Kaspersky Anti Virus 2009

...computers. We at first brought Kaspersky Internet Security on our computer upstairs, it took us 2 months to actually get it installed on their due to bloody AVG which leaves so many hidden files on your computer that you have to do quite a bit of hunting. It wasn’t until I brought my new Acer laptop, and got a good price for Kaspersky Anti Virus 2009, that we decided to get off our ass and install the Internet Security on our computer and for free ...
...Kaspersky? ==

Kaspersky was founded back in 1997, and it offered anti virus, anti spam, and anti intrusion products. The company is currently based in Moscow, Russia as it is a Russian product but has offices all over the world. It has now won the editiors choice award two years in a row for best anti virus software, however this version, 2009, did not win due to another antivirus software hitting Kaspersky out of the park.
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Don’t think I’ve ever done a review of this kind before, so I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for reading.

When we brought our second computer about 5/6 years ago now, my mother and grandmother were sold on a Anti Virus software called Norton. I did go a little bit off the rails at one point last year, which resulted in 60 trojans on my computer, Norton had to go, it had not found any of them and it wasn’t until I downloaded the free software called AVG that these Trojans were found. AVG, even though it’s supposed to be one of the best, mainly because it’s free had to go as well, it was a great little system however I wanted something better, something to make sure that my computer doesn’t break so badly that even my computing lecturer comes up to me and says he can’t work out what’s wrong with it.

He recommended Kaspersky, I had never heard of it before and at the time, it was the best in the market for detecting viruses on computers. We at first brought Kaspersky Internet Security on our computer upstairs, it took us 2 months to actually get it installed on their due to bloody AVG which leaves so many hidden files on your computer that you have to do quite a bit of hunting. It wasn’t until I brought my new Acer laptop, and got a good price for Kaspersky Anti Virus 2009, that we decided to get off our ass and install the Internet Security on our computer and for free we got the techs at PC World to install Kaspersky Anti Virus on my laptop.

What is Kaspersky?

Kaspersky was founded back in 1997, and it offered anti virus, anti spam, and anti intrusion products. The company is currently based in Moscow, Russia as it is a Russian product but has offices all over the world. It has now won the editiors choice award two years in a row for best anti virus software, however this version, 2009, did not win due to another antivirus software hitting Kaspersky out of the park.

Installation

I did not install this onto my laptop, so I’m going off our installation of Internet Security.

Installing Kaspersky onto a new, completely clean laptop/computer will be a piece of cake, you just follow the instructions on the screen like you would with anything when you install things, and then voila, you should have Kaspersky on your computer. However, if you are using it on a normal computer which has been in use for a bit, then you will very likely have trouble, especially if you are updating from AVG free. It amazed me that when I put problems with installing Kaspersky due to AVG into google how many other people had the same problem.

If you do have this problem then go onto Kaspersky’s technical support website and they’ll give you a .zip to download. This includes a .exe document which will get rid of AVG or any other programmes that Kaspersky wants you to get rid of. It’s a very long process, one that should be unnecessary, I think the .zip file should be included with the installation and Kaspersky should just get rid of AVG straight away.

You might then have problems with your Firewall, we didn’t, so I’m not going to go into too much about this, but if you do just go back onto technical support and it’ll give you the necessary tools.

Ease of Installation: 3/10 (Takes way too long if you have used the computer before and have previously downloaded anti-virus software)

Interface

Once you have completed the installation process and have restarted your computer oh so many times then you’ll find Kaspersky Anti Virus either in your system tray or on your desktop. Click on this and then it’ll load the screen.

When you first go on after installing you might be a bit worried when you see that your Anti Virus is red and it’s saying you need to fix it now. We had this problem, but all it takes is you to click Fix Now and then it should be fixed.

The main screen when you’re computer is protected is a deep blue and green colour with a white bit in the centre where everything goes on. The main section is the protection section. Here it is all about the protection of computer data against malware, internet fraud and unauthorized access. All of these are very important and if none of them are up to date then you might have problems.

Protection

To the left on the main section of the screen is a list, the first section is the Protection section and beneath it is links to Anti Malware, System Security and Online Security. All of these just elaborate a little bit more of what you get on the main screen.

Full Scan/Quick Scan

Then you have the Scan section and beneath that is two links called Full Scan and Quick Scan, these scans are both brilliant. The Full Scan section is probably the most recommended one to use.

When you click on the link it’ll come up with a list of different parts of your computer and ticks next to the things it’s scanning. This includes things like system memory, start-up objects, hard drive and removable drives. Mine at the moment doesn’t have Email ticked but you can have that if you want.

Then you have the main portion of the full scan section, you have four different things which all have links beside them which are quite important. The first thing is Security Level and besides mine I have recommended, and then below there is On Threat Detection. If you click on the link beside it, it’ll bring down a drop down menu, here you choose what you want to happen, I would recommend using select action automatically. Then you have Run Mode, this is the main bit, and it saves you a job, if you click on the link, and go to settings you can choose when you want the scan to run. Mine at the moment is every day at 6pm. Then it tells you when the last start was. Beside that you have the play button which says start scan.

Quick Scan has pretty much the same thing, I really only use this if I want to scan one object or one portion of the computer.

