Bitdefender Antivirus 2009 2 Yr 3Pc

Manage the security of your home network from a single location. BitDefender software from other computers in the network can be remotely configured, while tasks such as scans, backups, tune-ups, and updates can be run on-demand or scheduled to run during off-hours. BitDefender Antivirus 2009 provides advanced proactive protection against viruses, spyware, phishing attacks and identity theft, without slowing down your PC. Confidently download, share and open files from friends, family, co-workers and even total strangers. Proactively protects against new virus outbreaks using advanced heuristics Protect your identity - shop, bank, listen, watch privately and securely Blocks attempted identity theft (phishing) Prevents personal information from leaking via e-mail, web or instant messaging Guard your conversations with top-of-the line encryption Get fine-tuned performance from your computer System Requirements - Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (32/64 bit) or higher, Windows Vista (32/64 bit) and Windows Vista SP1, and Windows Home Server

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars virus software
This is the 1st time I have ever used this product. I bought it because of the reviews in consumer report. It is working well for me I have had it in my computer for 1 month now.

4 Stars Minor problems with AV 2009; Uneven support experiences
I used BitDefender (BD) to replace Norton Antivirus (NAV) because NAV was consuming too much resource and NAV support wasn’t very responsive. I started out with BitDefender Antivirus 2008 on 2 computers: One was running Windows 2000 and the second Vista Ultimate. I bought the 2 year license for 3 computers.

Initial installation on both computers went smoothly. I was happy to find that BD did indeed use less of both computers’ memory and CPU. It’s easy to scan a file on demand because BD added a menu item to the menu that comes up when you right click on a file. Just right click and select “Scan with BitDefender”.

After a few months use, the BD installation on the Vista computer quit working. BD support’s solution was, as is mentioned in several of the other reviews, “uninstall and re-install” so that’s what I did and it fixed the problem.

BD 2009 came out several months after I initially installed BD 2008. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I could upgrade the Vista machine AT NO ADDITIONAL COST! (BD 2009 wasn’t supported on Win 2k so I couldn’t upgrade that machine.)

However, after upgrading, none of the stock trading software I use was able to access real time stock quotes. I started a chat with BD support and they quickly helped me uncheck a couple of default options to fix the problem.

After fixing the real time stock quote problem, the software ran for about 4 months without incident. Then I started using Microsoft Media Player (MMP) to listen to the BBC. Apparently, MMP uses a cookie to keep track of the stations. When the BD system scan ran, it considered these cookies to be dangerous and deleted them. This forces me to re-add the BBC so I tried to add the cookie files to the BD “Exclusion” list. But I wasn’t able to do so because nothing happened when I clicked the “Add” button on the BD Exclusion Wizard after typing in the full path to the cookie files. I reported this problem to BD support and they fixed the problem shortly thereafter. However, after about 2 weeks, a new maintenance release of BD came out and the fix disappeared. Once again, the cookie files are being deleted and I can’t update the exclusion list.

I looked on the BD web site forums and it’s easy to find lots of people with serious problems (I’ve had none) who are not getting any response from BD tech support. This leaves me with the feeling that, as long as the product continues to run, I’ll be ok but if I ever encounter a serious problem I’ll be out of luck. If that happens, I guess I’ll try another AV product.

2 Stars Too many glitches for established product
I purchased Bitdefender AV 2009 for 2yr/3 PC thinking I was doing a good thing. I’m glad my husband’s laptop still has Norton or I wouldn’t be writing this. A few of the problems are as follows: Delayed keystrokes while typing email, incorrect phishing alerts while visiting websites, extremely long deep scans (think 6-8 hours), delayed access to the internet, constant requests to reboot because product is not working, etc. If I could get my money back, I would. After all the great reviews (from my peers here at Amazon as well as CNET), I thought I was making a great choice. I’m wrong. The reason for two stars and not one? The support staff does respond, most of the time. They are responsive, just not always helpful.

3 Stars OK But Really Stupid Software
I have had Bit Defender Anti-Virus for three years. When I upgraded to version 10, the real time shield wouldn’t always load so I would be on the Internet unprotected until I realized the icon wasn’t in the system tray. Bit Defender support didn’t have a fix for that. Earlier this year, I got a really annoying malware that Bit Defender not only did not detect but couldn’t clear up. It slowed down my computer and kept making an irritating ticking noise. After two days of silence from the BD support team, I found a free anti-malware program on the Web that cleared it up in five minutes. I renewed it again for 2009 because I was too busy to evaluate other virus programs and felt I needed something. Other than the two previous mentioned problems, the software seemed to work ok. So now I downloaded the 2009 version and went to install it. Normally any upgrade will tell you that an older version was detected and it should be uninstalled or the upgrade offers to remove it. Nothing. I executed the install and without any messages it deleted three quarters of the old install but did not install the new version. But it gave me a message saying to restart to complete installation and when I booted up-no antivirus! I had to manually delete the old directory and re-initiate the installation.

I have a low threshold for poorly written software and this one is really really stupid! The BD support is lacking and good luck calling in. Next year I won’t be so lazy; I’ll do my homework and find a professional AV software.

1 Star Customer support is the pits - product won’t run
I’ve been a BitDefender customer for several years. I recently bought and installed this product and it ran fine on two of my PCs. On the other PC, antivirus scans hang up (forever) on a certain directory. Searches with Google indicate many others have this problem. BitDefender customer support insisted the problem was due to two other programs I have on the PC. I removed them per their request and still have the problem. They never responded to me after that. If you’re one who doesn’t have a problem, you’ll like the software. If you have a problem, it’s a throw-away. I’ve since installed a competitive product on the system and it has no problems with scans. There were other minor Bitdefender drawbacks that I learned to live with, but this one was a showstopper.

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