The Good:
Simple to use
- Very quick installation
- Good detection rates
The Bad:
High CPU usage during my testing*Downloading the installer for Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus Plus 2012 was a quick affair, taking just a couple of minutes.
Once the installation process is started you may feel like making yourself a cup of coffee whilst you wait for it to finish. Tip: don’t make it too hot – this program doesn’t hang around! After just a minute or so the program was off and running.
After a quick check of your computer you will see the main screen for Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus Plus 2012 for the first time:
As you can see in the image above, this antivirus program takes a very minimalistic approach which is something I know many people appreciate. Not everyone is an expert computer user so there is definitely something to be said for keeping things simple and hiding some of the advanced features away from the main screen.
Features
When I’ve looked at Trend Micro products before they have always seemed to be, perhaps, a little low on features when compared to some of the competition. Thats not to say that it is a bad thing as it can make life much easier for the novice user as well as helping the program to run faster.
Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus Plus 2012 continues that trend to a degree, with less features than some other free 2012 antivirus programs. The main ones, the ones an average computer user may actually use, are all there however.
In the picture above you can see the main feature categories on the left hand side.
The first is Virus &Spyware Controls which is all about scanning and scheduling, This is perhaps the section you should take the biggest notice of.
Next up is Internet & Email Controls. The two subsections here simply allow you to tick a few boxes to protect your computer from potentially dangerous sites, malicious scripts and threats in email attachments.
Under Exception Lists you can choose to add files or folders to a list. Any items on this list will then be ignored by scans and other types of monitoring. Considering the fact that I think this program is best used by those who have a lesser knowledge of computers I would suggest that the average user may not want to tinker with this too much.
Under the Websites sub heading you are presented with a list of sites which you can add anything you like to. You can then click on the edit icon and elect to either trust or block each of those web sites as you see fit.
Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus Plus 2012 also has a few features grouped together under Other Settings. These features are System Startup, Proxy Settings, Smart Protection Network, Password and UI Skinning.
System Startup allows you to define when the security drivers are loaded. If you are unsure what this means then leave it at the default setting. Proxy Settings, as the name suggests, are for those who use a proxy server to connect to the internet. Smart Protection Network allows you to share threat related information with Trend Micro so that they can better protect all of their customers. The Password function allows you to protect the antivirus program itself from any unauthorised changes, something that may be useful if you have overly inquisitive kids! UI Skinning seemed a bit gimmicky to me – it simply allows you to change the appearance of the program.
System Requirements
Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus Plus 2012 has the following system requirements -
- CPU speed varies from a minimum of 350 MHz (XP) to a minimum of 800 MHz (Vista and 7)
- 256 Mb / 512 Mb / 1 GB for XP / Vista / 7 respectively
- 400 MB of free hard drive space
- Internet Explorer 7 or newer / Firefox 3.5 or newer / Chrome 10 or newer
In the absence of any recent independent test results I used Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus Plus 2012 against my own list of internet nasties. What I found was that the program detected each and every one of them. However, when I delved into the logs I found that not all were marked as removed – some were still merely stating that they were detected – I do wonder if that means they still pose a threat or whether they had in fact been neutralised?
+ Plus Points
- Quick to install
- Easy to use
- Quick to run (for the most part*)
- Low system resource usage (for the most part*)
- High detection rate
- Whilst running a full scan CPU usage is very high indeed*, often hitting and exceeding 90%.
- A small selection of detected malware apparently not removed
- If you need ‘premium’ support you will have to pay for it
Conclusion
Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus Plus 2012 is a nice little program which I think is especially suited to the novice user. Its slimline approach makes it lean and quick for the most part. A computer that is close to the minimum specs should be ok with the program running in the background or running a quick scan.
When it comes to a full scan this may be a different matter however – my laptop isn’t new but it is a reasonable dual core spec and yet it was rendered almost entirely unusable by a full scan. I don’t think this is a hardware issue as I’ve not encountered anything quite like it with any other security programs, at least not when other aspects of the same program have absolutely flown. Strange indeed and perhaps not an indication of what you may experience. In any event, once one full scan has completed you may not feel the need to run them all that often afterwards if you are a sensible user.
Other than that weird situation that I experienced with the program it worked flawlessly and was very easy to understand and navigate. If you are an experienced computer user you may prefer some of the extra features that the competition may give you but don’t drop Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus Plus 2012 completely from your mind – its a program that your mother or grandmother may well thank you for should you feel the need to give them some essential security protection before they next brave the wonders of the world wide web.
Read my other reviews of 2012 antivirus software , How To Reset Windows 7 To Original Factory Settings
No comments:
Post a Comment