Bitdefender Antivirus Free - English GUI

I get only the Romanian language option, the language dropdown box is greyed out. This was reported earlier in this thread (Location Netherlands, English Windows 7 version). I looked at the registry but am unable to chance the language ro-RO by hand (is protected by BD itself). Any solution to this?

 

@Newby

Try the web installer.

 

Hello,

My only concern so far is the quarantine and being able to exclude files and folders.

As for the quarantine, does it work? In my testing so far, I have had probably 150 to 200 PUP's (potentially unwanted programs) detected and then deleted. this has happened with both the on-demand and on-access protections. Never once has a program been quarantined as they are just deleted without prompt (and I know the deletion without prompt is by design). What is the purpose of Quarantine if these deleted files are not being moved there? Also note that IMHO, Quarantine and exclusion go hand in hand. Quarantine is useless if you cannot exclude then restore as the program will only get deleted again anyways.

Next comes the ability to exclude files and folders. For example, I know a lot of the people here at Wilders use Nirsoft Utilities from time to time. These utilities fall into a category with most AV vendors called PUP's (potentially unwanted programs). These are programs which are generally harmless but can be used in some harmful way. I use these a lot. BDAVFE detects a lot of these utilities as do most AV software. It detects them with both on-access and on-demand scans. I have tried the workaround suggested by Iulika0069 but it does not work. Even with this workaround, the files are still detected and deleted automatically on BOTH on-access and on-demand scans. The only way around this for me at the moment is that I must turn off both the virus shield and auto scan in order to keep these on my machine. This turns BDAVFE into nothing more than a right click file/folder scanner.

I think keeping the software simple is a good thing but at the same time, it must be usable. The above two items are potential deal breakers for me. I need that functionality in order to properly be able to use it.

My solutions you may ask? First, all deleted files should go to quarantine. This in turn should work with a proper exclusion option so you can both restore and exclude files and folders. At the very minimum (if the above will not be implemented), BDAVFE should have an option to ether scan for or exclude PUP's, or by default not scan for PUP's at all. This is my second preference in how to handle this.

Finally, I do realize you wish to keep it simple. You can keep it simple and make it usable at the same time. I hope you will take this into serious consideration and be able to implement these suggestions. I think BDAVFE is a winner but please make its functionality usable as well as simple. Thanks for bringing this software to us and good luck on its release!


Edited to add: IMHO, sooner or later, the vast majority of people that will use BDAVFE will have this need to use a quarantine and exclusion feature as described above, and without these features being implemented, will ultimately result in the BDAVFE user being forced to switch to another AV solution. Sometimes you may just need to exclude for a few days or maybe even just a few short hours, but for example in the case of PUP's, you may need to make a permanent exclusion, and not being able to do so will very possibly end with a deal breaker for BDAVFE. Just my humble opinion and two cents worth...

 

Huge Security Issue w/ Registration

I think I found a glaring issue. I created a "My Bitdefender" account and used it to activate a copy of this AV on a test system I have. To validate your account, you are supposed to use your email address as your user name, so I did. I subsequently received a confirmation email from no_reply@info.bitdefender.com, with an embedded URL that I was to click on. (The URL is an https://my.bitdefender.com URL, so I believe it's legit.)

Here's the issue - each time I click on it, I get taken into someone else's account. This is no exaggeration - I clicked on it once and it logged me into one person's account. I clicked on it a second time, and I was logged into a different person's account. All I can say is it's a good thing I used a random password generated by a password manager application. But who is going to be logged into MY account when they register?

Bitdefender better get this fixed and QUICK. In the meantime, I am restoring my affected machine from a disk image, no messing around.

 

Currently running on XP SP3 32 with 512 MB RAM, facing slowdowns

The installation is slow.

From the info on BD website it seems has all the power of BD paid like signs, heur, behaviour, etc...

Good for average users. The only prob is it automatically deletes some threats & quarantines some threats. It would be good if atleast it automatically quarantines all the threats so that in case of FPs restore is possible

But the user guide mentions detected threats are disinfected first if disinfection is not possible the threats are quarantined. This is mentioned for autoscan. Dont know if the same applies for realtime scan too. Little confusion here too & also with the deletion thing mentioned above.


