Bitdefender Total Security 2019 full review:
Bitdefender's Total Security offering was already an extensive product, and 2019's offering adds more to an already full basket. Here, we bring you our full review of one of the best antivirus packages for your PC.
To help flatten out the learning curve of such a big product, there's the familiar “Auto Pilot” switch on the main interface. When on, which it is by default, Bitdefender uses sensible settings for all modules. The main interface itself has also had an overhaul and feels a lot busier than last year.
Along with the usual file and system scans is the dedicated vulnerability scan, which checks your system for outdated software, weak network passwords, and critical Windows updates that need to be applied. There's also a dedicated WiFi scan that checks you're not using weak encryption or authentication protocols.
As with an increasing number of AV offerings, there's also a boot time scan, called the Rescue Environment, which runs at next boot up. This scans your system before Windows and any stealth malware has a chance to start up.
The new Oneclick Optimiser pops up soon after installation to tell you there's space to be freed up. The catch to this, though, is that along with temporary files, login cookies also disappear. Logging back into all your sites without a password manager, even in your browser, would be a painful exercise and one you should be warned about. What's more, the optimiser regularly pops up, and running it a second time logs you back out again.
Also pushed to the front is the concept of profiles. These kick in automatically when you're watching a movie, or playing a game, for example. The different modes prevent popups, or put off housekeeping events until the software detects that they're appropriate.
The anti-spam module allows you to explicitly whitelist friends and blacklist real spammers. 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.
Bitdefender has joined the growing group of domestic AV providers that incorporate so-called “next gen” application behaviour monitoring. If a piece of code does something suspicious, Advanced Threat Defense will block it. There's also a whitelist for programs that inadvertently trip this feature.
Allied to this is the Safe Files module, which protects nominated folders from any ransomware designed to run at boot time. Under Auto Pilot, this is deactivated by default, but should really be engaged if it doesn't impact your computer's boot up time.
Gone from the control panel is last year's Ransomware module and in comes a new ransomware remediation ability. This is disabled by default, but when engaged, it will automatically roll back any changes made by ransomware to your precious files.
