Clamwin Free Antivirus 0.94.1: Open Source Protection Software
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: 2009, antivirus, test | Themes: Software
- 1. One-Stop Comparison for 14 Anti-Virus Titles
- 2. Anti-Virus Basics
- 3. Comodo Internet Security v3.8: The Newbie
- 4. Avira Antivir Personal Free Edition v9.0.0386: The Best of the Freebies
- 5. Clamwin Free Antivirus 0.94.1: Open Source Protection Software
- 6. Avast! 4.8 Home Edition Free: The Classic
- 7. BitDefender Total Security 2009: A Balanced Choice
- 8. F-Secure Internet Security 2009: A Disappointment
- 9. Trend Micro PC-Cillin Internet Security Pro 2009: A Reasonable Option
- 10. McAfee Internet Security 2009: Very Complete
- 11. Norton Antivirus 2009: The Choice For Ease and Simplicity
- 12. Panda Global Protection 2009: An Outsider Who’s Left In The Dust
- 13. G-Data Total Care 2009: The Heavy Weight Of Security
- 14. ESET Smart Security 4 (Nod32 Antivirus 4): A Positive Evolution
- 15. Kaspersky Antivirus 2009: A Half-Colored Version
- 16. AVG Internet Security v8.5 (paid version): An Insufficient Evolution of What You Can Get For Free
- 17. The Verdict
- 18. The Test Protocol
- 19. More on this topic
5. Clamwin Free Antivirus 0.94.1: Open Source Protection Software
Despite the weak performance of its previous version, we couldn’t find fault with the latest version of Clamwin, especially with its growing attraction for users of open source software.
A Minimalist Interface
As you can see in the screenshot, Clamwin's graphics have been reduced to a strict minimum, but are not unpleasant. Its tabbed presentation hearkens back to Windows panel-configuration programs, making the user feel at home.
The different functions are easily accessible and all of them are clear and comprehensible. The default settings aren’t missing anything conceptually and the menus offer very interesting personalization options. One negative point in this otherwise sterling review of the interface is that it would have been nice to be able to protect our settings with a password.
Altogether Insufficient Protection
The threat detection mechanism works well for hard disk scans and external drives, to such a point that it can compete with many good commercial alternatives. There’s only one little problem with it that gets in the way of its effectiveness: the software scans itself and thus constantly finds threats that have not yet been completely eliminated. This can get pretty annoying.
Clamwin suffers from another major handicap: it offers no real resident protection. There is no automatic function that locates threats coming from external sources, and the procedure involved with locating and eliminating bad email attachments is, in practice, really inefficient. This hiccup is really a shame because the detection engine works quite well otherwise.
A Power-Hungry Scan
The effectiveness of this scan has a price: it takes 75 minutes (the slowest that we found this year) and necessitates the use of a significant portion of your processor's and memory's resources in order to work. Because of the lack of resident protection, however, using Clamwin does not slow down your PC in any noticeable way. The time added to Windows' start up time is relatively small (+13%) and uninstalling it is easy.
Conclusion
Equipped with an effective minimalist interface and quite a good detection engine, it’s unfortunate that Clamwin doesn’t have any kind of resident protection. However, we really have to take our hats off to the progress that has been made since the launch of the last version of this software. Although it currently offers insufficient protection by itself and is delivered without a firewall, Clamwin could turn itself into a utilitarian scan made for those who are only occasionally exposed to threats and have no problem being subjected to time constraints.
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And here I thought AVG Free was the best free antivirus.
Kaspersky internet security/ anti-virus does not look like that.. what the heck
No NOD32?
What about Microsoft's own Oncecare
These guys sound like they don't know what they are talking about. They claimed that Avast skips text files even though "they are a classic refuge for malevolent programs." Text files cannot be executed and therefore cannot contain viruses. The pictures they have are different as well. In any case I am a happy user of Avast and prefer it to McAfee and Norton but have not tried the others.
the picture they use for Avast is with a different skin. You can switch the skin at anytime.
I m using avast home too. I think the scanning for HD is bit longer and taxing a lot on my P4 2.6. But its free..no complain...
what about Kespersky ??? lol so much missing good antivirus software
Spanish Kespersky = norman?
French... T_T?? not english there we go
KASPERSKY Ftw ...
what I used to like on Tom's site was the use of graphs... can't find any in this round up. More over how the can you judge resident scan performance just on start up time? What about disk R/W after all services have been initialized?
Anyway quite poor article
I use Norton NIS 2009, and have had problems that made me look for another. When I saw this article, I said "Great timing lol !"
Unfortunately, there is nothing in this article that inspires confidence in either the comparisons or the conclusions. There are comments about Norton that my personal experiences tell me are incorrect (at least in the US).
And, as said before, no tables, etc.
Very disappointing.
@Shadow703793: NOD32 is in page 14
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/2009-a [...] 15-14.html
@romain_75: Kaspersky in page 15
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/2009-a [...] 15-15.html
@shurcooL: So do I, use AVG for last 3 years thinking it was best one.
May be good time for change ...
eset smart security 4!!!and zone alarm extreme security 8
I'm very surprised to hear that Norton is not a resource hog. It is the reason I switched to free AV software like Avast and AVG. I'm not going back to Norton even if they paid me...OK I might consider it.
Why do you have pictures of Kaspersky on the page with AVG antivirus?
haha kapersky became norman.. avg became kepersky.. lol
Was this review bought or something? For Norton to get such a good review I am leaning towards it being bought. I mean c'mon, Norton not being a resource hog and stealing your system. How do you expect us to believe that?
Why not review Kaspersky Internet Security, instead of just the Antivirus, when the Internet Security package for other brands were reviewed?
Also, The KAV Internest Securitiy is $54.99 at Walmart. The review stated it was double.
I seriously have my doubts and found myself shaking my head after reading the reviews for several of the products in here.
I'm surprised you didn't give a "Best Value" award... I'd say for best value go with Trend Micro, for less than $20 you can get protection for 3 PCs for one year (Look online you will find it). I use it on all my computers and no complaints.