*NEW!*
CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010
CA is a well-known antivirus software company with a long reputation; however, their antivirus software offers neither the low price nor outstanding support options necessary
to compete with today's best antivirus software.
That said, CA Antivirus has made fairly significant improvements in manual virus scanning, email protection, and IM protection, and it even supports both POP and IMAP email clients, which is somewhat unique for antivirus software.
Overall, its feature and performance are adequate for most users.
IMPROVED FEATURES
- Better manual scanning
- Good email protection
- Decent IM protection
The areas where CA antivirus falls short are in their user interface, resource usage, customer support, and to some degree real-time antivirus protection.
The user interface was clunky; our testers found it hard to navigate and find what they needed quickly.
Resource usage was at times quite heavy and fluctuated radically; CA seemingly hasn't put as much effort into reducing their overall footprint as the compeition.
Given that strong competitors like
Norton,
Kaspersky,
BitDefender, and
VIPRE are focusing so heavily on having a lighter footprint with each release, it was easy to see
that CA antivirus still has work to do here.
Customer phone support isn't free and is far too expensive, especially when so many competitors offer free phone support. Plus, their chat software can be invasive instead of helpful.
Finally, as for doing the job of protecting against viruses, CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010 was a mixed bag. Initially, it only caught about 60% of the viruses we expected
it to. Later on though, after a couple of definitions updates, it managed much better scores, eventually removing the viruses and malware we expected it to.
CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010 Features
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- Real-time Protection
Keeps viruses, spyware, and other malware off your PC 24/7. Stops viruses from infecting your computer at all times.
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- Spyware Removal
Scans and identifies potential spyware and adware threats. Protects against unwanted spyware and adware from infecting your computer.
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- Email Protection
Helps keep viruses and spyware from infiltrating your inbox. Scans incoming and outgoing email for potential threats.
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- Instant Messaging Protection
Protects your Instant Messages from viruses and other threats. Scans chat files that transfer through your IM conversations.
CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010 Assessment
Here is a rundown of the categories CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010 was tested for. Each category gets a percentage score based on its performance in those tests.
Antivirus Installation: 85%
Love it or hate it, you're required to download a separate download manager which performs the installation.
While it does keep the initial download small, once you run the download manager to start installation, it doesn't provide any useful information: There's no indication how big the installation files are or how long they might take to download.
Plus, it took over 12 minutes just to download the install files.
Fortunately, two huge pluses in our eyes:
- You can skip the registration process
We like that CA gives you the option to never register; it's good to see a company still valuing a user's privacy.
- The installer performs a Quick scan
This quickly checks your PC for existing threats. While not extremely thorough, we're always glad to see things that stop viruses sooner rather than later.
After the installation finishes, you'll need to manually download the latest definition updates. Most antivirus software at this point should be up-to-date, or at least ofer to do this automatically.
CA antivirus didn't; we neither understand nor agree with this approach.
Total install with download times and definition updates took approx 20 minutes, far longer than any other antivirus software we've tested this year.
Un-installation: 95%
Uninstallation was much cleaner and easier than the installation. You can either use the CA self-uninstaller, or the ADD/REMOVE Programs feature in Windows.
In case you ever need to reinstall CA antivirus, your registration codes will be saved for later use.
We couldn't find any traces of CA in the registry that might prove to be harmful in any way.
CA antivirus uninstallation was quick and easy with no problems.
We wish their installer were this good.
User Interface: 65%
CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware gets our lowest score this year for their user interface (UI): beyond the most basic level, it's not as easy to use as it should be.
The advanced settings are hidden, and the basic settings aren't very intuitive.
We constantly had to use the help files to understand what each setting did, even though the navigation itself was simplified.
Moving in the same direction as a variety of other companies, the CA Antivirus UI is Flash-based. This means you'll often experience a "loading" dialogue every time you click
into a new section.
We're not really sure why companies are taking steps that make their software actually slower to use with no benefit whatsoever. It's slow. It's annoying.
Because the main control panel was so simple, we often had to use the "advanced features" to get any real information. Even then, these hidden "advanced features" weren't all
that advanced.
One reviewer commented that the advanced sections seemed to be almost tacked on after the fact to expand the UI (a poorly thought out design indeed).
Some of the features and sections are given alternate names, presumably to make things more user-friendly, but it just makes things more confusing.
For example, they use vague terms like "My Internet" and "Browser Protection" to lump multiple features together instead of using more direct terms like "Email" or
"Antivirus".
It seems to us clearer labeling would make it easier for users; we found ourselves unsure what these things did 'til we'd clicked through, discovered we were in the right (or
wrong place) and went on accordingly.
