Kaspersky - Prevention & Removal Made Easy (Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009)

Member Name: calumneilson

Product:	Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009
Date:	07/06/09 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, quite cheap, good protection, easy removal, many updates

Disadvantages: Could be bulked up a little more

Kaspersky Anti-Virus is my personal choice for virus protection and removal - it is not too expensive, reliable, has many features and options and you can be sure it will prevent and remove those pesky and annoying viruses.

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PRICE - A single license for Kaspersky Anti-Virus is £29.99 which seems a little high, but compared to competitors is very reasonable. You can also pay more for extra features, and a three license edition for those with multiple PCs is only £10 more.

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PROTECTION - One feature I like about Kaspersky is that it scans all files, emails, web pages etc. before they are loaded or run; this means it is very easy to protect and prevent against viruses. Kaspersky has only once failed to stop me running a file that contained a virus, but many times has prevented me from doing so.

Other protection features included in Kaspersky are anti-malware protection so that your system will be safe from all sorts of malware such as spyware, adware etc. and not just your normal viruses and trojans. The anti-malware protection works in the same way as the standard projection and monitors your web, email, files and memory.

Anti-phishing protection is the final protection feature included in Kaspersky and is simple - it stops you getting tricked and conned into using false websites and handing over personal and financial details.

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SCANNING - You can set Kaspersky to scan your computer every set period (mine scans every weekend) as well as doing manual scans. Scan length depends on the resources of your computer (eg. RAM, processing power) as well as the number and size of files that Kaspersky has to scan. Scans on my PC at first only took 20 minutes, but now take several hours.

However, unlike my old Norton Anti-Virus that slowed down my computer and rendered it almost unusable whilst scanning, Kaspersky uses very little resources and you can still use your PC as usual.

Once a scan if finished you have the option to remove any infections or viruses found and you get a full report containing details of the scan.

You also have the option to do a full scan, which takes a long time, or a quick scan which scans essential PC areas as well as areas normally infected by viruses - it also checks for any viruses present in your memory/RAM.

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REMOVAL - Virus removal with Kaspersky is as easy as pie. If a virus is detected during a scan there a simple option will appear to either ignore the virus, delete the file or disinfect the file - you don't have to interfere once you tell Kaspersky to remove it and it takes hardly any time to do so.

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UPDATES - Kaspersky automatically updates it's virus and malware database, but will prompt you to install any program updates or updates to the software itself (these can be annoying as they are quite regular and require a reboot).

Updates are released a lot, normally you can manually do updates every several hours and there will be an update - this is reassuring as it shows Kaspersky are actually making virus definition updates quickly.

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USABILITY - The software is simple to order from the official site and installation is no big problem - once you have the software up and running the interface and design is intuitive and easy to get to grips with.

You have tabs for protection, scanning, updates and license so you can manage all your scans, perform updates, check how your protection is and change any settings. There are a lot of settings available, but they all come with help and instructions so nothing is hard to understand.

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SUMMARY - Overall Kaspersky is a very good anti-virus application, it is easy to use, is updated regularly, catches many viruses before they an run and can easily be used to remove infections.

My only recommendations would be to make it a little cheaper (even though it's price is already competitive) and to add more substance to the program to make users feel like they are really safe - a better look to the design would be good as well.

Summary: Overall very good

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