Review by Fred Woodbridge

You name it, I’ve seen it in action. From Norton to McAfee, from the FreeAVG to the corporate editions of the various anti-malware/anti-virus suites, I’ve used them at one stage or another for that’s part of my job as a systems manager.

Here’s a quick tip: I’ve found that McAfee’s products are better than not having any protection, but be prepared for hassles. My experiences with these anti-virus software has led to me looking at every piece of software with a jaundiced eye. The problems can be many, starting with the overhead of resource usage. Unfortunately, anti-malware/anti-virus software needs to exist, especially for Windows. Unfortunately, the manufacturers have to be very careful so that their software doesn’t end up causing problems for the user. A/V has to be like a good butler: there when you need him, and invisible when you don’t.nKaspersky Internet Security 2012 is one of the best in the business. Unlike some of the others I’ve already mentioned, you’re not going to be dealing with flaky, high-minded software. This thing installs within minutes, updates without a hassle, and catches just about everything out there, including the really nasty zero-day stuff.

The interface is a pleasure to work with and on, you’re not going to need a four-year-degree to understand what you need to do to protect your computer. The overhead is minuscule. For example, on the computer I’m using right now to type out this review, Kaspersky is currently using 250MB of memory and 0.56% CPU. That’s quiet and well-behaved considering everything it’s monitoring right this second, about 100 open ports and 172 services and applications.

I have not needed at any time to delve into the firewall for tweaking. I get notified in a discreet manner that doesn’t hijack my screen that there’s been an exception and also what Kaspersky has decided to do about it. It then allows you the easy option of overriding or amending its actions. It is also easy to modify that action permanently. One of the easiest processes in an anti-malware suite I’ve ever worked on.

I don’t use the Parental Control, but looking over its settings, once again I found the straightforward manipulation on a great user interface. So, for example, once set on a particular account (after setting up a Parent Control password to lock down access), it is possible to lock-down or modify access for everything from filesystem access to web browser and Internet access.

In particular, I really like the applications module where, for the most part, Kaspersky automaticlly sets up what each particular application has access to, from the registry to the Internet/network. Of course, each of these can be changed easily. Applications are also rated on how popular–hence, how safe–they are and in what groups (Trusted or Custom, etc.) they reside. Brilliant piece of work here.

Prepare to be blown away by how tight a grip on the ubiquitous Internet ads there are. Kaspersky effectively shuts down these seemingly stubborn things so that they’re literally invisible, even in such applications as you may think can get around it. I have a Twitter application that shows ads in its own window that Kaspersky shut down. Peace!nnThere is, as usual, an anti-spam component, a wonderfully literate Network Monitor that shows everything your computer is doing, a virtual keyboard–in case you have a hardware snooper installed locally–and something called Safe Run for Websites that sandboxes a browser window so that in that session, you are effectively corralling the visited website from infecting anything on the machine. Splendid stuff.

In short, I am very pleased with how Kaspersky has designed this bit of software. I am giving it my highest possible rating and be assured, I will be buying a renewal once my current subscription of one year runs out.