Max Total Security

Anyone heard of these Dudes before?

-http://maxpcsecure.net/totalsecurity.htm-

 

Been seeing them on Softpedia from time to time, so I guess at least it's not a rogue product.

Max Secure Software is an Indian company, and is indeed an Intel software partner:

http://software.intel.com/partner/search-detail?companyguid=574caa03-8e5e-e011-95a1-0050568d2e6c

Cannot guess why they're not hot linking it on their homepage though (much more convincing if they did imo). Also not sure about the "Microsoft Gold Partner" part, all I could find on MS site is this:

http://pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-IN...ndia-Pvt-Ltd-4297693544?LocId=289313294752104

 

Bitdefender certainly doesn't like that site.

 

They've been around for years. I helped them remove some false positives from their antispyware product a long time ago.

I have no idea what engine they are using for their AV, but I can confirm their antispyware does not work well. I see they've included their registry cleaner in their AV which is not a good thing as it has problems with false positives.

I would suggest not using this antivirus as they are a shady company. For example they use the typical deliberately misleading advertising to sell their registry cleaner:

With any registry cleaner there less than a .01% chance it will make your computer run faster or fix errors no matter how many hundreds or thousands of so called error the free scan only version finds. Anyone who claims otherwise is either clueless or is making money from selling registry cleaners or as an affiliate.

 

The browser extension blocks it too,checked the url to VT and only BitDefender flags it and WOT.So it seems a FP for sure.

 

Avira Antivirus Suite doesn't seem bothered by the site, it goes right through

 

I emailed them and they said they use their own engine.

 

Well I installed this so I could reach my own opinions about it. The initial download is a very small exe file which is a download manager. I had a few issues with it downloading the installer, but after closing and reopening it a few times it did manag to complete the download for the full installer. When the download manager is reopened, the download resumes from where it left off.

There were no issues during the installation, after which it started a quick scan which showed that it has serious issues with false positives. For example there were leftover registry keys from when I had 360 Internet Security installed which were identified as belonging to several threats including "Fake Antispyware.360Safe"

To be honest, while the problems with false positives provide good reason to avoid this product, (plus the unknown detection abilities of their own scan engine) I am inclined to believe they are not deliberate false positives - based on my previous dealings with the company. Over 8 years ago when I filled out the survey I was taken to after uninstalling their antispyware they emailed me and did remove the false positives I submitted to them, and also gave a free licencee to both their antispyware and privacy products.

 

It used to use Vipre engine.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=275158

 

It seemed like they were using their own engine, but I really did look to closely, and I have uninstalled it. If they are still using Vipre, then the false positives much be coming from Max Security's own antispyware engine and not Vipre.

 

WOT just flagged this site as dangerous. Lots of red.

 

What comes up when you Google the names of its detections or compare them with those on virustotal/herdprotect?

 

I never thought of doing that to be honest. When I get a chance, since I'm still not using any AV, I will install it again and see what I can find.

 

AV vendors should refrain from using 'Total Security' or anything to that extent on the product name. It's outright misleading.