The most annoying aspect of the CA antivirus user interface is the lack of back buttons. For example, if one section has multiple tabs, and you click into that tab, the
entire control panel becomes blocked with that open tab, making it impossible to just go back.
Instead, you're forced to close that section, then re-open the entire section again and start over: a poor UI design overall.
Real-time Protection: 84%
CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware scored low in our real-time antivirus protection tests. This software wasn't nearly as powerful as many of its competitors.
Only 70% of viruses we tested against it were detected and/or quarantined. Some of the more entrenched viruses and malware went undetected.
With the exception of .zip files, viruses and spyware threats are detected immediately when they attempt to transfer to your computer. You'll need to manually enable .zip
protection because CA won't scan them by default.
Otherwise, compressed files (like .zip files) will only be scanned when uncompressed.
We're not sure why CA antivirus takes this approach, and we wish they'd give the option on first run to save your .zip file antivirus scanning settings permanently.
Overall, CA made good progress over last year's version.
Manual Scan: 92%
Manual scanning fluctuated wildly during our tests. Our first test detected only 60% of viruses and malware. But our later tests resulted in an 87% success rate.
These later testing rounds proved more successful due to the fact that CA finally updated their database and heuristic detection.
When first installed, CA doesn't automatically update its virus definitions. This tells us CA is relying heavily on their definitions list and less on their heuristic engine.
That CA antivirus works this way is a mixed blessing in our view: it means they'll most likely catch more known viruses more quickly than some competitors; however, they'll
also be less likely to detect brand new threats.
Manual scanning took about 30 minutes.
Resource Usage: 72%
Resource usage was considerably higher than it should be. CPU memory usage was as high as 85% for most of the manual scanning process.
Memory resource usage spiked as high as 5% when real-time protection was enabled. That's far too high for an antivirus software.
Our browser became painfully slow during a manual scan making normal browsing nearly impossible.
Some larger files even caused the memory to go as high as 195MB during a manual scan.
This all boils down to slow, sluggish antivirus software. We wish we had different news, but it seems CA hasn't been able to reduce their overall footprint despite the fact that most other antivirus software companies have.
CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010
Antivirus Scanning Resource Usage
|
| Real-Time Memory |
5.0% |
| Manual Scan Memory |
195MB |
| Manual Scan CPU |
85% |
Note: These are the average results we found during our testing.
Every PC is different, of course, so your results may vary, but we expect these results to be fairly representative.
|
CA used 5.0% memory during real-time protection.
CA used 195MB of memory during a manual scan.
CA used 85% of CPU during a manual scan.
Spyware/Adware Protection: 90%
CA did well with our antispyware and anti-adware tests.
CA Antivirus detected about 80% of spyware and adware during installation. We found one spyware program we infected our test machine with wasn't initially detected, but was
later found and removed during a full manual scan.
Despite that one exception, CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware proved better than average.
Virus Removal from a Pre-infected Machine: 86%
We pre-infected our testing computer with viruses, spyware, and other malicious software, then installed CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware to see how well it, like the other
antivirus firewall software we tested, would respond.
The initial quick scan that CA performs during installation successfully removed all active malware, but didn't remove viruses that were hidden or dormant.
Only after we ran a full, manual scan were the dormant viruses detected and removed.
Overall, a good score for CA.
Email Protection: 97%
As with all other antivirus software, CA scans all emails and attachments as they download to your PC.
Email protection was competent, though not extraordinary. We saw roughly the same success rates in detecting email borne viruses as we saw with manual scanning.
CA Antivirus is fairly unique in that it fully supports both IMAP or POP3 (such as Thunderbird or Outlook). Not all antivirus firewall software we tested fully supports
both of these protocols; we're happy to see that CA Antivirus does.
Given its sluggish performance elsewhere, we were really happy to see how snappy the CA Antivirus email scanning was.
Even fairly large attachments went through quickly enough that we never noticed any significant slowdown in our PC while scanning emails.
IM Protection: 92%
CA antivirus has no separate feature settings for Instant Messaging (IM). However, when real-time protection is enabled, all Instant Messaging files are scanned for viruses.
All malicious virus files that attempted to transfer through IM were successfully blocked during our tests. Yahoo, MSN, AIM, and Trillian are all supported IM clients.
Hopefully CA will create more thorough IM control settings for Instant Messaging protection next year.
Antivirus Definition Updates: 92%
Antivirus definition updates are available every eight hours by default. Given CA's reliance on definitions in our testing, we'd like to see this lower.
