In the most recent tests from AV-Test and AV Comparatives (covering July-October 2021), Bitdefender’s performance is outstanding.

(This is also available on iOS and Android.) Performance Like the Safe Browsing service used in Chrome and other browsers, this is constantly updated, meaning that you’re technically getting global real-time protection. This uses machine learning and a global website reputation database to judge whether any site you visit should be considered malicious. Web browsing is protected by the Online Threat Prevention module.

You also have the option of automatically banning any spam written with Asian or Cyrillic character sets, and of submitting any unknown samples to the Bitdefender cloud for analysis before opening them. The anti-spam module allows you to explicitly whitelist friends and blacklist real spammers and works with Outlook and Thunderbird email apps. The first is to turn on ransomware protection, which is simply a case of clicking Enable. And above them is the ever-useful Autopilot which offers recommendations for actions you need to, or might want to take. You can, of course, edit these six shortcuts and replace them with the features you want to see. Those along with three others were deemed LOW risk, but in each case you can click Fix issue to take care of it. My test PC had an out of date version of Firefox and was set to automatically log in after Windows performed an update.

If you do a vulnerability scan you’ll see a list of identified risks, along with their severity. There’s also a dedicated Wi-Fi scan that checks you’re not using weak encryption or authentication protocols. The first does what it says, the second is a full system scan, while the third – vulnerability – checks your device for things like out of date apps, system settings that have been changed from defaults and weak passwords. For non-technical users, the default shortcuts to Quick Scan, System Scan, Vulnerability Scan aren’t particularly easy to understand. Install it on Windows and you’ll be presented with an clean-looking interface that tells you ‘You are safe’.

What is bitdefender total security