different product.
Lightning-fast Installation
This tiny program installs very quickly. As you might imagine, installing this compact program takes just seconds. Enter your registration code, click "Agree & Install," and in seconds it's installed and running a scan. On my infested test systems the initial scan finished in about five to fifteen minutes, depending on how badly infested the system was. On a totally clean system, it finished that scan in less than two minutes.
I asked the Webroot representatives whether the next step would be to launch what they call a "deep scan." They responded that the initial scan was the deep scan, that no further scanning is needed. Needless to say, I was impressed.
I started my testing before Webroot's back-end virus-cleanup server was active. That didn't matter for most of the test systems, but two of them really needed the cleanup server to remove widespread virus infestations. I put those on hold until the back-end systems were entirely ready, at which time Webroot scanned and cleaned them without incident.
Very Good Cleanup
After running all the full scans I happened to leave one of the test systems running. Coming back to it, I noticed it had run another scan and found more traces to remove. It turns out that the product's behavior-based detection catches some threats immediately, but may need to monitor others for a little while before it detects the behaviors that let it flag them as malicious.
To better emulate a real-world scenario I gave all of the infested systems a little more time, rebooting each and letting it sit for an hour or so. Webroot found a number of additional items to clean up and noticeably improved its scores.
Webroot detected 94 percent of the threats, the best detection rate among products tested with the current sample collection. Panda Cloud Anti-Virus 1.5 Free Edition (Free, 3.5 stars) previously held that record with 91 percent. Webroot scored 6.9 points for overall malware removal, quite a bit better than Panda's 5.9 points. Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) didn't detect as many threats, but better removal earned it 7.1 points, the only score higher than Webroot's.
Webroot detected 100 percent of the threats that use rootkit techniques to hide from antivirus, as did about half of the 2012 products. Its score of 7.3 points is beaten only by Norton's 8.9.
Like most current products, Webroot detected 100 percent of the scareware threats. Norton and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free 1.51 (Free, 4 stars) removed all the scareware completely and earned a perfect 10 points. Webroot scored a decent 8.8 points for scareware removal; AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 (Free, 4 stars) and several others beat that with 9.5 points.
For an explanation of where these numbers come from, see How We Test Malware Removal.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus malware removal chart
It's important to remember that Webroot works differently from almost all of its competition. Except for a very tiny collection of signatures for specific problem viruses, it relies totally on monitoring process behavior and correlating that behavior with data from its immense cloud database. That same behavior monitoring lets it identify which other files are owned by the threat. I'm quite impressed that it can manage a top-notch cleanup job without the baggage of a signature database.
Installer and program are incredibly tiny. Very fast scan. Perfect score in my malware-blocking test. Very good score in my malware removal test.
Cons
Bonus antiphishing protection less effective. Bonus security tools too advanced for the average user.
Bottom Line
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus is tiny beyond belief, yet it achieved perfect scores across the board in my malware-blocking tests. It also did a very good job cleaning up malware-infested systems. This impressive product shares our Editor's Choice honor with Norton AntiVirus 2012.
When did you last see a 3.5" diskette? Those dinosaurs of storage are rare now, replaced by the ubiquitous USB thumb drive. But if you can find a 3.5" diskette (and a drive to read it) you can copy Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus ($39.95, Direct) onto it and have plenty of room to spare. The installer takes less than 600 KB on disk, as does the installed program.
Antivirus installers typically run from 50 to 100 megabytes and install dozens of files that occupy perhaps twice that much space on disk. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2012 ($39.95 direct for three licenses, 4 stars), while quite effective, took nearly a gigabyte of disk space, so much that I had to delete programs from my virtual machine test systems to make room for it.
View Slideshow See all (17) slides
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : You Are Protected
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : Installation
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : Threats Detected
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus : Initial Scan
More
Specifications
Type
Business, Personal, Professional
OS Compatibility
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7
Tech Support
24/7 Web support; 24/7 automated support; free US-based phone support.
More
How can Webroot be so tiny? The answer is twofold. First, its handling of malware is almost entirely cloud-based. It uses only the tiniest local database of especially virulent threats. Second, the product was totally rewritten using the most economical coding practices possible.
Origins
The cloud-based behavioral detection featured in this product came from Webroot's acquisition of Prevx last year. In an impressive show of confidence, the company discarded the existing Webroot antivirus engine, relying strictly on the Prevx code.
Principals from Prevx moved over to Webroot along with the acquisition, including the company's senior software engineer Joe Jaroch. Jaroch's team wrote the entire user interface and local client using the unadorned C language. No libraries, no objects, not even any resources like button and checkbox controls. Everything you see is rendered directly to the screen. As Jaroch likes to point out, a bitmap screenshot of the main window occupies more space on disk than the program itself.
Because this product is brand-new, the independent labs haven't had a chance to test it. There's no point in reporting on existing lab results, as they refer to a completely different product.
Lightning-fast Installation
This tiny program installs very quickly. As you might imagine, installing this compact program takes just seconds. Enter your registration code, click "Agree & Install," and in seconds it's installed and running a scan. On my infested test systems the initial scan finished in about five to fifteen minutes, depending on how badly infested the system was. On a totally clean system, it finished that scan in less than two minutes.
I asked the Webroot representatives whether the next step would be to launch what they call a "deep scan." They responded that the initial scan was the deep scan, that no further scanning is needed. Needless to say, I was impressed.
I started my testing before Webroot's back-end virus-cleanup server was active. That didn't matter for most of the test systems, but two of them really needed the cleanup server to remove widespread virus infestations. I put those on hold until the back-end systems were entirely ready, at which time Webroot scanned and cleaned them without incident.
Very Good Cleanup
After running all the full scans I happened to leave one of the test systems running. Coming back to it, I noticed it had run another scan and found more traces to remove. It turns out that the product's behavior-based detection catches some threats immediately, but may need to monitor others for a little while before it detects the behaviors that let it flag them as malicious.
To better emulate a real-world scenario I gave all of the infested systems a little more time, rebooting each and letting it sit for an hour or so. Webroot found a number of additional items to clean up and noticeably improved its scores.
Webroot detected 94 percent of the threats, the best detection rate among products tested with the current sample collection. Panda Cloud Anti-Virus 1.5 Free Edition (Free, 3.5 stars) previously held that record with 91 percent. Webroot scored 6.9 points for overall malware removal, quite a bit better than Panda's 5.9 points. Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars) didn't detect as many threats, but better removal earned it 7.1 points, the only score higher than Webroot's.
Webroot detected 100 percent of the threats that use rootkit techniques to hide from antivirus, as did about half of the 2012 products. Its score of 7.3 points is beaten only by Norton's 8.9.
Like most current products, Webroot detected 100 percent of the scareware threats. Norton and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free 1.51 (Free, 4 stars) removed all the scareware completely and earned a perfect 10 points. Webroot scored a decent 8.8 points for scareware removal; AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 (Free, 4 stars) and several others beat that with 9.5 points.
For an explanation of where these numbers come from, see How We Test Malware Removal.
Related Story
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus malware removal chart
It's important to remember that Webroot works differently from almost all of its competition. Except for a very tiny collection of signatures for specific problem viruses, it relies totally on monitoring process behavior and correlating that behavior with data from its immense cloud database. That same behavior monitoring lets it identify which other files are owned by the threat. I'm quite impressed that it can manage a top-notch cleanup job without the baggage of a signature database.
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