This kind of review is rampant and annoys me greatly. PC Magazines take kick backs and cash for a more favourable review of security software. Why? What does it achieve?
They usually all rave about Norton being so great and cool and wonderful at protecting your computer, yet I can tell you this is rubbish.
They all claim Trend Micro is a great basic suite as well, again it's rubbish.
Symantec finally managed to make a slightly less resource hungry version of Norton IS, problem is though, all the flaws that make it vulnerable are still there. This application is so widely used and flogged with new PCs that people just assume it will protect them, and the CIA if you're to believe the product placement in the Bourne Ultimatum. It won't protect anything for very long. Norton has a very bad habit of missing crucial attacks and allowing spyware to walk all over your system. I see it week-in and week-out, people with the latest version of Norton installed and their system is infected. Obviously it's not helped by the fact that spyware/virus writers target Norton first but still, if you want to proctect your system, don't use Symantec products.
Trend Micro, well this product will protect absolutely nothing. I have seen people install it and then in less than a week they are infected with a virus or spyware. The firewall is a joke and doesn't take long to get around, in actual fact, a carefully constructed batch command can shut down enough Trend services to gain access to the PC. Trend Micro IS has a habit in each version of failing to update. The worst is when it blocks everything on your PC from accessing the net for no reason and takes a full re-install to fix. Trend is also very good at alerting you of spyware but not actually removing it or giving you the option to remove it.
McAfee, well this up in the air a bit. It seems to offer better general protection than either Norton or Trend but nowdays chews up just as much resources as Norton. McAfee quite often misses spyware but does get the viruses quite well. The other issue with McAfee is the no intuitive interface so those Joe Average users who are looking to tweak the settings need a degree in Technical Writing to be able to understand where to go and what to change. It kind of seems that McAfee employees just think that everyone should know how to customise the firewall and those that don't, well they must be living in the dark ages and therefore not likely to own a computer.
Can't say anything about Kaspersky coz no one I know or have serviced have ever used it, it doesn't seem popular here in Australia.
Alright then, so what should you think about using to protect your system? Easy, for a good Antivirus application I recommend AVG, it's light, picks up every viruses I've ever thrown at it and did I mention it's free? Well there is a paid version but that's up to you guys. Oh and don't bother with AVG Internet Security Suite, the firewall is rubbish as is the spyware detection.
So AVG for viruses, got that? What about Spyware then? Two combinations of programs here:
1. The Free Combination: Use Microsoft Windows Defender, SuperAntiSpyware and Spybot Search and Destroy.
2. The part free comination: Windows Defender, Spybot Search and Destroy and the paid version of MalwareBytes AntiMalware.
Firewall? Well, if your system is clean, the Windows Firewall does a reasonably good job of protecting your system from outside attack, if it isn't a clean system to start with, try the free zonealarm firewall, tho it doesn't have a 64bit Windows version (don't know why tho).
If you're looking to clean your system if it is infected by spyware, try MalwareBytes Antimalware free edition as a starting point, it gets 99% of the spyware, then finish it of with SuperAntiSpyware free edition or Spybot Search and Destroy.
There, I've imparted non paid for information that should help you protect your pc with software that actually works. §evqui§
