Bitdefender Antivirus Free - English GUI

yes, 7.60911 here also.

 

7.60911 here too. BD Free seems to be running fine for me, I never know it is there.

 

Hmmmm. Ad-Aware (2 systems) and Ashampoo over here are all at 7.60921.

 

Paid BD products can rightfully be accused of bloating: Fast Tune-Up, Privacy Protection, Safe Banking, Device Anti-Theft, Secure Online Storage and on and on. Kinda wish there was a Bitdefender Basics. Oh wait, there is - Free.

It can only be "all about the engine" if the core scanner sigs are kept updated and if the B-Have heuristic components are implemented. Those two comprise what is know as the "Bitdefender engine" though it's been noted that term can be used if B-Have is excluded. If that's KISS... well, not for me.

Being almost 15 years old, the BD engine is short on non-sig detection as shown by B-Have misses in the 15-25% range in VB100's Proactive Set +2 results over the last year or so.

So in 2010 they released Active Virus Control and BD Free is the only way to get it for free.
Caution! Very technical:
http://download.bitdefender.com/resources/files/Main/file/active_virus_control_wp.pdf
Not bloat.

And if Free's network HIPS/IDS monitor and the Gonzales/Nimbus cloud service is bloat... bloat me.

 

Today, still at 9.60911.
No further updates yet.

 

how big is the signature database to date?

 

Hmm... gotta pic? Oooops! Never mind.

 

Had a feeling you'd return. So many have disliked bd free for the lack of interaction...that's exactly why I keep it. To each there own.BD FREE isn't glamorous, has no configuration...but is shear simplicity with great detection and protection. Am not as computer sophisticated as most, but for my needs, bd free, MBAM PREMIUM, MBAE FREE and W.O.T., along with CCLEANER, do the job for my machine... can't speak for other's but this set up works for me ...has been worry free for a long time.

 

BD Free has this stupid bug where it messes with the hidden files visibility control (it keeps enabling it by itself) in Windows 8.1 64bit. When I removed BD Free entirely, the problem was gone. Fix it BD...

 

On my Win 7 64, it does so only when detects threats else no probs.

 

Tried Eset, Comodo & Avast. Eset gave browsing probs with Chrome, Avast slow boot & little system slowdown, liked Comodo Internet Security- It has improved a lot in usability with default settings-tried many programs & not a single alert or autosandbox- whitelist & default policy have improved a lot-but little buggy & nowadays you dont get much reply for your probs in their forum & your posts goes unanswered many times plus for every little prob/bug they want you to file a bug report in their format that I find irritating sometimes.

So back to Bd free.
No previous prob yet. Guess some update fixes solved the prob.
Running light & protection as you know is excellent.

 

after keep changing antivirus back and forth, i come back to bitdefender free because its simplicity

 

How about the exclusions,the FP?What are the options on detections?

 

For me it's like this even without detection of anything...

 

Welcome back.

 

EXACTLY RIGHT.

 

The signature is updated daily.

 

If by "daily" you mean "not weekly" or "not monthly," OK. But, if you mean "every 24 hours"... absolutely not.

For all their products, updates occur when Bitdefender releases updates. That could be 20 minutes from now or four hours from now depending on the threat landscape. The average over the years has been an update every 1.5 hours.

FYI: if users of second-party "free Bitdefender engine" products don't see that kind of updating, they're getting exactly the protection they're paying for.

 

Bd free updates/checks updates app every 1-1.5 hours.

 

I like this. Windows 8 Optimized Using the latest Windows? Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition is the first free antivirus solution compatible with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.
I just wonder why not call it Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition 2015? It won't be long before other AV's become 2016 versions. I also wonder how it is optimized. 64 Bit?

 

Monitoring for changes the BD sigs folder, the changes occurred irregularly, minutes apart, hours apart and all sorts of intervals in between over a period of several weeks that I observed the behavior 24/7. Without fail, for each update, the version number incremented up by one.

BD-Free does not need to check for updates at any specific interval nor are signatures updated at any specific interval. New signatures arriving on BD servers will be pushed to clients as a function of the Gonzales/Nimbus cloud service. (Disclaimer: 1 - It might not have always been that way. 2 - I did not look for a service by which BD-Free might check at some interval in a "what if I missed a push?" fail-safe; I might investigate that the next time I run it.)

Exactly when that push specifically occurs depends on your online status, your ISP's QOS and WAN routing determined by your location. The latter determines which BD server farm (primary is in Romania) or leased server farm (i.e. amazonaws) is accessed. Mine rolled in from Ashburn, Virginia. Under perfect conditions, the signatures will arrive on your system as soon as they arrive on your BD server.

As a cloud-centic AV, BD-Free will submit to the cloud any suspect file not hit/passed by local signatures. The file, at that point residing as cached in the system temp folder, will await a hit/pass, the timing and completion of which depends on the same factors described in the previous paragraph.

Whether local or cloud, a hit will quarantine the file and pass will move it to your download folder.

It behooves BD to update the local signatures files promptly and efficiently (at which they have proven themselves to be highly competent for well over a decade) since the lag inherent by the cloud scan is perceived by the user as "what's taking so long" or "what's wrong?"

On the upside, if it takes 10-15 minutes, or 30, or 45, to get the latest sigs to your system, the cloud takes up the slack though it might take a while. If that's a problem, BD will be more than happy to refund your purchase.

 

Since yesterday Back to Bd free, after two weeks with avira free (False positifs, avira deleted one of my programs, browser safety not so good) and 3 days panda free (url filtering not always working and increased boot-times :/ )
with BD free good webscanning and its working all the time, better and faster boot-times .... proactive better than the 2 others, do i need to say more ...

 

No, you said it quite well. BD FREE is great set it and forget it. I also tried many free a/v's and they just don't measure up to BD Free's simplicity and lightness and protection.

 

BD Free is way too buggy for regular daily use... I've had much greater success with Panda and Avast. BD Free bugs will never be fixed either, and we've been staring at them for years now... no change. It's junk.

 

BD FREE's BBE is far greater than Panda free...but one av isn't for everyone. Am glad you found what works for you. I know BD FREE works for me...worry free/ virus free nearly 2 yrs. Wish you the same.