Bitdefender 2017 Review

[JoshRoss]

I have a hard time believing that. As far as I am aware, no matter the problem it will quarantine it before everything else. You usually have options and actions to do something about a specific software or a file. Since I am unaware if such option exists, might have had an option selected to delete everything in quarantine or just miss clicked it.

 

[rgd1101]

DO NOT USE BITDEFENDER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

I use Fsekrit to store passwords in an encrypted file. Bitdefender decided it was a malicious program and deleted it on its own authority. Completely. Not in the recycle bin, not in the quarantine, nowhere. Hundreds of passwords down the drain. All I did was use a piece of software I've used for years.

That is complete <mod edit>

How did you know it bitdefender deleted it?

 

[HamBown81]

I have had nothing but problems getting Bitdefender Total Security 2017 to install properly on several systems. Sometimes it works, more often it gets to the log-in and won't connect to the servers.

Bitdefender Support has walked me thought the same troubleshooting list several times and the only actual solution I found is a cumbersome workaround that involves replacing three files in the root directory while in Safe Mode.

I eventually told them I wasn't going to bother unless they could offer me a real solution... they did not respond.

 

[JoshRoss]

Is your problem with BitDefender consistent with an Operating system or some circumstances? Or is it just random when it doesn't work?

Such a random solution for a problem that could be easily fixed. I wonder if it is a minor issue and happens rarely (Meaning you could be unlucky) or a common problem that's left untouched, which would be a massive disappointment.

 

[HamBown81]

Is your problem with BitDefender consistent with an Operating system or some circumstances? Or is it just random when it doesn't work?

Such a random solution for a problem that could be easily fixed. I wonder if it is a minor issue and happens rarely (Meaning you could be unlucky) or a common problem that's left untouched, which would be a massive disappointment.

It happened with both Windows 7 and Windows 10 on two completely separate machines. Only similarity is that they are both AM3+ systems.

They both went well the first and maybe second time. Eventually after a clean install of Windows, at some point, they would both fail to connect to the Bitdefender servers when trying to log-in after completing installation.

Everything was done 100% the recommended way. Walked through canned tech support two or three times with the same suggestions that it was an issue with my firewall or my router or something on my end.

In both cases the only thing that consistently worked was an 18 month old work-around that I found in their support forums. There were 3 files provided (by them) to someone on the forum with the EXACT same issue (from over a year ago) that had to be replaced in the root directory while in Safe Mode. My guess is that they are some kind of universal key or bypass for their server-side verification because they consistently worked when nothing else would.

After the third time of them ending up at the same conclusion, I told them in no uncertain words that I would not bother installing their product again if they couldn't offer me a real solution that will be functional after a clean install. I have yet to receive a response, it has been a few months.

 

[JoshRoss]

Interesting, so that is not an explicit OS configuration issue, I have had those in the past. Weird how it doesn't work on a clean install, but on used Windows, it has no issues, that barely makes much sense to be fair. Maybe you can try poking them around and see if they had a chance to get a solution. Emails do get lost or want to be lost, persistence might be a key

 

[HamBown81]

Interesting, so that is not an explicit OS configuration issue, I have had those in the past. Weird how it doesn't work on a clean install, but on used Windows, it has no issues, that barely makes much sense to be fair. Maybe you can try poking them around and see if they had a chance to get a solution. Emails do get lost or want to be lost, persistence might be a key

Not worth it for me honestly. There are other products.

I am 99% sure it is something on their end that is blocking my IP address because of irregular activity due to multiple installs or something of that nature. The forum post that I found was a year old at the time and was like reading exactly what happened to me including all of the troubleshooting.

Several releases later, different OS, different country probably, with the exact same issue... I say it is on their end.

 

[JoshRoss]

After that much time and different changes, I guess you are correct. Will ask people to be cautious with their products.

 

[rita_rodriguez]

Bit Defender 2017 was a fairly wonderful peice of kit although very infrequently would cause DPC Latency spikes with my network driver. Bit Defender 2018 on the other hand is not very good, not only does it still cause issues with latency but it often decides (despite the setting you use with ATD) to delete important files. In fact it will tell you exactly what is wrong, what it is going to do and no option to say "No dummy, don't do that". Rebooting into safe mode just might trigger deletion (if you chose to remove Bit Defender 2018). I reinstalled it last night, and my issue with mactype hooking was fixed but it is still too wonky, buggy and not much user control or input. Mayhap autopilot off might solve some issues, but I was so frustrated by its standard behavior that it is a larger risk then it is a benefit. (Anti-Virus or not i've not been infected by anything for over 10 years, despite that I enjoy the feelings of safety provided by these products over Windows Defender which is just a waste of resources).

