Questions about and Opinions of Bitdefender Total Security

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leftisthominid

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My Avast Internet Security license is expiring in two weeks. While I generally like avast, I've been using it for a few years now, and I want some change after dealing with many GUI glitches and false positives.

I read that BitDefender is really good, but before I commit to the switch I had a few questions that I was wondering if some of you could answer. I would go for the intermediate package (Internet Security), but BitDefender Total Security for 3PCs is currently the same price at Best Buy (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=bitdefender&_dyncharset=UTF-8&id=pcat17071&type=page&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=brand_facet%3DBrand~Bitdefender&list=n&iht=y&usc=All%20Categories&ks=960&keys=keys&seeAll=Brand)

In terms of specific questions, they are below. Otherwise, I am just looking for general opinions. Thanks!


-What have your general experiences been with the program? Is it buggy, does the GUI work well?
-Avast has a "Statistics" screen in its GUI that shows the networks connections going through my computer sates my virus OCD, does BitDefender have such a feature?
-Is there a boot-time scan feature? Avast has a feature where it does the full-scan before Windows starts-up. (I generally do a boot-time scan).
 
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leftisthominid

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MarkW

MarkW

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When people come asking for help, and I suspect they have viruses or malware, I send them to get BitDefender, Malwarebytes, and CCleaner. I have them run all 3. If turns out that it was in fact a virus, in almost all cases they end up cleaned up.
 
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thor220

thor220

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I bought a year's sub a while back and ended up giving it away. Has so many technical issues I couldn't stand it. Had to boot into safe mode for the program to even update. It's pretty intrusive. If you're going to buy anti-virus, Kaspersky is the best I've had so far.
 
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danny2000

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Please clarify, which piece of software that you are referring to in your first four sentences.
 
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leftisthominid

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For example, when I update my current software (avast), I just go in the settings panel and search for a program update and it does it (albeit it takes a while). You are saying BitDefender has to go into safemode for program updates, what about definitions updates?
 
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thor220

thor220

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I am talking about bitdefender internet security, which includes the anti-virus plus online protect. I was not saying that bitdefender has to go into safemode to update, it's just a common issue me and other's were facing at the time. It may work just fine for you. It's definitely not the worse anti-virus I've used though and it has pretty good detection rates.
 
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CWEric

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Exactly, that the impression I'm getting from BitDefender and Kaspersky users. Those 2 companies names appear together a lot in comparing anti-viruses so its like they are big rivals to each other; probably for offering similar features. If you avoid their auto-renew plan and any other known bugs and don't experience any issue with Bitdefender, then you would probably be better off than Kaspersky since not every computer act the same. The high report of bugs from Bitdefender scare me off and the issue of their auto-renew not canceling as requested (scammers?) dramatically turn me off from trusting this company for my computer security.

AV-Comparatives May report came out yesterday and Bit-Defenders again beats Kaspersky by a marginal percent again. Bitdefender tend to be around 3rd place and Kaspersky in 4th place, both have really good false positive rate compare to other AV in the high end. http://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php

I recommend you try out Bitdefender free 30 days trial to make sure that their program work smoothly on your system before paying for it. It'll have the same feature as the paid version so might as well use it all to delay your next yearly renewal for another month. http://www.bitdefender.com/Downloads/

If you don't like it then you can then try the other 2 antiviruses free 30 days trial offers:
http://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/?domain=kaspersky.com
http://www.eset.com/us/download/free-trial/
 
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draygar

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I have had bitdefender total security for 3 years, and have found it to be very good.
I use it for 3 pc,s so for me it's very good value.
I have had two viruses get through the auto protection in three years, run the manual scan and it removed them.
Certainly the best I have used.
Don't get auto renew, as when renewal approaches the send lower and lower offers to tempt you back
Hope this helps
 
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leftisthominid

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I kept weighing Kaspersky and BitDefender, and in the end I found myself picking Bitdefender

At under $43 for two years of service for all three of my computers, this seems like it is good deal (http://www.amazon.com/Bitdefender-Internet-Security-Value-3-PCs/dp/B00EOAS4UA/).

Just to confirm, a 2014 box will still work and automatically update to that latest version, right?
 
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leftisthominid

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I have BitDefender on my desktop now (where I am posting this from).

The first update is downloading very slow (the program updates were downloaded during installation, but it seems something still isn't updated).

How do I get it on to my other computers now?
 
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CWEric

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The first update always take forever on the antiviruses that I experience.

Download the program from their website as if your getting the free trial version, then you need to activate the premium using your key (hopefully it ask during the installation if not somewhere in their setting).
http://www.bitdefender.com/Downloads/
 
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leftisthominid

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Due to paranoia (i.e., OCD), I used to leave avast's statistics windows open a lot of the time, which used to tell me what network connections and files were being scanned.

Where can I find this in BitDefender? If it does not exist, can anyone suggest an external program to do this?

Also, I've noticed upon startup, the black screen between the Windows loading screen and the splash screen seems long (though it could be just in my head, as I generally don't pay too much attention to it). Did I do anything wrong during installation?. I uninstalled avast, then I also ran the avast removal tool prior to installation.
 
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CWEric

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No idea. I can't imagine Bitdefender not have those features though. Kaspersky I know has network monitoring and file scan report but have to change the setting to include all files and website scanned in its report for the cost of the report becoming ridiculously large and very slow to open.

It could be Bitdefender loading its modul stuff early in the bootup to dip its claws deep into the system for it to run properly. Its a large program. Kaspersky doesn't play nice in start-up either.

You can try this as your 3rd party program for monitoring your system. It include result from virustotal for each process.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

You can run this startup timer if you want to take your time experimenting your computer boot up speed with and without bitdefender and other alternate antiviruses.
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-boot-timer

*I notice bitdefender has program startup management, that pretty cool. CCleaner is an alternate free option.*
You can try CCleaner to help speed up your computer. It has a setting that disable the programs you don't want to start to make the startup faster.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

A bit of my Kaspersky gui monitoring showoff (5 images):
http://imgur.com/zSpXozP,sh0hOwh,sE3Wi50,lmuUx1b,MOv71ep
 
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leftisthominid

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What I mean is avast had a real-time graphical interface that shows live results.

I tried to do a system scan with the program, and 3.5 hours in, it was not done. I only have one 1TB hdd, and it is only half full. Avast's bootscan finished scanning my harddrive in just over 2 hours... I aborted the scan and a reboot-required update started to kick-in. Also, Windows Action Center kept "running maintenance" in the background. I am giving my computer a little while to figure out whether the problem continues...

The advantage of buying a physical copy from Amazon (and having Prime) is that I can return this in a few days if it still pisses me off then.
 
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