Quick Heal Total Security 2009 Review

The installation process was easy, merely a matter of downloading the self-extracting installer file and running it. Before the installation starts, it is strongly recommended that all other Windows programs be shut down. This suggestion is a sensible one to follow, as if there are too many programs running, the installer will display the ‘Not Responding’ message.

Quick Heal Total Security first scans the PC the second the installation completes. It then moves on to the other optional components, which the user has the option to select. These are Anti-Malware, Anti-Spam, Anti-Popup and Anti-Phishing.

The next screen has three options – the first is to register the copy of the application online, the second is to check for updates, and the third is to install the Quick Heal Firewall Pro. All three are optional. If the registration is done at that time, a screen for all the user’s personal details comes up. The application displays a list of the information that will be sent for the registration, and then displays the activation number. The activation number is vital to the use of the application in the case of reinstallation.

The update then proceeds to start, and takes a while to finish; however this is entirely dependent on the Internet connection speed. The update didn’t complete on my machine; it stopped approximately halfway,

although the expected finish time kept on increasing.

The firewall installs last, and finishes quickly, prompting a computer restart. The Quick Heal Total Security menu detects the Quick Heal Firewall as ‘OFF’ till it is fully installed.

There was another version of one of Quick Heal’s products previously installed. As an aside, the new installation did not work till that version was uninstalled properly.

There are two new icons in the system tray – the silver gray shield is the icon for the firewall application, and the green symbol is the antivirus. Double clicking on the icon will start up the antivirus application. However, each subsequent time the icon is clicked upon, a new instance of the application starts up, a rather unusual occurrence.

The menu screen is clearly set out, with the first screen displaying the status of all the protection modules. There is a list of menu options along the left side, with the Options menu on the top right next to Help.

The Tools menu has the Quarantine function, where a user can place selected suspect files to be checked out without exposing the entire system to threat. There is a Virus List, which lists out all known viruses for each major operating system platform. It also has a few more tools that are explained in greater detail in the Product Features section.

The Extra menu has more advanced features like the Track Cleaner, which clears electronic trails; Windows Spy, a tool that gives information about any window or dialog box by dragging and dropping a marker on it; and a Hijack Restore, which prevents unauthorised redirection of websites.

The Reports menu has detailed reports on the activities of each of the different modules.