Questions about and Opinions of Bitdefender Total Security

[leftisthominid]

My Avast Internet Security license is expiring in two weeks. While I generally like avast, I've been using it for a few years now, and I want some change after dealing with many GUI glitches and false positives.

I read that BitDefender is really good, but before I commit to the switch I had a few questions that I was wondering if some of you could answer. I would go for the intermediate package (Internet Security), but BitDefender Total Security for 3PCs is currently the same price at Best Buy (http/www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=bitdefender&_dyncharset=UTF-8&id=pcat17071&type=page&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=brand_facet%3DBrand~Bitdefender&list=n&iht=y&usc=All%20Categories&ks=960&keys=keys&seeAll=Brand)

In terms of specific questions, they are below. Otherwise, I am just looking for general opinions. Thanks!


-What have your general experiences been with the program? Is it buggy, does the GUI work well?
-Avast has a "Statistics" screen in its GUI that shows the networks connections going through my computer sates my virus OCD, does BitDefender have such a feature?
-Is there a boot-time scan feature? Avast has a feature where it does the full-scan before Windows starts-up. (I generally do a boot-time scan).

 

[leftisthominid]

Due to paranoia (i.e., OCD), I used to leave avast's statistics windows open a lot of the time, which used to tell me what network connections and files were being scanned.

Where can I find this in BitDefender? If it does not exist, can anyone suggest an external program to do this?

Also, I've noticed upon startup, the black screen between the Windows loading screen and the splash screen seems long (though it could be just in my head, as I generally don't pay too much attention to it). Did I do anything wrong during installation?. I uninstalled avast, then I also ran the avast removal tool prior to installation.

 

[CWEric]

No idea. I can't imagine Bitdefender not have those features though. Kaspersky I know has network monitoring and file scan report but have to change the setting to include all files and website scanned in its report for the cost of the report becoming ridiculously large and very slow to open.

It could be Bitdefender loading its modul stuff early in the bootup to dip its claws deep into the system for it to run properly. Its a large program. Kaspersky doesn't play nice in start-up either.

You can try this as your 3rd party program for monitoring your system. It include result from virustotal for each process.
https/technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

You can run this startup timer if you want to take your time experimenting your computer boot up speed with and without bitdefender and other alternate antiviruses.
http/www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-boot-timer

*I notice bitdefender has program startup management, that pretty cool. CCleaner is an alternate free option.*
You can try CCleaner to help speed up your computer. It has a setting that disable the programs you don't want to start to make the startup faster.
http/www.piriform.com/ccleaner

A bit of my Kaspersky gui monitoring showoff (5 images):
http/imgur.com/zSpXozP,sh0hOwh,sE3Wi50,lmuUx1b,MOv71ep

 

[leftisthominid]

What I mean is avast had a real-time graphical interface that shows live results.

I tried to do a system scan with the program, and 3.5 hours in, it was not done. I only have one 1TB hdd, and it is only half full. Avast's bootscan finished scanning my harddrive in just over 2 hours... I aborted the scan and a reboot-required update started to kick-in. Also, Windows Action Center kept "running maintenance" in the background. I am giving my computer a little while to figure out whether the problem continues...

The advantage of buying a physical copy from Amazon (and having Prime) is that I can return this in a few days if it still pisses me off then.