Bitdefender Antivirus Free - English GUI

I have installed this product and given it a whirl,for me its the one I Would think twice before using.

The signatures are not good as the paid version.Its just too heavily dependent on Active virus control which is more of a cloud module than a behaviour blocker in the free version.And the issues and bugs recently...

Yes,its good product but there are just certain things that make me feel it isnt ready yet.Just my opinion!

 

I have only one account & that's admin account. I tried the installer but gave error as mentioned above. I disabled UAC & installer ran fine.

Does BD Free have conflict with UAC? Should I keep UAC enable or disable?

 

No AV should ask to disable UAC, have you tried finding and downloading the offline installer?

 

I tested it today on real system i.e no VM, XP SP3 32 Bits. The system has only 512 MB RAM so the test was slow & took time. Though the min requirement is 512 MB RAM but its slow, the recommended requirement is 1 GB RAM & it working light on Win 7 64 with 4 GB RAM here.

I used Spywar's latest malware pack 113 from malwaretips.
BD Free detected 98/113.
15 were executed, 6 processes blocked by Active Virus Control.
HMP found 1 inert file & task manager disabled.
1 active process was there, only CommTouch at VT detected the process as Trojan.

I also tested it offline i.e no internet connection.
It quarantined few & few processes blocked. But I had to stop the test in the middle as due to low RAM the test was slow.

On malwaretips, other AV detections for this pack is also posted. At that time BD Free detection was highest.

From this test I do think BD Free provides same protection as paid BD products. I do think local signatures are less but cloud has full signatures & Active Virus Control works offline too.

But this was first test so cant confirm if the protection is same as paid.

I will do another test by collecting samples that BD paid signatures at VT detects & then test those samples with BD Free. Lets see whats the outcome. This will give some info.

 

It didn't ask me to disable UAC. It was giving error & I was searching for the solution. In their site I read about the uninstall tool that mentioned the uninstall tool may not work with UAC enable so disable the UAC first. So I thought lets try the same approach for installer. And I tried the installer with UAC disabled & it worked. And its working fine, logs are working fine, browsing, app opening, etc... everything fine & light.

Just wondering if I should enable UAC now or not as don't know if BD Free conflicts with UAC?

I downloaded the installer from official site. There is no mention for 32 or 64 Bits installer, just a download button. So I downloaded it. When I ran it, it gave a window mentioning download 64 bits installer from this link. I clicked the link & got 64 bits installer. There is no direct 64 bits installer on BD website or atleast I couldn't find it. I thought the download button will give online installer which will download the appropriate 32 or 64 bits installer. But it seems the installer is only for 32 bits system & gives the link for 64 bits installer when you try to run on 64 bits system.

 

Thanks for the info . If the internet is disconnected, you should expect to get fewer detections in the free edition because more of its definitions are in the cloud (see https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2186176&postcount=993). On the other hand, whether the heuristics/behavior blocker portion when the internet is disconnected is any weaker in the free edition than the paid edition is an open question.

 

The developer says the opposite........

Enjoy=

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Iulika0069:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2163962&postcount=333

 

OK, tested again on real system i.e no VM, XP SP3 32 Bits, 512 RAM.

2 tests, online & offline.

Downloaded 40 zeroday malware. Reuploaded i.e freshly uploaded to check latest detections at VT. Bitdefender at VT detected 14/40 i.e 26 missed by Bitdefender at VT.

Online test i.e internet available.

14 malware detected by Bitdefender at VT - All 14 malware Bitdefender Free detected.

26 malware missed by Bitdefender at VT - Executed all but didn't continue the complete installation of more than half coz most were digitally signed & were PUP/Adware kind i.e those that offers many craps to download & install. Whatever I installed Active Virus Control blocked 2 processes. HMP scan found 3 inert malware. 2 processes were active, those processes at VT had 0 detection.

Offline test i.e internet not available.

Restored the system to clean state with Comodo Time Machine.

14 malware detected by Bitdefender at VT - BD Free detected 12 malware, GUI mentioned to clean 1 malware restart needed. I restarted the system & the sample was cleaned successfully. Remaining 2 executed, Active Virus Control blocked 1 process, 1 was missed. HMP didn't found anything, no active malware was there.