 

[aideeaidee]

BD2018 is nothing but trouble. It detects my development environment (WAMP, Lazarus/Free pascal, even bare php files) as infected by Malware. BD 2017 was ok, I had to whitelist some directories to get it running well. But these settings - although present - are totally ignored by BD2018. I hope I can warn the developers here. Don't upgrade. I have my backups and nothing of my work got lost. But I can't reinstall because BD prevents it. I probably have to remove BD and reinstall my PC to get things running again. Have reported to the helpdesk, but I fear...

 

[intelligent542003]

I just enrolled in Tom' guide because of reviews for latest Antivirus for Android mobile, Tablet and PCs (Single User/Complete Protection, Multiple Devices, Free Trial) I was very impressed with the No# 1 (Too Rated) Antipating a purchase, the Customer Reviews, cause much concern! inquiry- Is this a Company Paid Review? Issues: Refund Issues, Customer Support (response time) I want convenience of Installation, also Security peace of mind, at a resonable cost! (from the Best!) Thank you!

 

[SumTingW0ng]

Bitdefender Free user here, and I gotta say it not a bad AV at all beside their online customer support is trash.

 

[whiteangelcl]

Bit defender is a great tool.

 

[wilberarron]

I find the product to be useless.

First off, it interferes more with my computer than even Norton did. There is not support. What little advice is given is slow and mostly wrong. It is difficult to get any type of help. Sorry, I cannot recommend this product no matter how well it protects.

 

[acidtrance]

Seems a lot of trolls and people who may not really understand what they are talking about here (pretty sure I could solve any their issues with a Teamviewer session!). Very rarely do happy customers go and post to sites like review sites and forums anyway, and they are the unheard majority. Some comments here I see people simply need to learn how their SW and PC works. As far as customer support of Bitdefender is concerned I have no issue. As an IT professional I am familiar with pretty much every current antivirus product out there (though usually business editions) and I certainly trust Bitdefender to do it's job well. Every software has it's quirks, so if you don't like something then tell support, and they will welcome your constructive criticism, and help improve the product. Behaviour of some software on your PC may do some things in an unusual way that a security product may decide to block, such as the Bitdefender safe files feature.. but all you need to is configure it or temporarily turn off to allow a certain action. As IT pro I find 99% of issues is the PC hardware, some other software, driver or OS issue or the user him/herself.

I moved to Bitdefender after being a long time ESET user but lost trust after several business customers caught ransomeware on their servers with fully up to date ESET. Independent tests of Bitdefender over last 5 years are consistently good with low false positive so I decided switch to Bitdefender Security 2017, and now I have updated to Total Security 2018 and it is working very well. Security to me is paramount importance so I will use what I consider the best protection. The only other AV I might consider is Trend Micro who I did not like in the past but recent years have come a long way to improve.

Since this review was written Bitdefender has introduced a VPN as cheap add-on, though I don't use it because I use something else already, but a good addition.

So for me, thumbs up, highly recommend to protect your system.

 

[murraygee]

Do not purchase. Bitdefender is provided automatically as Windows Defender with Microsoft Windows 10 which you cannot turn off. I purchase Bitdefender total security and only just found out that it essentially will not work with any other products than Microsoft. For example I use Incredmail and Firefox but the spam and domain block will only work with outlook and firebird. DO NOT PURCHASE. NOT REQUIRED. MICROSOFT is once again trying to set up a monopoly. Note: Try turning off Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Defender or Outlook and you will find that you cannot.

 

[dlallen66]

I installed the trial version of Bitdefender Anti-virus 2018 and it was working pretty good. Browsing was good and computer seemed normal so I took them up on their 29.99 offer. I had to register and activate and then it did another download and uninstalled the trial. After install there were significant performance issues. Every boot took forever, my security camera program would freeze up, and browsing was so slow and that's without the firewall option. After dealing with their crazy tech service I uninstalled and went back to Norton. Don't install on Win7.

 

[fwardaz]

I bought BD Total based on the review given here. I am having a problem with streaming audio not playing. I sent request for help both on the BD site and via e-mail and have not received any help/answer to my request. I did get a reference number, but no answer. Chat does not work on the site. No response from customer service. I am not happy. I think I'm about to uninstall and request a refund. I am almost ready to put this in JUNK Software. It took over an hour and a half to do a system scan on a very fast computer, with SSD's, and not much data. Your review does not match with my experience. Just thought you should know.

 

[thunderforces2017]

Nice product shortly and price is cheap .

 

[727stretch]

Low performance impact may be the case when measuring using synthetic benchmarks, but as far as memory use goes, BD uses more than any other AV product out there - 300MB at idle? That's more than double the perennial resource hog, McAfee. Not a big deal if you have a system with 16GB RAM, but lots of people still running 4GB. Something's off when BD requires that much memory to run, yet similarly effective competition can do it with 10% of that.