» PC Tools Internet Security 2009 Version 6.0

PC Tools Internet Security 2009 Version 6.0 Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Easy to install, good performance, Comprehensive protection against viruses & spyware
Comment: If you just bought a computer or planning to go for a antivirus/antispyware, PCtools Internet security is the answer, here is why :

Are there not any freeware security software that I could use ?
Do not waste your time in looking in for freeware, most of them do not work - there is a substantial amount of work required to maintain the virus and spyware signature current and noone can do it for free. Infact there are 'free' antispyware which are actually rogue-wave, here is a complete list, stay away from them: "http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm"

If you really want to use some freeware, here is my reccomendation:
-> AVG antivirus freeware
-> Super antispyware freeware

Still PCtools is the best among all of these

Will PCtools provide me with free updates to antivirus and antispyware ?
New viruses and spyware are created around the world everyday and this needs to be kept up to date. PCtools does provide you with frequent updates (at no extra cost)

Will installing PCtools decrease the performance of my computer ?
To some extent yes, since it has to scan before you run any file on the sytem, But if you have a computer which you bought anywhere in the last 5 years, there should be hardly any noticable performance impact

How does PCtools compare with similar products?
I have personally used Trend Micro, McShield and PCtools and I find PCtools to be the most effective in protecting and removing viruses and anti-spyware. Trend micro is the worst of the lot and McShield is ok.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Review from a non-techie, install a little aggravating
Comment: I am pretty computer-use fluent but don't know a lot about the behind-the-scenes stuff. So, right out of the box I was irritated with the problems I had installing. I'm one who enjoys double-clicking the install icon, selecting a placement folder, agreeing to the terms of use, and letting it go to do its job. It should be that easy I think but it wasn't this time. I seemed to have some conflicts which weren't easily identified. I had to do some research to see how other people solved the same install problems (involving something called AVG) and after a couple crashes, and four re-boots, it was finally good to go. From opening the box to complete install, it took about 90 minutes.

After that, I liked what I saw. I was mostly interested in features that would protect my IMs, firewall, ID theft, and the parental controls. It allows me to filter out certain content on the web and watch over my personal information, too. So far I like what it's doing in filtering out what my son is looking at on YouTube. That alone, is worth the $40 in my book. It seems pretty consistent, too, which differs from other control software I've tried that is more hit-or-miss on what it filters.

Oh, and one of the best things I noticed is that it scans for viruses and other bad stuff VERY quickly. My computer is almost two years old and has a ton of stuff. I was using Norton and it seemed to take more than twice as long as PC Tools did. I hope that means it's just faster, not that it's missing stuff. It did find a few suspicious files and deleted them so I think it was doing what it was supposed to do.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Reasonable Security Suite for Windows
Comment: Short Review:
PC Tools Internet Securty 2009 is a security suite with all the usual bells and whistles. It defends your computer with hogging resources and without being too invasive.

Long Reivew:

For all you computer guys out there, let me first tell you where I am coming from. I am running PC Tools on Windows Vista on the Bootcamp partition of my late 2007 iMac with 2 gb of memory. I did not test the abilities of the program (as in trying to infect myself with spyware or viruses), I leave that to the expert. I will try to convey the experience and hope that the experts.

SET UP: At first, I tried to set this up by running Vista in virtualization using VMware's Fusion. I couldn't get it to set up and run. I tried and tried but it just wouldn't go. So, I turned off the computer and booted into Bootcamp. PC Tools installed quickly and automatically with the insertion of the CD. There were minimal questions to ask. One quibble: when typing in the password there is a screen that has two buttons: 'Submit' and 'Continue.' I kept hitting the continue button and was unable to register the product. Once I realized that you had to hit 'submit' I was okay. I still don't know why there is a 'continue' button...

