2012 Antivirus Software Reviews

ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5

ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 (2012) is the antivirus software with a funny name. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't take it seriously. We do.

When it comes to antivirus protection, ESET has had a great reputation for quite some time, and they've made good improvements in this version, especially in their real-time web-filtering. However, its virus removal capabilities could still use some work.

The user interface is very professional and clean looking. It looks like you expect software to look like and has been simplified in many areas.

There aren't many extra features or bells and whistles with ESET NOD32 Antivirus, but that's ok. Basic antivirus software doesn't need to be fancy, it just needs to work.

Technical support is less than impressive, but they offer moderate self-help options.

On the whole, ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 (2012) improves on the last version, but its spotty clean up couldn't be ignored.
ESET scores in our lab mirrored what other labs saw, including:

• VB Bulletin
• AV Comparatives
• Anti-Malware Test Lab
• PC Security Labs
• AV-Test

In a nutshell, ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 (2012) had a few strong areas along with some negatives this year we couldn't ignore.

ESET has improved in the web-filtering department a lot since the last release. During testing, ESET managed to stop a much higher number of zero-day virus threats by blocking dangerous websites; however, a few concerning exploits did slip passed ESET and were able to install and run undetected.

Scanning for embedded viruses was also an issue. ESET was able to detect and remove the big, most obvious viruses, but on running a full system scan, ESET couldn't completely clean out left-over virus registry items nor potentially dangerous temp files. Ultimately, some viruses it said it had removed were able to regenerate from what it had left behind.

The HIPS (host intrusion protections system) is a nice feature and is designed to notify you of potentially unauthorized changes to your system. Unfortunately, its implementation will likely annoy most users into turning it off.

Even worse, we saw the ESET HIPS warnings merely letting through pretty much anything anyway. To make HIPS truly effective, you need to be an advanced user (and patient) to properly configure it. Otherwise, it's just another pop-up.

ESET's big leap forward in their zero-day detection web-filtering is far better this year and praiseworthy. On the downside, ESET's spotty scanning and removal rates overall were too inconsistent to warrant a high score.
Resource usage for ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 was average for the most part with only a few spikes here and there.

When the system is running idle, ESET used only 1% of CPU and about 64% of memory.

During a full-system, manual scan, ESET used about 52% of CPU and around 64% of memory. An average performance.

Resource Usage: %

Resource usage for ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 was average for the most part with only a few spikes here and there.

When the system is running idle, ESET used only 1% of CPU and about 64% of memory.

During a full-system, manual scan, ESET used about 52% of CPU and around 64% of memory. An average performance.

User Interface: %

The ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 (2012) user interface is very attractive and professional looking. A simple left-hand navigation lets you easily get to any section you need.

One thing we didn't like, however, was all of the inner links within each section. They're small and not always descriptive of what they do. Bigger, more clear buttons would've been much easier on the eyes.

The "Tools" section is useful. This part of the user interface shows your computer activity along with other handy information.

There are a few advanced settings than can be accessed, but ESET doesn't always make it easy to find them. These advanced settings are often hidden with the tiny, shortened links.

Overall, not a bad user interface, but ESET could make better strides to clarify each option; visually and textually.

Technical support is minimal for ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5. ESET offers the usual self-help options: a knowledgebase, email contact, forums, and some video tutorials.

Even though these may seem like plenty of support options, we found each of them limited in scope.

Add to the fact that the only way to contact ESET is through an online email form. There's no phone support that we could see, and no chat option either.

Without direct contact via phone or chat, solving an immediate problem becomes very difficult.

On the positive side, the support seems to be free. We couldn't find any premium service prices nor any hidden costs.

However, for more serious issues, ESET's technical support may not enough to help you.
Updates are set to download automatically, but there are no options within ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 (2012) to set when you want virus definitions to be updated.

While there's no indication as to how often ESET will check for updates, there are some advanced options that tell ESET to ask before downloading or rebooting after installation.

Even though automatic virus definition updates are normal these days (that's a good thing), we still like to have more transparency and control over how and when our antivirus definition updates occur.

Extra Features

ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 software doesn't have many extra features. That's fine with us. Antivirus software just needs to work. But at least you get some good email protection along with a decent gamer mode setting.

Email antivirus protection is included in this antivirus software (not always the case with other antivirus software). ESET NOD32 easily integrates with Outlook Windows Live Mail, or Thunderbird. A simply checkbox turns this extra feature on or off.

ESET will scan emails as they come in for suspicious or dangerous virus threats.

Extra Feature:

Gamer Mode: 88%

While not exactly an exiting extra feature, Gamer Mode is important to those doing a lot of online PC gaming who still want protection. Gaming sites are a big target for viruses, so protection while you're playing is important.

What this feature does, exactly, is to minimize ESET's system resource usage during gaming so you don't have any system performance impact.

After thoroughly investigating ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 (2012), we can't give a strong recommendation for this antivirus software this year.

The clean and professional user interface was appealing and a great start for ESET; however, looking a little deeper revealed a less than optimal user interface.

On top of that, the actual antivirus protection was average, but not good enough. Independent testing showed ESET to be good at blocking zero-day threats via their improved web-filter. Unfortunately, ESET's scanning and virus removal clean-up left behind unwanted and potentially dangerous virus traces.

Resource usage was average with a few spikes now and then, but all still within acceptable ranges. We didn't see any serious system drag.

ESET's technical support is very average with several self-help options, but with no phone or chat support, solving serious issues may prove to be difficult.

The bottom line is: ESET NOD32 Antivirus 5 (2012) continues to improve each year but not enough when compared to other, better antivirus software out there today.