Kaspersky Antivirus Review - Best

This program is available directly from the vendor.

Vendor's antivirus software homepage:

Pros - Kaspersky Antivirus:

• Currently has the best detection record of all antivirus programs
• Easy to install, works right out of the box
• Daily updates ensures full protection at all times
• Small program, uses only 11 MB disk space, requires minimal resources
• Scans all types of archives, not only ZIP-files
• Supports all types of media: disk, floppy, cd, network drives etc
• Runs as system service on Windows NT/2000/XP.
• DOS scanner included
• Very good user manual (250 pages) included
• Phone and email support included for free

• Interface could have been better

• None

• MS Outlook
• MS Outlook Express
• MS Exchange

• MS Outlook
• MS Outlook Express
• MS Exchange
• Eudora
• MS Mail
• Pegasus Mail
• Netscape Mail
• JSMail
• MIME

The main reason to choose Kaspersky Antivirus is that it's currently the only antivirus software to deliver all the way in every important category: Offering a 99.9X% detection rate for all types of viruses, including script viruses, polymorphic viruses and backdoors/trojans, - offering full protection for email, web surfing, and all archive formats, - and even checking itself to make sure its antivirus components have not been tampered with. Finally, Kaspersky offers daily, not weekly or monthly, updates of their virus definition files. These updates are very small, only between 3 and 20 kb. Updates are done automatically or at your choice.

Kaspersky Antivirus automatically checks for viruses in all incoming and outgoing messages, real time, including attached files (also compressed files), other messages of any nesting level, embedded OLE objects and the message body.

It's impressive all this requires only 11 MB of disk space and 12 MB RAM to run, although 32 MB RAM are recommended for Win2000/XP. This is far from the 128 MB RAM / 256 MB RAM other programs requires to run.

Kaspersky Antivirus enjoys a 90% user approval rating amongst users who review their own software, something you can witness yourself at download.com.

Kaspersky Personal, suitable for most users, is sold at $49.95. Kaspersky is also offering a professional edition, Kaspersky Personal Pro, sold at $99.95. The main difference between the Personal and Personal Pro edition is that Personal Pro comes with an integrity checker. This tool traces content modifications on your computer. If it detects unauthorized changes in files or in the system registry, it will enable the complete disinfecting and recovery of your disk. Unlike other integrity checkers, this tool supports all of the most commonly used executable file formats.

Corporate editions are also available at the vendors website.

AVP is an impressive anti-virus solution. Its feature-rich suite of virus protection components is the most complete collection on the market, and its trojan detection and heuristic capabilities put it ahead of the rest. The annoyances I ran into during the program evaluation were few and minor, and in no way decreased the program's capabilities. Beginners might need some time to explore and understand every aspect of the software, but power users will love its versatility. If you're in the process of purchasing antivirus software, AVP should be on your shopping list.
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/reviews/sw/kaspersky.html

CNET
Editors rating: 5 out of 10
Users rating: 9 out of 10
March, 2002

KAVPP may be slow to operate and a hassle to navigate, but at least it includes the essential elements of a good virus hunter: It guards against viruses on removable disks, such as floppies, as well as those that sneak in as attachments to e-mail messages. It also prevents you from sending infected e-mail, scans your hard drives either when you want or on a schedule that you set, and bans downloads of infected files from nefarious Web sites.