Don’t name it Bitdefender 2021, however the standard Windows antivirus suite has added a number of new options over the previous 12 months. The firm is now going with a rolling launch plan, the place new options are launched as they’re prepared. This is turning into fairly widespread as many companies desire the method of regularly updating apps as a substitute of a single yearly launch.
Note: This overview is a part of our best antivirus roundup. Go there for particulars about competing merchandise and the way we examined them.
Bitdefender Total Security’s principal modifications, the corporate informed us, is that it has improved its vulnerability scanning, and in our opinion the general look of the scan outcomes are simpler to learn. At a look you possibly can see points with working system updates, the energy of Windows account passwords, the safety of the browser and different functions, community points, and extra.
The firm additionally modified its VPN to the proprietary Hydra Catapult VPN protocol from HotSpot Shield maker AnchorFree. In addition, the VPN now has an web kill swap, U.S. Netflix help, and devoted apps for all main platforms.
The Dashboard within the newest model of Bitdefender.
The newest model of Bitdefender for Windows 10 seems to be similar to earlier years, with some good enhancements that simplify the general app. As traditional all of it begins with the left rail and menu choices for Dashboard, Protection, Privacy, and Utilities.
Below which might be simply two further choices: Notifications and Settings. This is a a lot easier look than the earlier iteration, which additionally had choices for My Account and Support—each of those choices have been moved to the upper-right nook of the window.
The design inside every part can also be easier, with smaller tiles for every choice making it simpler to learn—beforehand, sections reminiscent of Protection had been only a sequence of sliders. You can nonetheless discover all of the sliders, they’re only one degree deeper the place there’s area to obviously clarify every function and what it does.
The default gadgets on the Dashboard now embrace three varieties of scans (fast, system, and vulnerability), in addition to portals to the VPN and Safepay, and a free tile to make use of as you see match. Actually, all tiles may be modified in case you’d desire different choices.
IDGBitdefender’s newly overhauled Protection part.
Dipping into Protection, you would possibly discover that the Safe Files options is not there. This was Bitdefender’s ransomware watchdog that protected recordsdata towards malicious encryption.
Bitdefender says it nonetheless has ransomware safety, but it surely’s a part of the Ransomware Remediation choice now. This function was initially about ransomware restoration however is now constructed to guard towards the “newest ransomware attacks at [the] system level,” a Bitdefender consultant informed us.
Safe Files isn’t the one outdated function to be eliminated. Bitdefender additionally dumped a few of its utilities together with File Vault, the Startup Optimizer (Windows 10 allows you to management this anyway), and Disk Cleanup (one other difficulty Windows 10 covers by itself).
Bitdefender comes with a customizable firewall that allows you to management any app’s outgoing entry to the community, and there’s an alert mode if you wish to know and approve when every app asks to hook up with the web.
In addition to fundamental safety, Bitdefender Total Security features a password supervisor, and the aforementioned VPN. There’s additionally Safepay—a sandboxed browser for safe on-line funds and transactions, a password supervisor, and and an anti-tracker for internet searching in Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Google Chrome. (Anyone utilizing the brand new Edge browser can install Bitdefender’s extension directly from the Chrome Web Store. Currently, Bitdefender doesn’t allow set up for Edge from the desktop app because it does with the opposite browsers.)
IDGBitdefender’s Utilities part.
The Utilities part has been reworked with fewer selections this time, as a lot of what was beforehand there was eliminated. There’s nonetheless a one-click optimizer for eradicating pointless recordsdata out of your gadgets, profiles for the way the antivirus behaves primarily based on what you’re doing (sport mode, film mode, and many others.), and a file shredder known as Data Protection.
Bitdefender additionally has a cloud part known as Bitdefender Central, which homes its new Digital Identity Protection function. This service screens your private knowledge, and alerts you when your information hits the so-called “Dark Web.” This service prices an additional $60 per 12 months, which is costly contemplating different suites embrace related companies without spending a dime.
Parental controls are additionally present in Bitdefender Central, providing the power to restrict display screen time, and consider functions exercise, machine areas, just lately added telephone contacts, and internet searching exercise.
Bitdefender Total Security is priced at $45 per 12 months because the introductory value, which covers as much as 5 gadgets. The normal asking value is $90.
Performance
IDGBitdefender Central now features a information part.
In our exams, Bitdefender had no vital influence on machine efficiency throughout a number of exams together with benchmarks, archiving giant recordsdata, and video encoding.
As for its safety chops, Bitdefender earned 100 % in May and June 2020 for AV-Test’s 0-day and widespread and prevalent malware exams. The most recent tests from AV-Comparatives are from the spring. In the Real World Protection check from February via May 2020, Bitdefender blocked 99.3 % of threats, with two false positives, primarily based on 754 check circumstances. That efficiency places it a bit of behind the majority of the pack together with Avast, AVG, Avira, Eset, F-Secure, K7, Kaspersky, Microsoft, Norton, Panda, and Trend Micro.
In AV-Comparatives’ Malware safety check from March 2020, with greater than 10,000 check circumstances, Bitdefender stopped 99.98 % of threats. That’s an impressive rating; nonetheless, almost each suite scored 99.95 % or increased, apart from three suites.
Overall, Bitdefender’s safety may be very competent, however there are barely higher performers primarily based on impartial exams.
Conclusion
Bitdefender Total Security is what it’s all the time been. A reliable antivirus suite with a big selection of options to fulfill most customers’ wants. We’d desire to see digital identification safety folded into the Total Security bundle, however that’s a minor quibble. Overall, Bitdefender gives strong safety and quite a lot of worth for the cash.
Editor’s word: Because on-line companies are sometimes iterative, gaining new options and efficiency enhancements over time, this overview is topic to alter to be able to precisely replicate the present state of the service. Any modifications to textual content or our remaining overview verdict shall be famous on the prime of this text.