Tested with few zeroday malware & the detection was the same as paid BD AV.

But it deleted all threats & only quarantined 1 & this quarantined threat was still present in the folder but was not usable.

And in quarantine section the only option is to delete the files, no option to restore.


Tried installing/uninstaling 2 times & both the times it uninstalled but security center still shows Bitdefender installed.

And this installs .Net 4 thats why the download & install is lengthy.

I didn't liked it. Little buggy for now. Few needed features are not there.

 

Seems to require a couple reboots to get everything working properly, tried on 2 windows 7 64 bit machines, light and no real problems but I do notice some lag on web pages, ie like the full version of traffic light and sometimes the virus detection seems sluggish sort like Panda cloud was at first , back to Malware Bytes Pro and MSE for now as together they are faster and lighter, may try it again in a month or so.

 

I have installed it on all 3 computers with different setups. I honestly cant find a thing to fault about it. To think it is even comparable to MSE is laughable. And for those of you wanting this and that added to it, shame on you.

This product is free and it is BitDefender. The one AV that actually does almost protect to 100 percent. I mean "Come on Man", who could ask for a better set up.

 

Not being able to ignore specific files & folders is a deal breaker for me. I will stand pat with Roboscan Free.

But for friends who treat their PCs like toasters Bitdefender Antivirus Free is perfect.

 

thanks Iulika0089.everything is running light\nice on windows 7.i was able to remove traffic light from firefox as no longer needed.

thanks
mudfish

 

There's still some room for improvements. I hope they get to improve it in the next version with the mass feedback.

 

I agree. I finally had some success with the program on a Win7 laptop, but this thing hates my Win8 machines for some reason.

 

Tried both web installer and x86 version, no language option

 

Tried both web installer and x86 version, no English language option

 

I am tempted to try this! Sad thing I stopped using AV's now.

Where do you live?

See this post:

 

Had to re-boot for the update to finish, running 5-10MB at idle. Works fine, no conflict with PrivateFirewall. Pretty much a set-it and forget-it nobrainer with no tweaking. What MSE should have been. Update file named "Gonzales." Look in the logs file to see quarantined items, events, stuff pending cleanup.
Thanks, Bitdefender and Iulika0069.

 

But MSE is set it and forget it.

 

Although I would really like to try this, the "autopilot" is a major turn-off to me. What if there happens to be a FP? Gone.

 

MSE forgets you.

 

Sad indeed.

 

how are program updates handled?

 

Automatic, but there is an "export" in virus signatures update in logs.

 

Yes I have 2 or 3 repair .iso that AVs always flag. So I can't use or recommend this to any of my peers.

 

Thanks, in the Netherlands, explains it all

 

A review of Bitdefender Free on the Download Crew website mentions that they are using it as secondary protection along with Norton IS. Can this be done, and is it wise to do so?

"We have one or two small concerns about the program. It protested about being installed alongside an "incompatible" product (Norton Internet Security), for example. Everything still seemed to work just fine, but we'd expect Bitdefender Antivirus Free to be installed as a second line of defence, not a primary antivirus tool, so it really needs to run happily alongside just about everything else around.

And, for some reason, we found the program's status was displayed as "Updating..." almost all the time. Maybe it was just taking its time, being careful to use minimal bandwidth, but this still became a little worrying after a while.

At its core, though, Bitdefender Antivirus Free looks very promising: the program provides a good basic level of protection, yet remains exceptionally easy to use."

http://www.downloadcrew.com/article/29156-bitdefender_antivirus_free_edition

 

The main problem is that all the stuff we consider as PUP's gets treated the same as straight on malware. Which is just bad policy. In fact it's a bad policy to delete anything without quarantining or making backup first.

That's why i like avast!, Kingsoft and Comodo behavior. They always quarantine files no matter what. Menaing if anything goes wrong, you are still fully in control. With BitDefender, when the file is gone you are basically fcked.