Trend Micro AntiVirus 2008
After years of beefing up its Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security suite by adding security tools beyond basic antivirus solution, Trend Micro has finally released a standalone antivirus-and-antispyware application, Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2007. It's debatable whether there's a real need for a standalone antivirus app for the desktop in an age of all-in-one security solutions. Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2007does protect against viruses, spyware, and rootkits, and we found its antispyware protection to be much better than its antivirus protection. But Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2007 doesn't support popular mail clients outside of Microsoft's Outlook, Outlook Express, and Windows Mail, nor does it protect against increasingly popular instant-messaging viruses or phishing attacks on your Web browser. In short, it is a modest product, offering nowhere near the overall protection and value of our Editors' Choice, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.
Installation and Setup
We installed Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2007 without incident. It requires 100MB for installation and 256MB RAM for operation, and runs under Windows 2000 through Windows Vista. It supports Internet Explorer, but not Firefox or Opera. It will scan e-mail for Outlook, Outlook Express, and Windows Mail (Vista) but not Eudora. It does not monitor or scan IM clients. Like Norton Antivirus and Mcafee VirusScan, Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2007 includes only one PC license. The interface is a simplified version of the one used in Trend Micro Internet Security 2007.
Should you decide to remove Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2007, the program includes its own uninstall icon. However, after the reboot, we were surprised to find system registry entries and several files in several folders still on our system. We do not recommend deleting registry files without assistance, although the system folders can be deleted without worry. Only Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6 removed every trace of itself upon uninstall.
Features
Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2007 combines antivirus and antispyware scans, which should save users time and system resources. It seems that Trend Micro has finally found a way to merge its Intermute SpySubtract antispyware technology with its PC-cillin antivirus technology. But while we found the antispyware protection excellent and the anti-rootkit defense to be adequate, we were surprised by what was missing from the new software.
McAfee included firewall technology in its standalone antivirus product, and we thought that might have distracted them from concentrating on antivirus prevention. Kaspersky and the other antivirus applications we tested did not include firewall technologies, but instead offered very robust antivirus solutions. Trend Micro lacks both a firewall and comprehensive antivirus defenses.
No antivirus defenses are provided for non-Microsoft e-mail clients, so if you use Thunderbird or Qualcomm Eudora as your desktop e-mail client, malicious e-mail will not be stopped until the malicious code begins to execute. Other products, like Norton Antivirus, can stop potentially malicious e-mail at the gateway, before it lands on your desktop.
No defenses are provided for IM-related malicious code. Criminal hackers increasingly are using popular chat applications, such as Yahoo Messenger, to send code or links leaded to viruses and Trojans. Other products, such as McAfee VirusScan Plus, will stop those messages before they land on your desktop. We're surprised that Trend Micro doesn't support this protection in its antivirus product.
Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2007 doesn't protect against phishing scams either. McAfee has its SiteAdvisor plug-in for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Norton has its own protection for Internet Explorer. Trend Micro has released a beta of its new TrendProtect, a free download designed to compete with McAfee SiteAdvisor.
Performance
The antispyware portion of Trend Micro Antivirus and Antispyware is excellent, fast at a scanning, but often didn't give us the choice to remove something--it did it for us. In exclusive testing by CNET Labs, Trend Micro's active shields identified and blocked seven out of eight spyware samples we attempted to install, missing only one generic Trojan, Compare-prices.zip. For scanning and removing existing spyware samples, Trend Micro performed the best, catching and removing everything. As for the removal itself, in only two instances did Trend Micro leave some spyware residue behind, ranking it among the top three apps in this regard.
In terms of antivirus protection, Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2007 scored in the middle range, falling behind Norton and McAfee in most tests, and well short of our best performer, Kaspersky Anti-Virus. On our iTunes test, the Trend Micro's new software gained ground compared with last year, taking 199 seconds as opposed to 236 seconds last year. On our Sorensen Squeeze test, it also improved, taking 285 seconds compared to 303 seconds last year. The product also showed improvement with individual file scans, now taking only 150 seconds, as opposed to 188 seconds last year. And in terms of boot speed, Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2007 improved, taking 63 seconds, compared to 68 second last year. To find out how we ran these tests, see CNET Labs' How we test: software: antivirus page.
To determine how well a product will protect your PC, we refer to test results from two leading independent antivirus testing organizations. CheckVir.com ranked PC-cillin as one of four products to earn its Advanced rating, which means the product was tested on finding and removing antivirus threats. PC-cillin was not reviewed by AV-Comparatives.org.
Support
Trend Micro is the only security vendor to offer free telephone support for its products. That's good because the online technical support information for Trend Micro Antivirus plus Antispyware 2007 was not that good. Perhaps that's because it's a new product. Still, we found the FAQ to be lacking information. And unlike Trend Micro Internet Security 2007, this new product has no tutorial for the standalone antivirus application.
Conclusion
We're glad that after many years of confusion around its Internet security suite, Trend Micro has provided a standalone antivirus app, but we find it lacking. Perhaps next year Trend Micro can beef up the application's offerings. In the meantime, if you're looking for a standalone antivirus application that's light, fast, and a consistent winner of detection awards against the competition, Kaspersky's the one.
More About Trend Micro
Trend Micro Incorporated is a global leader in network antivirus and Internet content security software and services. Founded in 1988 by Steve Chang, the company led the migration of virus protection from the desktop to the network server and the Internet gateway, gaining a reputation for vision and technological innovation along the way. Trend Micro focuses on outbreak prevention and providing customers with a comprehensive approach to managing the outbreak lifecycle and the impact of network worms and virus threats through initiatives such as Trend Micro™ Enterprise Protection Strategy.
Trend Micro has earned a reputation for turning great ideas into cutting-edge technology. The Gartner Group has hailed Trend Micro as a visionary malicious code management supplier for four consecutive years. Citing its flexible and efficient transnational management model, BusinessWeek acknowledged Trend Micro as one of "a new breed of high-tech companies that are defying conventional wisdom."
Since its founding, Trend Micro, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, has grown into a transnational organisation with over 2,000 employees in more than 30 countries. Trend Micro's revenues in 2003 far surpassed previous years, reaching 48.09 billion yen (454 million US dollars at an exchange rate of 106 yen to the dollar). The company's stock is traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (4704). In addition, the company's American Depository Receipts are traded on the NASDAQ (TMIC).