FIRST RUN: The program set itself up. The initial splash screen was easy to negotiate. Each component has its own set up panel and is self explanatory. There are buttons for anti-spyware, anti-virus, anti-spam, and firewall settings. Each menu is easy to negotiate and has a number of variable settings. I didn't want to wait a long time for a full scan, so I opted for the more superficial, quick 'intelli-scan.' The program did come up with a number of spyware issues that it quite easily deleted on command.

Of note, after installing it in Bootcamp, the suite worked flawlessly in virtualization.

RESOURCES: Prior to running this suite, I was using Macafe's security suite. In comparison, Macafe was a real resource hog, slowed down the machine, and asked too many questions. What with Vista constantly asking for permissions, things were getting a little ridiculous. The firewall seems to ask appropriate questions and allowed code to run after a single query. Overall, I had a much better experience with this than Macafe and Trend before this. Caveat emptor, I am no firewall maven so the efficacy of the firewall could be an issue here. But assuming that the program performs well it works smoothly. The experience here is a lot like running Commodo or Zone Alarm.

CONCLUSION:
Overall, it works smoothly and as advertised. There is nothing new, innovative, or sensational about it but, after all, it is a security suite. For me, I felt that unlike my past experiences, this suite ran without slowing my computer down to a crawl. It also was less invasive than other firewall options. I also liked its simple, no-frills user interface.

PC tools makes Spyware Doctor which is an award winning spyware remover and is part of the suite. If the antivirus, firewall, and anti-spam features are as efficacious, this would be a great addition to any PC. And for the price, it's a bargain at that.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Simple, effective Security Protection
Comment: PC Tools Internet Security provides an umbrella product aimed at keeping your computer more secure. There is anti-virus, anti-spamware, firewall protection, etc. The installation was okay (on Windows Vista), but a lot of little boxes kept popping up, telling me to change settings or that I'd have to decide to allow or block something. Once I got all the settings configured, these popups were much less frequent.

The interface is easy to understand, and on my first scan, the software found two infections, so I'm assuming that it works pretty well. Sometimes the popup messages are cryptic and leave me a little bit clueless about what I'm supposed to do next, thus the lower star rating. This is more of a complaint I have about software in general, not just PC Tools.

The only other problem I've had is that I set the software to scan automatically upon opening, but it doesn't do it, I have to manually scan every day. This could be user error, but I can't see what I'm doing wrong. I also tried setting it to scan at a certain time of day, and that didn't work either. That could have been because my computer was asleep at the time; apparently PC Tools will not wake the computer to perform its scans.

I'm happy with this product. I previously had AVG Free 8.0, which never found anything on my computer, so the fact that this tool has already found a couple of things makes me feel safer and like it's doing it's job.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Does not play well with Logitech G15 keyboard
Comment: The installation was fast and easy, although it did require 3 reboots at first, and then 2 later on.

I found the initial system scan to be very fast. Much faster than I'd expected, in fact.

I did have extreme issues with the anti-spam function. It marked all the email from my direct family as SPAM and slowed my email client, Outlook 2002, to a crawl, so I had to disable that and can't seem to use that function. This could be because this system is ancient, and I have 50 gazillion emails anyway. I'm not sure why - but it simply didn't work right. Besides, Outlook was doing fine culling spam anyway, so the degraded performance and annoying screw ups marking friendly emails as bad was not worth it.

I noticed that my Logitech G15 Gaming keyboard, which was running fine before installation, kept crashing. The crashes were extreme too - my system would slow and I could not get into process manager to stop anything - just a clear runaway process that eventually caused the entire system to crash.

Just to check, I removed my keyboard and put a standard one on for a while. No more problems, freeze ups, or crashes. I don't think it is the extra display - my system already uses multiple displays and that was not a problem with a regular keyboard.

With the keyboard gone, the firewall and other features, minus the anti-spam, ran great, and my system performance was smooth.

Unfortunately, I prefer my g15 to this software, so I'll be uninstalling it and using it on another pc that has more standard hardware.

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