Last month Symantec gave us a first look at their technologies, and now it’s BitDefender’s turn, as today it’s released the first public beta of the company’s extremely comprehensive Total Security 2012.
And we do mean comprehensive. So the lengthy feature list doesn’t only include the standard modules: antivirus, antiphishing, antispam, a firewall, and so on. You also get file encryption, a secure file shredder, chat encryption, parental controls, an online backup tool, file syncing, vulnerability detection, privacy options, a tune-up tool to clean up redundant files and Registry keys, and a Remote Management tool that will help you manage these features across your entire network.
The suite includes plenty of new features, too. Integrated cloud services ensures a faster response to new outbreaks, for instance. The Scan Dispatcher automatically checks your system for threats when it’s idle, minimising any impact on other applications. And if Total Security 2012 finds a deeply-embedded threat which it can’t remove, then it can reboot your PC to Rescue Mode, a trusted Linux-based environment that makes it much easier to detect and clean up any malware.
Autopilot is another interesting addition, which allows Total Security 2012 to make any security-related decisions on your behalf: perfect for novice users, or anyone else who just doesn’t want to be hassled with pop-ups or alerts. (Though if you would rather keep control of what’s happening on your own PC, don’t worry, this is turned off by default.)
And a more flexible interface makes it easier than ever to control this functionality, as you can drag and drop modules around and reorganise them to suit your needs.
Of course this is only a first beta, and so there are a few inevitable issues.
We found Total Security 2012′s RAM use was occasionally high, for instance, at over 200MB, even when running in the background. But that’s to be expected with beta code, and normally it was under 35MB.
We also noticed that some applications seemed noticeably slower after installing the package. And we were unable to test any of the browser protection features, as they didn’t appear on our test PC at all.
Total Security 2012 isn’t yet ready to offer long-term protection for your PCs, then, but it is still an interesting package, packed with features, and well worth a look if you’re interested to see what BitDefender will be doing next. The beta download is available now.
This article originally appeared at softwarecrew.co.uk
