BitDefender Quick Stats:

Pricing:	1 Year:  $29.95 for three computers
Free Trial	Yes – you can Try it NOW for 30 Days Try NOW for 30 Days Free!
Virus Definition Updates:	Hourly
Proactive Detection Effectiveness:	Very Good
On Demand Detection Effectiveness:	Excellent
Over-all System Performance:	Very Good
Customer Service:	Free e-mail, phone, and chat support
More Info:	Make Sure to Compare Anti-Virus Software Providers for Additional Plan Statistics

Detailed BitDefender Review:

Symantec developed Norton AntiVirus to provide real-time protection from viruses, spyware, worms, keyloggers, rootkits and many other forms of malware. Norton AntiVirus is a good product that offers its users a great amount of features that make a good anti-virus product great.

BitDefender Likes:

Improved online protection: The new Bitdefender v10 scans all web, e-mail and instant messaging traffic for viruses and spyware, in real-time. This entails increased privacy protection through IM Encryption which supports Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger. BitDefender 2009 also ensures you that no one can eavesdrop on instant messaging traffic between two PCs with BitDefender installed. Peer-2-Peer and IM Applications Protection filters against viruses that spread via instant messaging and file sharing software applications.

Advanced Laptop and Gamer mode: The new laptop mode of Bitdefender v10 prolongs your laptop’s battery life. BitDefender detects when your laptop is switched to battery power and automatically enters Laptop Mode. The new gamer mode temporarily modifies protection settings to minimize impact on gaming performance. These modifications include disabled alerts & pop-ups, updates aren’t performed, scheduled scans are disabled, and real-time protection level uses less resources.

Better family network protection and configuration: With the new Bitdefender v10, you can manage the protection of your home network from a single computer. BitDefender from other computers in the network can be remotely configured, while maintenance tasks like scans, back-ups and updates can be scheduled to run on idle hours.

User-friendly interface: The developed dashboard of Bitdefender is as simple as it can be. The big green icons display when things are functioning correctly, and big red icons show when something’s wrong. For the most part, this is great. It takes all the guess work out of enabling or disabling settings.

New Automatic Scanning: The new Bitdefender v10 offers automatic scanning of devices attached to your PC. For example, when you plug in a USB drive or insert a CD, the antivirus will offer to scan it. This is very handy if you use a lot of devices provided by strangers and don’t want to risk infecting your system. If that’s not the case and you find the pop-ups very annoying, you can easily turn them off.

BitDefender DisLikes:

Identity Privacy Feature: The new dashboard doesn’t make it clear how or why you should keep the identity privacy enabled. It requires you to enter some personal information like your social security number which many people may not be comfortable with, especially if they aren’t perfectly clear on how the identity privacy feature works.

Lengthy installation process: Considering that the other AntiVirus softwares have competitive installation duration especially Norton which installs in less than a minute, the Bitdefenders’ two and a half minutes of installation process is relatively lengthy and requires a system reboot after installation.

Compatibility issues with Gmail: BitDefender 2009 seems to have a compatibility issue with Gmail. For those of you using Google’s Email service we’d highly recommend avoiding BitDefender.

Drawbacks on the new dashboard: There aren’t many options to set more detailed settings for those who wish to do so and the setting choices could use more explanation. Furthermore, some of the actions launched by the controls are slow to appear, and without the visual “press” of a button which will leave you wondering whether the suite had actually recognized that you clicked something.

Degraded Performance: After installing BitDefender, the average boot duration went up to by more than a minute compared to Kaspersky and Norton which added just 15 seconds to the boot time. After the installation of Bitdefender, there was a 40 percent increase in the time needed to visit URL’s and moving, copying large number of files took 25 percent longer. The full system scan is also slower compared to Norton and Kaspersky.

Problems in initiating a scan with v10: A lot of users have complained about having noticed that they cannot run a computer scan at all. They cannot initiate deep scans, not even quick scans. Other users reported that their Bitdefender services are not responding. Their computers reported that the Bitdefener security service is unavailable. Restarting the computer or reinstalling Bitdefender didn’t solve these problems.

BitDefender Bottom Line:

BitDefender has many nice features, including Gamer & Laptop Modes, and a good overall layout. It also offers better family network protection and easier configuration. The downsides of the new Bitdefender v10 are rather alarming especially the user reported issues initiating a scan. Be aware of the issues, and be prepared to work with customer support if you find you are one of the ones affected.

Buy BitDefender Antivirus for only $29.99 and get up to 3 computers protected for that price!