Introduction:
After the disappointment of Digital-defender, I hope this anti-virus turns out a little better. Well, in any case, today we’re gonna put PC Tool’s Anti-Virus software to the test! If you are interested in giving it a shot, head to PC Tools’ website right here, but read the review first!
Installation:
PC Tools uses a rather generic installer, there’s nothing to really say about it.
It is worth noting, however, that the installer will automatically download and install the latest “Intelli-Signatures”, (anti-virus signatures). At more than 75MB, they aren’t small, and you might run into long wait times if you have a slow internet connectoin. When the installation is complete, the program uses 120MB of space on your hard disk.
At the end of the installation, we get thanked for trying out the product and we are told that PC Tools Anti-Virus will scan the system before anything else.
And no, I have no clue what an LSP is!
User Interface:
The main page of the program gives us a quick peek at the status of the security on our system, (albeit in a slightly cluttered manner). Unfortunately, PC Tools decides to bother the crap out of the end user in a fashion similar to AVG’s banner add at the bottom, just slightly more obnoxious and to the next level.
Here is the IntelliGuard tab. Basically, IntelliGuard is PC Tools’ fancy name for the security protection it puts on your PC. As you can see, The free version of the program only has 2 of the 9 possible methods of protection activated. Unfortunately, some of the more important ones like the Rootkit protection, Download Protection, and Behavior Guard are not enabled.
The scanner isn’t much different than any other scanner. It shows the Name of the threat, the Number of instances the infection is on your computer, and the Risk Level.
Once the scan is done, it shows this page:
After you tell it to remove the infection, the program thinks for a while, and then you’re all done.
Security:
PC Tools was able to detect the Eicar Test Virus, proving that it does indeed protect your computer, unlike Digital-defender, that totally failed this test.
Here is the popup it presents when it detects an infection:
Speed and Performance:
PC Tools Anti-Virus does slow down the computer a little bit, even though it only uses 37MB of memory when idle. I think the reason it slows doen the computer is because it checks each file, which, due to the slowness of the program, affects the performance of the computer it’s installed on.
Conclusion and Scoring:
Speed: 6/10
Security: 6/10
Ease of Use: 7/10
Interface: 7.5/10
Value: 7/10
Final Score: 6.7/10
The bottom line: PC Tools Anti-Virus Free is a very capable program. Unfortunately, PC Tools disables major portions of the program to convince you to upgrade to the paid version.
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Review sample source: www.pctools.com
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