2013 Antivirus Software Reviews

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Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus + Antispyware 2013 Overall Score: 70%

by Josh Christofferson, Co-Editor

Trend Micro antivirus has significantly improved over the years, though it still has a ways to go compared to its competitors.

It's particularly adept at threat protection, detecting almost all threats it encountered.

We still find areas needing improvement, however, especially in system efficiency user options and technical support.

We are impressed with this year's version, but would offer other recommendations first.
Trend Micro has significantly improved its virus protection, blocking over 93% of the viruses we tested with - better than many competitors - though it's not as good at removing viruses.

Mannual scanning was quick, though resource-intensive.
Speed and efficiency has been improved in the last couple of iterations, but resource usage is still a challenge for Trend Micro.

During real-time usage, CPU usage was average, around 1-2%, with spikes up to 20%.

During a manual, full-system scan, CPU usage still high than most - 46-71% with numerous sustained peaks at 100%.
Trend Micro's user interface is refreshing clean in its presentation. The simple look is also ideal for smaller screens, such as those on netbooks.

However, we were frustrated at not being able to resize to fill our screen.
Trend Micro's customer and tech support has a nice assortment of self-help options that should solve most issues.

However, for further support, such as virusl removal or a PC tune-up, it's going to cost you anywhere from $39.95 to $79.95 for full assistance.

Trend Micro does offer a phone number, but this is for limited support and does not offer much else.
Trend Micro received a poor rating from us here because they have not included any user controls for software updates.

In addition, there is no way to confirm updates have been downloaded or installed and are current.







Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus 2013 offers two important extra features this year.

Social Networking Protection scans your Facebook and Twitter feeds, marking all safe links with a green highlight and potentially harmful links in red.

There is also a feature to warn friends on your network, as well.
SafeGuard is a secure browser with built-in security technology for use (only) with Windows 8.
Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus 2013 performs well where it should — in protecting your computer against threats — though, there is room for improvement in virus removal.

However, we are uncomfortable with its lack of user control and update reporting.

And, while they offered adequate customer service, we'd like to see Trend join others in offering entirely free support.

Overall, Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus 2013 is a decent option, though there are several out there that perform better.