BitDefender Total Security 2008 Small Business Edition Review

$59.99 BitDefender Total Security 2008

$36.16 Symantec Antivirus

$34.98 McAffee Antivirus

However, it is important to point out that Symantec requires you purchase a minimum of 5 licenses which comes out to $180.80 ($36.16 if you break it down a per/PC unit). Both Symantec and McAffee products offer Antivirus, Antispyware, and some form of a client firewall. BitDefender goes one step further with the addition of the various system maintenance tools (Find Duplicate Files, Clean Registry, etc.) and system backup tools.

If these are worth the extra $20.00 (and I believe they are) then BitDefender Total Security 2008 is a great value when compared to other security packages on the market.

The following specs are for the test machine I used for this review:

• Dell XPS 410
• Intel Core2 DUO 6600 (2.40GHz)
• 2.00GB RAM
• 250GB Hard Drive
• Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (SP2)

Installation Process

The installation file was a single executable just over 47MB in size. This was downloaded from the BitDefender.com Downloads page. The initial installation was very quick and after completion took me straight into the registration process.Registration gives you the option to sign up for a BitDefender account where you can, “have access to technical support, safely store your license key and retrieve it later, and benefit from special offers and promotions.” I skipped this step. The last thing I need is another “online account” of some type! However, a business user will want to complete this step for support purposes if anything.After registration was completed, I was taken through the update process where all current updates were downloaded and applied. This took only a few minutes. Finally, an initial virus scan was performed after completing the registration. The scan ran at an average speed of 55 files/sec and the scan looked for the following criteria:

• Infected items
• Suspected items
• Hidden files
• Hidden processes