Wisely though, CA does allow you to manually set the antivirus software to check for definition updates every hour, which we recommend you do if you regularly use your PC for
hours at a time.
Customer Support: 74%
We were glad to see the basic help section was easily accessed from the main control panel. A standard index and table of contents are available.
There's also a webpage called "Top Solutions" that lists the most common problems you may encounter.
And, a video section shows you how to configure some of the basic settings.
Unfortunately, the user interface doesn't allow you to access support options directly, so you'll need to go to the CA website for further customer support.
While basic customer support is free (purchasing, registration, etc), full technical support isn't. CA charges $19.95 per incident for live, person-to-person tech support.
CA's chat support requires that you download their chat software just so you can talk to them. The software gives no indication of how invasive it may or may not be.
During our testing, CA was able to take screenshots of our computer without any warning. This may not seem invasive to some, but CA needs to more fully disclose what access their software may have to your PC.
We found this to be a very strange policy for a company progressive enough to not require registration.
Email and forum support are free, but with no free phone technical support, CA's invasive chat software, and such incredible support available for free from competitors, we
can't rate the CA antivirus support more highly.
CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010
Review Conclusions
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CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010 Scores
|
|
Antivirus
|
$49.99
|
| Overall Antivirus Protection |
76 |
| Real-time Antivirus Protection |
84 |
| Manual Antivirus Scanning |
92 |
| Antivirus Resource Utlization |
72 |
| Virus Removal (Pre-infected Machine) |
86 |
| Antivirus Definition Updates |
92 |
|
Additional Internet Security Features
|
| Spyware/Adware Protection |
90 |
| Email Protection |
97 |
| Anti-Spam Protection |
* |
| Firewall Software |
* |
| Parental Controls Software |
* |
| IM/Instant Message Protection |
92 |
| Anti-Phishing Protection |
* |
|
Other Antivirus Software Ratings
|
| Installation |
85 |
| Un-installation |
95 |
| User Interface |
65 |
| Customer Technical Support |
74 |
|
* These features are available only in
CA Internet Security 2010.
CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010 had mixed results in most areas during our testing.
Its installation is slow; the user interface is clunky; real-time protection noticeably slowed our test machine at times; the support isn't as strong as competitors; however,
CA still manages to earn a few points on the plus side because of strong performance at Spyware detection and because of a decent job at virus detection (once the definitions
were updated.)
All-in-all, our data (and our feelings about this software) are mixed.
We like the full IMAP/POP support and the lack of required registration. We dislike the support options and the installer and hate the user interface.
- Better email protection
- Good IM protection
- Mixed real-time protection
- Poor user interface design
- High resource usage
- Poor customer service choices
We were disappointed to see CA hasn't been able to reduce their overall resource footprint more significantly.
This is a concern for all antivirus users who don't have the speediest PCs that are often needed to run heavy software.
They won't (nor should they) put up with an antivirus software that drags down their system performance.
Above all, CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010 was inconsistent in detecting viruses and spyware. Spyware detection was great, but virus detection was mixed.
CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010
XP System Requirements
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- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher
- Mozilla Firefox 2.5 or higher
- CD-ROM drive
(NOT required for installation via the Internet)
|
| Software
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Windows XP (32bit only) Home, Pro, Media Center Edition
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| Processor/CPU
|
300 Mhz Pentium compatible CPU
|
| System Memory/RAM
|
256 MB
|
| Free Disk Space
|
300 MB
|
| Email
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- Outlook
- Outlook Express
- Thunderbird
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| Instant Messaging
|
|
CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010
Vista System Requirements
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- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher
- Mozilla Firefox 2.5 or higher
- CD-ROM drive
(NOT required for installation via the Internet)
|
Software
|
Windows Vista (32bit & 64 Bit) Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate
|
| Processor/CPU
|
800 Mhz for Vista
|
| System Memory/RAM
|
512 MB
|
| Free Disk Space
|
300 MB
|
| Email
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- Outlook
- Outlook Express
- Thunderbird
|
| Instant Messaging
|
|
CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware 2010
Windows 7 System Requirements
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- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher
- Mozilla Firefox 2.5 or higher
- CD-ROM drive
(NOT required for installation via the Internet)
|
Software
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Microsoft Windows 7 (32bit & 64bit) Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate
|
| Processor/CPU
|
1Ghz for Windows 7
|
| System Memory/RAM
|
1 GB
|
| Free Disk Space
|
300 MB
|
| Email
|
- Outlook
- Outlook Express
- Thunderbird
|
| Instant Messaging
|
|
