Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 

Keeps your computer safe from viruses, adware, rootkits, trojans, rootkits and other threats. Protects your Internet browsing sessions.

Kaspersky AntiVirus is one of the best -if not the best- antivirus programs, and it is very well known around the world. It offers a real-time protection against various sorts of threats -viruses, spyware, rootkits, etc. The safe surfing by the user is a priority for the program. All Internet traffic can be scanned; and when there are unsafe websites, the user is notified about that and can navigate away from them.

Another important feature is the protection against zero-day attacks. These are unknown viruses that traditional antivirus programs do not detect. They can be detected only using behavioral analysis.

For those who like playing games on their computers, there is a special ‘game mode’. When you play a game on your computer, all alerts, updates and scans are suspended, and thus the system is not overloaded.

The passive protection is also part of the many tools of the program. The operating system can be scanned exhaustively for vulnerabilities and viruses that can infect the computer. There is even an option for the creation of a rescue CD, from which the computer can be booted if there is a serious problem in the system.

The main disadvantage of the Kaspersky products is their slow speed. It is justified when the programs are thoroughly searching for virus and malware, but inexcusable when you are downloading a program update or its daily database signatures from its servers. A single megabyte download can take several minutes even on a fast connection.

If you have a paid version of the program with its corresponding key and want to upgrade to a newer version within your one-year subscription, you might get a “wrong license” error because of servers.

Kaspersky AntiVirus 2010 9.0 is shareware. You can buy a one-year license for $40-$100, depending on the number of computers (1-5). The system requirements are acceptable -256 MB RAM for Windows XP and 512 RAM for Vista. There is a newer, 2011 version available at the developer's site.