Quick Heal is a relatively new antivirus program and is programmed in India.  The software offers pretty basic antivirus protection but has a garnered a significant amount of interest.  In fact, the program has received multiple accolades from Virus Bulletin 100 and Westcoast labs.  The antivirus is similar to Rising Antivirus, and exhibits a special ability to detect viruses at their most likely source, developing PC markets.

Installation:

    The Quick Heal installation took about 4 minutes to complete and included a quick initial virus scan.  The initial scan is an important feature that most 2010 antiviruses now include.
    One downside, the installation is cumbersome because a user has to register.  This is midly counter intuitive because the user can actually deselect the free registration option.  If this happens before an update is performed, a user will be unable to update due to non-registration.  It is difficult to find where the free registration option is located.  The required screens also have several required fields, which are annoying.

Interface:

   A-squared is a venerable free antivirus that includes antispyware and antivirus protection.  According to user and industry reviews, the antivirus is particularly good at detecting Trojans.  In our own tests, we found this consensus to be true and more than exceeded our expectations.  While the program does not include a resident shield, it still can be used in conjunction with other antivirus software to provide dual protection.  We will now take a more in-depth look at all of the program’s functionality.

Installation:

    The installation of A-squared was very quick.  There was no added toolbar or advertising software, unlike 90% of other free antivirus software.  There were also few configuration options like adding the scanner to the start menu, taks bar, and a desktop shortcut.  After the installation was complete, A-squared started immediately and did not require a restart.  A-squared then prompted for an automatic virus definition update.  The update was large at 7 megabytes but installed over 35,000 Trojan signatures (this was the first indication that a-squared is clearly geared towards anti-Trojan protection).  The update downloaded at about 100 Kilobytes per second and did not appear to have speed limitations like Free AVG.  After the update was complete, a-squared simply needed a program restart and the protection was ready to go.  The installer also included many different languages including Arabic, English, Japanese, Russian, Dutch and many more.

    RAV or Rising is a chinese antivirus from Beijing and the free version hasn’t been out for more than a year.  Rising Antivirus provides enhanced protection against Asian computer viruses while also having the capability to detect and eliminate prolific western viruses.  China is now the number one SPAM creator and has an increasing malware threat.  Rising Antivirus promises to stem the growth of malware at one of the primary sources.

Installation:

    The executable file was about 66 megabytes and supports 32 bit and 64 bit Windows XP, Vista, and 7.  The installation of the program was for the most part without hiccups.  The installation performed an initial memory scan for viruses and needed about 2 minutes to finish.  After completion, the software required a restart of the computer.
    Upon resuming Windows, the program blacked out the whole window.  A dialog box appeared and then started to do an initial configuration scan.  The premise is that this initial scan will make future scans faster.  However, in practice, the initial scan was extremely slow and since the background is blacked out, a user is not able to complete any other concurrent tasks (Update: there isn’t the ability to run the initial configuration scan after install so it’s probably best to wait through it after installation).
    Next, the user is given the option to set a password.  A user can password protect several options including a premature shutdown of a virus scan, modifying defense settings (disabling the real time shield), and emptying the quarantine etc.  Rising is comparable to Panda Antivirus in its access control functionality.

   CA Internet Security 2010 is a new program offered by Computer Associates.  The company claims to protect 97% of fortune 500 companies and has brought the same technology to the consumer program.  The company is currently providing a free download and activation code.   CA Internet Security 2010 is aimed primarily at beginner or novice computer users.  Being a power user, I found some serious problems with this free antivirus program.

Installation:

    The CA Internet Security installation was very easy and quick.  Large screens and graphics display the progress and the program automatically downloads the installation file.  One thing that sets CA apart from other free antivirus installations is that the software automatically performs a scan on install. This was a surprise as at the end of the installation, CA internet security already had detected 6 viruses.  The software does not perform an automatic update after an install which is interesting for a product targeted at beginner users.

Interface:

    The interface of CA internet Security is clearly unique.  The home screen consists of 4 tabs that rotate around according to which option is selected.  If there are problems such as a full scan not completed or a virus update not performed, all a user has to do is click “Fix Now” rather than clicking the respective buttons.  There are also helpful pop ups that only alert a user to important problems; expect CA to not frequently bug or annoy the user.
    While the antivirus interface is very beautiful, it slowed the test system to a crawl. Just clicking on a tab and then viewing the rotating graphic would barely function on a core 2 duo with Vista’s “power saver” functionality.  If the power plan was changed to “high performance”, the rotating graphic would move faster but still had considerable lag. I think even the slightest bit of lag on a 2 GHz computer is completely unacceptable.
    Antivirus settings were also a hassle to change.  In some instances the setting sliders were almost too large.  This forces a user to have to scroll down repeatedly within a window that can’t be resized.  This is a hassle if a user wants to frequently tweak settings. 

Features:

    A user can now get six (6) months of free antivirus protection by becoming a fan of the McAfee page on Facebook.  McAfee Security Center is a full featured security product that includes an antivirus engine, firewall, backup system, antispam, and parental controls. Check out the Review below.

Installation:

    The installation of McAfee was kind of a pain.  At first I couldn’t remember the password I setup on the Facebook account creation page.  I was warned that I only had 2 sign-ins left, which was annoying.  I just want to say that the licensing mechanism is a little overboard in this software.  Anyways, after the license was verified the program was downloaded.  The download was approximately 66 megabytes and on the smaller side compared to other free antivirus.  Once the full installation started to commence, it was extremely slow. The installation was by far the slowest of any antivirus program and even puts Forticlient’s installation time to shame.  The program then needs to optimize the installation which takes another 3 minutes. 

Interface: