PCSecurityShield The Shield Deluxe is a distinctly lack-lustre antivirus solution. The product is expensive and not particulalry effective. Read this review to find out more.
The Shield Deluxe 2009 Features
PCSecurityShield The Shield Deluxe 2009 provides malware detection and removal with real-time protection. The product's user interface is the same as that of BitDefender, as The Shield Deluxe uses the BitDefender antivirus engine.
Features of The Shield Deluxe 2009 include:
- Real-time protection against viruses, spyware, adware and rootkits
- Email, IM and web scanning
- Quarantine and removal of detected threats
- Online submission of quarantined items
- Vulnerability scanning
- Network protection
- Protection for phishing
- On-demand scanning
- IM encryption
| Installation and Performance | Rating  |
Installing The Shield Deluxe 2009 is a simple process, but a reboot is required 
before you can use the program. After restarting the computer, an activation window is dislayed that enables you to either enter your license key or continue using the program as 30 days trial.
Upon entering the license key, The Shield Deluxe icon will display an alert from the notification tray for any critical problems that it has detected (see image to the left).
The Shield Deluxe 2009 reported its status to Windows Security Center as up-to-date and running after it finished updating. The program ran without slowing down the test system, but I noticed that it is somewhat slow to load the user interface.
IEShow.exe and bdagent.exe are added by The Shield Deluxe 2009 as startup items. The IEShow.exe is related to the anti-phishing protection - essential if you want to be alerted to fraudulent websites while browsing. The bdagent.exe is another essential start-up item which provides security event alerting and monitoring. The Shield Deluxe 2009 added 4 services in Windows XP: namely, Arrakis Server, Desktop Update Service, Threat Scanner and Virus Shield.
| Detection Capability | Rating  |
The system had 65 malware samples in a folder on the desktop. Upon opening this folder, The Shield Deluxe alerted that it found multiple viruses and that the infected objects have been treated. However, The Shield Deluxe failed to detect 6 out of 65 samples while 20 out of 59 detected items were quarantined instead of removing from the system. I also tested the real-time protection by downloading a 12 malware samples from the internet, but The Shield Deluxe detected only 5 of these samples.
| Vulnerability and Network Monitoring | Rating |
The vulnerability monitoring feature detects whether the system has missing Windows security patches or missing security patches for a small number of third-party programs. It also checks whether administrator and user accounts have strong passwords and whether Windows Automatic Updates is enabled. The feature does not, however, work particularly well. The Shield Deluxe detected that the test system had a number of missing updates, which it appeard to download and install - however, after the supposed installation, those same updates continued to be detected as missing (something which Windows Update subsequently confirmed).
The Network Monitoring feature will not monitor the security status of other PCs on the network or permit another PC to be added to the network unless The Shield Deluxe is installed on the other PCs in the network. Other security suites, such as Norton Internet Security, do permit other PCs to be added and will monitor their security status, regardless of whether the security suite is installed on those PCs.
| Price to Value | Rating |
The Shield Deluxe's pricing makes little sense. The product is a rebranded version of BitDefender Antivirus but, at $39.99 per PC per year, it's almost twice as expensive (BitDefender costs $24.95 per PC per year).
| The Bottom Line | Rating |
The Shield Deluxe is overpriced and underperforming. The product really has nothing going for it and, consequently, The Shield Deluxe gets a big thumbs down.
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