26 malware missed by Bitdefender at VT - As above in the online test I mentioned Active Virus Control blocked 2 malware/processes. Of the 2, I ran 1 & Active Virus Control blocked it, the other malware I didn't remember the malware file so couldn't test it.

So though its a little test, it does seems that BD Free AV provides the same protection as BD Paid AV.

The things I dont like is OnDemand is toooooooo slow, even if you scan 1 malware with rightclick scan it takes long. This is confirmed as Ondemand scan is the same on my Win 7 64 Bits too that have 4 GB RAM.

And I dont know about realtime protection. May be you can confirm. Realtime protection alert appears late. I dont know if it actually appears late or due to my test system have low 512 MB RAM. Any info?

And I must mention it updates often, atleast the GUI shows that.

 

Iulika0069,

I guess you are BD staff, m I right?

Currently I am running BD Free. Few queries...

BD Free AV page on the website mentions its shares some of the revolutionary technology of Paid BD products. And is a heading "what makes us the best" & under this...

Realtime shield
Active Virus Control
Intrusion Detection System
BHave
HTTP Scanning
AntiRootkit
Early Boot Scanning
Autoscan

I want to know if all these are mentioned as "what makes BD best" or all these protection features are there in the Free edition or if not all, which features are there in the Free edition?

 

Good question,i always thought it said the same.I wonder now what is included.

 

Tested BD Free again today to see if the protection/detection is same as BD paid.

Spywar uploaded latest malware on malwaretips, 88 malware.
Someone posted BD AV Plus detected 71/88.
BD Free detected 70/88
18 were executed, 11 processes were blocked by AVC, 1 malware was detected & quarantined, HMP found 1 inert malware, 1 active process was there that I uploaded to VT & 0 detection at VT.

 

@narenbisht: What's your opinion of AVC?

 

Its excellent.

On malwaretips, a latest ransomware is also uploaded. At that time 5-6 scanners detected it at VT. Bitdefender didn't detected at VT.

I scanned with BD Free & it too didn't detected it.
I executed it & AVC blocked the process & the ransomware didn't appeared.

In my test AVC is doing excellent. Currently I am testing BD Free often & comparing the results at VT with BD detection.

I don't have any experience of BD as this is the first time I am running BD AV. So hope AVC is not FP prone i.e its doing excellent & hope its good with safe programs i.e not FP prone.

By the way on my production system, auto deepscan completed & no FP. I also tried running many programs & no FP by AVC too.

So it seems AVC is excellent & BD Free is excellent for average users.

 

@narenbisht: It's great to hear that AVC is doing so well . Bitdefender paid editions do very well in AV-Comparatives Heuristic/Behaviour tests.

 

Is AVC in the free version?

 

Anybody else having problems with latency (ping) when using Bitdefender Free?

I noticed that when using bitdefender that it increases my ping from 25ms to 155ms and when i disable protection ping is normal again (25ms)

I used http://speedof.me/ when testing ping

 

Yes it is.

 

Trying out BD free.. Smooth install and very light.. Logs button working so far..

 

I also have BD on my Windows 7 netbook. Log button works fine and there is no problems with this AV. Much lighter than Froti and equally not annyoing about ads or registrations.

 

Hope they don't send out an update that crippled the OS few months back.

 

Is the BD Free compatible with the Qihoo 360 AV? I wonder for those who use the Qihoo360 IS (which is Qihoo360 AV in Chinese Version), do they also do testing on the BD Free?

 

I have 360 installed on my mom's pc and I used to have BD on my main pc. I can say that Qihoo + BD Free is redundant, considering 360 has BD's engine and sigs.

 

I don't think either AV is supposed to be run with another, and I believe that would be awfully redundant since both use BD engine.

 

The last time I tried it I had to create an account, did they remove it? That would be nice. It's a light AV but I just can't stand autoquarantine.

 

You still need registration. Is this AV being actively developed ? No updates since October(which is not very long) and no queries answered in BD forums.