Interface ease of use: 8/10 (Pretty easy to navigate)

Price

I only paid £14.99 for mine as there was a problem with the sticker on the product not matching the price on the computer so she did a deal for me. The normal price for the 1 user version of this is about £19.99 which is a pretty good price for what you are getting.

If you are looking to buy it from the website, then you will be looking at paying around £30 for the product. Make sure that you shop around, I do believe that the product is worth £30 however if you can get it cheaper then try.

If you have a number of PC’s you want to protect then I would recommend buying the 3 Pc’s version or even the 5 PC’s version of the anti virus software. It is £39.99 for the 3 PC’s version and £64.99 for the 5 PC’s version, but again, these numbers are from the Kaspersky website which means they are probably a lot more expensive, so please shop around for a great price for this product.

Price: 8/10 (A great price for what you’re getting)

Removal

If you do have a naughty evil file which has been detected by Kaspersky then it’ll ask you what you want to do with it, it gives you three options, ignore, delete or disinfect. I would recommend deleting.

This is pretty easy to do, my mum had a little bit of trouble as she had the three options to choose from and she wasn’t sure which one to choose, however to be honest, your best choice is to delete the problem and you should be perfectly fine.

Ease of removal: 8/10 (Pretty easy to use, I’ve not had any problems)

Updates

Kaspersky does this job for you, it automatically updates it’s virus and malware database, however it will from time and time again ask you to install programs or updates. This is probably one of the most important things about Kaspersky and Anti Virus software, it’s important that you update the software or you will be open for attacks.

The updates are very easy to do, and a lot of the time, they’re updated without you knowing. This is brilliant as I don’t like to be bothered with things like that, and I think that a software like this should be able to handle updating itself without any manual support.

Ease of Updating: 8/10

Comparisons

Of course everyone now seems to use AVG Free, because not only is it free, it delivers brilliant protection. Or does it? I’m sorry but when we finally were able to take off AVG Free, and installed Kaspersky, Kaspersky found a lot of viruses that AVG had pretty much just by passed. These weren’t even just little viruses as well, even one Trojan was unfounded by AVG.

This does show, that even though you are paying £20 for this product, you are pretty much getting total protection and you can go on your computer safely and do what you want without any little naughty things getting into your computer and then ruining all of your files etc. You are safe with this product no doubt about that.

My previous experience with anti virus protection is not brilliant. For years, after friends had recommended it, we had used Norton Anti Virus and when I joined the computing course and got a lot more adventurous on the computer, Norton decided to be a lazy ass and just sit back and let my computer be ruined by all of the bad things that I had let on my computer. My teacher was even baffled at how bad it had got considering I had an anti virus programme on there. Norton has never really done a brilliant job and now we have completely got rid of it.

If you compare Kaspersky to either of these programmes, then it is most definitely the superior antivirus programme. Not only is it affordable, but it is simple to use. I have even recommended it to my nan, who needs simple programmes like this to keep her computer safe.

System Requirements

I’m not going to go into this as I’ll be here for days, however I will give you a link to a page which lists all of the system requirements for all that want to know:

http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/kaspersky_anti-virus

Support

If you have any problems with your Kaspersky Anti Virus then check out the customer support on their website.

http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/tech_support

We had to use this site when writing about antivirus and technical support at college, and it helped me so much with my essay that I had to write at the end of it all. A brilliant technical support which should help you.

Technical Support: 9/10 (Brilliant)

Overall

I think the worst bit about Kaspersky is the installation process, it has found quite a lot of viruses on our computer that AVG missed, I have had no problems with my laptop so far, as Kaspersky has always told me if there is a file or anything like that that seems a little evil. The price is pretty good for what you get, it seems pretty safe and it seems to have detected quite a lot of viruses especially on our computer.

The biggest problem we’ve had so far with the one on our computer is the fact that it did not like Sims 3, we had installed Sims 3 on our computer before installing Kaspersky, however one day is threw a paddy and wouldn’t let us use it. After a bit of fiddling, even I don’t know what I did, but it let it through. This is one of my only annoyances about this product.

I put this review to bed for a little bit, and at this point, whilst writing this, I have had the antivirus software for almost a month now and have not yet had any viruses what so ever. Kaspersky doesn’t just deal with the viruses, but it stops them before they come onto your computer. Considering how much time I spend on a computer, for it not to even have one little virus is just brilliant.

I believe that this version of the software is the most effective for everyone’s computers, if you want something that is easy to use, not too expensive and does what it tells you it does, then this is the product for you. It is very good, and I have yet to have a problem with it other than the problems at the beginning with Sims 3 and AVG Free.

Check this product out, it’s well worth the money. I can be pretty sure that this will be the only antivirus software that I’ll use in the future, unless it goes down the toilet or a better/cheaper one comes out. Please before buying this software, make sure that you check out the system requirements, and please before buying, look around. I got the product for £14.99, but on the Kaspersky website they’re charging £29.99. A big difference here, and I know for some this is a big difference.

If you are looking for a good, cheap and effective antivirus software then this is for you, if you have any problems with previous antivirus software (most specifically with AVG) then just google your problem. I can’t remember how I fixed mine, but it takes quite a bit of fiddling, but google will help you and you should be able to solve the problem in the end.

Hope this helps. Please rate and comment. All of your comments and rates are much appreciated. Thank you.

(C) Kirsty 2009

 

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