Kaspersky Total Security Trial

[Denisha Padley]

TodayI purchased NETGEAR Armor security (via Nighthawk app) after using the trial for 28 days. I have Kaspersky Total Security on my 2013 MacBook Air. I also have an iPad and iPhone, neither has antivirus software. Although all has worked fine during the trial, I am concerned that Armor may conflict with the Kaspersky Total Security software and have not activated the subscription I purchased. Does anyone have any experience/comments? My R8000P router is out of warranty and I can't find anyway to contact NETGEAR (email/chat/phone) with this question.

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This file has been scanned with VirusTotal using more than 70 different antivirus software products and no threats have been detected. It's very likely that this software is clean and safe for use.

There are some reports that this software is potentially malicious or may install other unwanted bundled software. These could be false positives and our users are advised to be careful while installing this software.

This software is no longer available for the download. This could be due to the program being discontinued, having a security issue or for other reasons.

Every PC needs quality antivirus protection, but that doesn't necessarily mean spending big money on the latest do-everything security suite. Kaspersky's starter consumer product is Kaspersky Anti-Virus, a straightforward package which focuses on the core security fundamentals: antivirus to detect well-known and brand-new malware, and malicious URL filtering to keep you away from dangerous links. (There's simple performance optimization, too, but nothing you can't get better, for free, in tools like CCleaner.)

This is fair value, and within the range we would expect for a top security product, but look past the initial discount, and you might get a better deal elsewhere. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus doesn't have any special introductory deal, but its prices are good. A ten-device, three-year license is only $180, and it won't double on renewal, potentially saving you a lot of cash in the long term. Kaspersky's free option lands itself on our best free antivirus list as well.

Kaspersky Internet Security extends Anti-Virus with a firewall, a secure browser to keep your online transactions safe, and protection from webcam hijacking. The free version of Kaspersky Safe Kids' parental control system includes content blocking and screen time management, ad and tracker-blocking help protect your privacy online, and there's the 200Mb-a-day free version of Kaspersky's VPN.

The top-of-the-range Kaspersky Total Security includes the full commercial version of Kaspersky Safe Kids, with extras including GPS location, and throws in a password manager for PC, Mac and Android, and a Windows backup tool.

Kaspersky's Security Cloud range gives you all the same features, and a few more. Kaspersky's 'adaptive protection' technology offers intelligent help when you need it, for instance, warning you if a password you've chosen is too weak, or offering to enable its VPN if you're connected to an insecure network.

And although it only has a handful of additional features, pricing is so similar to Total Security that you might want to upgrade anyway. A ten-device one-year Total Security license costs $75 in year one, for instance, $150 on renewal; buying Kaspersky Total Security Family costs a marginally higher $90 in year one, but the same $150 afterwards.

Kaspersky's installation process is simple, streamlined, and just about as speedy as we've seen. The trial download links are clearly highlighted on the website, and the installer is tiny. It asked us to accept the license agreement and automatically downloaded and set up the rest of the package.

We didn't have a license and hadn't given Kaspersky our email address, but the installer didn't care. All we had to do was tap an 'Activate Trial License' link and our Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2021 setup was ready to go.

(The program displayed a follow-up prompt asking us to connect our program to a My Kaspersky account, allowing us to view its status from the web. But this isn't necessary, and if you're not interested, you can simply close the window and carry on using the antivirus as normal.)

We ran PCMark Professional before and after installing Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2021 to look for any performance impact. The results were good, with Anti-Virus reducing our score by only 0.62%. That's a small improvement on Bitdefender Anti-Virus Plus 2021, which cut our speeds by 0.95%, but not anything you'll notice in real-world use.

AV-Comparatives' more detailed October 2021 Performance Test measures the performance impact of security products against a host of common system tasks: installing and launching applications, browsing websites, downloading files, extracting the contents of archives, and more. It placed Kaspersky second out of 17 for minimal performance impact, an excellent result, with only Panda doing better. (Avast made fourth, Bitdefender seventh, Avira 10th, and, surprisingly, Microsoft Defender trailed in last place.)

Finally, we ran our self-protection tests, where we check to see if security apps can be disabled by malware. Tests include attempting to delete key app files, terminate or suspend processes, stop services, uninstall or disable drivers, or turn features off by toggling settings in the Registry or configuration files. We were able to close some non-critical processes, such as Kaspersky's Password Manager, but Anti-Virus blocked everything else we tried, and our security was never compromised.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus has been a leading security product for a very long time, so it's probably no surprise that there are no major changes in the 2021 release. Still, we did spot a handful of interesting tweaks in the 'What's New' page.

The application has more and better-organized settings, for instance, including new performance options to reduce system impact when you're running on battery power, if you're using a full-screen app or your CPU or hard drive are under heavy load.

File anti-virus scans now check Microsoft Office files up to 8MB in size, giving them a better chance of detecting any threats. (You're not vulnerable if a file is larger -- it'll be scanned when it's accessed.)

Performance improvements include more efficient and reliable installations (the installer uses older versions of .NET where possible, rather than forcing you to download the latest) and faster database updates.

Kaspersky has dropped its Application Advisor, which enabled viewing reputation data for executable files. You can still check file reputation from the Explorer right-click menu, though, so we don't see this as a major issue.

Some of Kaspersky's bonus tools have had their functionality reorganized. Previously, both the Vulnerability Scan and Windows Troubleshooting tools reported on poorly configured Windows security settings, for instance, largely pointless as you'd get the same information from each. Now, the Vulnerability Scan checks for missing application updates only, and the Windows Troubleshooting scan handles all your system settings checks, a much more sensible approach.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus has a simple interface which displays your current protection status (a reassuring green tick, hopefully) and four main buttons for carrying out key tasks: launching scans, updating the database, viewing reports or opening an on-screen keyboard.

The Scan panel allows you to run quick or full system scans, as well as checking your external drives or whatever files and folders you specify. Users can also scan selected items from Explorer's right-click menu.

Scan times were relatively speedy, with Anti-Virus taking 19 minutes 14 seconds for the first scan of our target files (209,000 of them, 50GB in total), falling to 2 minutes 50 seconds on the second scan. For comparison, Bitdefender Anti-Virus Plus took a relatively lengthy 39 minutes on the first run, although this dropped to 27 seconds on second run.

A simple scheduler is on hand to automatically run any scan type every day, weekday, weekend, weekly or monthly. Sensible configuration options allow the scan to be rerun the next day if the computer is turned off while it's in mid-flow, and you can minimize any performance impact by running scans only when the computer is locked, or your screensaver is active.

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