ESET NOD32 - A Lightweight That Performs Like a Heavyweight

Installation is quick and it's easy to customize your options. After double-clicking the setup file and entering a username and password (which are supplied when you buy), you'll be offered the choice of Typical, Custom, or Expert installation. Each option provides an increasingly greater degree of control over NOD32's setup.
[insert screen Setup]

Following a reboot, NOD32 will automatically update itself and your computer will be protected. As I said, it's a quick and easy process.

I installed under both XP SP2 and Vista. In both cases the installation was smooth and without problems.

It's worth mentioning that ESET NOD32 is a very lean download at less than 12 MB. By way of comparison, F-Secure Anti-Virus weighs in at more than 81 MB and Kaspersky at more than 23 MB.

While I actually like ESET NOD32's somewhat retro and minimalist user interface (hence its "Hot" rating), I might possibly be in the minority. It certainly has a rather dated look and is not what you would call aesthetically pleasing. In fact, some people might consider it to be downright ugly, but it's functional. Actually, once you have spent a little time with ESET NOD32, its functionality will be easily apparent. You'll find that the user interface is far more intuitive than you may initially have thought, which makes navigation easy.
[insert screen User interface]

ESET NOD32's interface certainly will not win any beauty competitions, but it will provide you with speedy access to the program's functions and features.

On the whole, ESET NOD32's interface is intuitive and easy to use, but it does have some minor shortcomings. For example, the Scheduled Tasks window has buttons that  enable you to create a new task or delete a task, but doesn't provide you with a button to modify existing tasks. It's actually quite easy to do. You simply need to right-click the task you want to modify. Not everybody will realize that, however. Why couldn't ESET be consistent and just provide a button?
[insert screen Scheduled tasks]

There are some other oddities scattered around, too. Since everything is explained in the help, none of these oddities amount to major problems.

ESET NOD32 consists of five modules. AMON, a memory-resident scanner; DMON, which provides protection against macro viruses in Microsoft Office documents; EMON, an email scanner; IMON, an Internet monitor; and NOD32, an on-demand scanner. Each module is highly customizable and can have its own unique settings. For example, you could set AMON to scan for spyware and to quarantine any threats discovered, while setting EMON to scan for viruses only and to clean any threats discovered.

Of course, ESET NOD32 also provides all the features you would expect to find in an antivirus product. You can schedule scans, specify the default action to be taken when a threat is found, and specify whether the program is to scan for spyware and adware as well as viruses.

ESET NOD32 also enables you to submit suspicious files to ESET for analysis via the program's dashboard. Additionally, NOD32'a ThreatSense feature enables the automatic submission of potentially hostile code to ESET's lab. Linking to customers in this manner enables ESET to see new threats and to release responses to those threats in the shortest possible time. ThreatSense is both optional and configurable. Should your computer hold sensitive information, you can either disable ThreatSense or configure it to exclude the types of files that may contain information that you would not want to be passed to ESET.
[insert screen ThreatSense]

While ESET NOD32 is simple enough to be used by inexperienced users, it also provides features, such as remote administration, that will satisfy corporate IT managers.

This is where ESET NOD32 really shines. The first thing you'll notice is that ESET NOD32 is extremely light on resources and has a minimal impact on your system's operation. In fact, except for its notification area icon, you won't even know that its running.
[insert screen Resources]

The second thing you'll notice is that it's extremely fast. ESET NOD32 scanned my 160 GB drive in under 20 minutes. That was with several other applications open. Kaspersy Anti-Virus took 78 minutes to scan this drive and F-Secure Anti-Virus took 48 minutes.
[insert screen Scan time]

Also, unlike many other antivirus applications, ESET NOD32's scanning has only a relatively minor impact on performance. I was able to keep on working while running a scan and experienced only a very slight decrease in responsiveness.

Today, when so many antivirus products are bloated and eat both CPU cycles and disk space, ESET NOD32 continues to be refreshingly different.

Of course, nothing that's been said so far would matter if ESET NOD32 wasn't good at stopping viruses. After all, that is the critical function of such products. But NOD32 is good at stopping viruses. In fact, its detection capabilities are absolutely first-rate. NOD32 has picked up more VB100 awards than any other product (www.virusbtn.com) and is certified by both ICSA Labs (www.icsalabs.com) and West Coast Labs (www.westcoastlabs.com). Furthermore, check out any independent testing site, (AV Comparatives--www.av-comparatives.org--for example) and you'll find that NOD32's detection capabilities are just about as good as you can get. In a recent AV Comparatives' test, NOD32 achieved an Advanced+ rating compared to the Advanced rating of the much better known McAfee VirusScan. (See the AV Comparatives website for more detailed information.)

In part, this success is probably due to the speed with which ESET pushes out updates. By default, NOD32 automatically checks for updates each and every hour. And, as ESET are certainly no slouches when it comes to reacting to new threats, updates are frequently available.

To combat new viruses, NOD32 deploys some pretty advanced heuristics and leverages virtual PC technology to enable archives to be unpacked in real-time for behavior analysis. To put it simply, this means that NOD32 can often detect emerging threats in advance of updated definitions being released.

Like other products, NOD32 is not limited to detecting only viruses. It also detects rootkits, spyware, adware, etc. It does this with the same efficiency with which it detects viruses.

All of this combines to provide you with absolutely topnotch protection.

Unfortunately, ESET does not offer as much of a discount as some vendors do when it comes to multiple licenses. A 12-month, three-computer subscription will set you back $82. By way of comparison, Kaspersky charges $69.95 for a three-computer subscription, F-Secure charges $59.90 (the same as for a one computer license), and McAfee charges $59.99.

That said, given NOD32's exceptional performance, it's still a good buy whether you have one computer or 50 computers.