2013 Antivirus Software Reviews

Like this page

Kaspersky Anti-Virus Software 2013 Overall Score: 90%

Kaspersky offers a great product, again placing in our top three, and continues to earn accolades worldwide.

It mainly falls down on resource usage, usability and technical support.

These not inconsequential areas, but Kaspersky still performed quite well in our tests this year.
Kaspersky's strong suit is definitely its antivirus protection, thanks to their top-notch research lab.

In our tests, Kaspersky's blocked over 95% of new threats, and when it did clear warnings were provided.

It did struggle to remove some threats other products cleaned the first time through. And, its antiphishing feature wasn't terribly effective.
Resource usage was average for real-time protection, but on the high side for manual scans. CPU usage was low, 1%, with memory usage around 59%.

Web browsing wasn't impacted much, except when Kaspersky was actively fighting a threat. We don't mind, however - a small price to pay to ensure solid protection.

During manual scans, CPU use averaged 88% with memory usage around 85%. This will clearly have to be done when you don't need to use your computer.
The interface is clean, updated and seemingly simple.

However, as you dig in, navigation and settings can become confusing. It's difficult to discern the difference between the settings, leaving us confused about what we should have selected and what wasn't important.

"Cloud Protection" was also a feature we found unclear — it labels data as "Safe" or "Dangerous" which can be alarming, leaving one with the impression that your system isn't actually protected.
Kaspersky's support for Anti-Virus 2013 is disappointing.

The link for support in the user interface offers three, seemingly comprehensive, options: FastTrack, Knowledgebase, and User Forums.

FastTrack opens a new browser and another pop-up that's meant to guide you through some "FastTrack" help. However, the guide didn't work in four different browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera.

Knowledgebase was a bit of a black hole of help — each click simply opened up more and more options, never honing in on a solution to a problem.

Locating contact information on their website was also frustrating. After a while, we did find a US contact page, but were left with the impression that technical support was not a high priority for Kaspersky.
During initial installation, current antivirus updates are not downloaded. This leaves your system out of date until automatic, hourly updates kick in. We find this highly undesirable, and not outwardly clear.

Also, though we had no problems. We have heard reports that some have encountered a bug while downloading updates.
Kaspersky excels with well-executed and useful extra features.

A Virtual Keyboard allows you to outsmart keyloggers and protect passwords by using your mouse to click your keys instead of your keyboard.

Vulnerability Protection addresses viruses that use Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat/Reader by making sure security patches for these programs are up to date. While it's not perfect since it can't check for all updates to all software, it's still a great feature whose praises we can't sing loudly enough. Every antivirus software should have this feature.

Even if your PC's applications haven't recently been updated, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2013 can still prevent exploitation by controlling how the applications launch, analyzing their behavior and restricting their actions. We find this to be an excellent extra level of protection.

Kaspersky definitely holds its own among other top-rated antivirus products due to its excellent virus protection.

Its issues with resource usage (at least for manual scanning), a thoroughly confusing interface and poor technical support are concerning.

But, Kaspersky still presents a very strong antivirus engine with great extra features that we still highly recommend.