CA AntiVirus Plus Anti-Spyware
CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware is the latest anti-virus/anti-spyware from CA Technologies, and is the primary focus of this review. CA specializes in business and enterprise security solutions, along with consumer-level desktop solutions.
Although CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware did not rank highest amongst the many different virus protection software suites available on the market, we recognize that it may still be worth your consideration and fair review. One of the positive aspects we discovered while reviewing this software suite was that the admin interface was easy to operate and user friendly.
Also, CA has recently added new features to this package to include rootkit detection and USB scanning. But in terms of overall security for your computer system, we found CA to be lacking in certain areas as compared to other anti-virus suites available on the market.
Let’s Take A Look At The Overall Scope of Protection:
We found the CA AntiVirus Plus to be reasonably encompassing in that we noticed an increase in its ability to safeguard your computer both online as well as offline. Our review revealed that CA Anti-Virus Plus Anti-Spyware shields against viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans, and other malicious software as you might expect from any virus program.
CA has furthermore added to their arsenal the ability to now detect and safeguard your system from rootkits. CA Anti-Virus Plus utilizes real-time checking, analyzing all of the files in your system whether or not they are opened up, saved, and even when the file is closed.
Another plus is being able to enact a positive heuristic check which safeguards your pc from potential infections prior to the virus installing its signature database on your computer resulting in infection. The above characteristics only scratch the surface of the features within the suite, the Internet Security is a lot more robust and all-encompassing, to include such features as: anti-spam, anti-phishing, a personal firewall and parental controls.
What Is The Overall Effectiveness Of The Suite?
In comparison to other anti-virus packages, CA supplies comparatively capable defense against a variety of malware, in fact we discovered that the software has obtained the VirusBulletin VB100% (for Windows XP), signifying that the software has successfully found and blocked 100% of in-the-wild viruses.
On the other hand, we believe it important to point out that it didn’t take long to discover that CA failed the latest VB 100% test for the Windows Vista, and Windows 7 operating systems, so if you are running Windows XP you are golden.
While there is little doubt that CA AntiVirus Plus is considered to be reasonably effective in its overall effectiveness in detecting and eliminating potential threats against your system, we have come to the conclusion that the software just doesn’t do as much as other comparable virus protection suites that are currently available on the market.
How About Installation of the Software?
As far as the installation goes, we found the software to be quite easy to install wherein we had it on our computer, up and running in only a few minutes. Of course you will be required to restart your computer a couple of times, but aside from that we can confidently say that you will find little difficulty getting it up and running. One thing that we learned was that this edition of CA AntiVirus has a lighter memory footprint as compared to previous editions.
In previous years we found the software had a tendency to bog down our system, and even though CA is not completely up to par with other suites, we have found the 2011 to be far superior to its predecessors. Another new and useful feature we discovered while installing the software was that the CA AntiVirus Plus will actually run a quick scan on your system just before installing it. We assume this is to ensure that no prior malware exists, if it does encounter any you will be notified and asked if you would like to remove it.
How Easy Is It To Use?
As was mentioned above, we found that the admin panel for CA AntiVirus Plus is much better than previous editions; with a better design and easier admin panel we found it far easier to use the software more effectively. It is important that a good virus prevention package be able to perform manual scans and automatic updates with relative ease, and CA has done well to provide these functions.
You can tweak settings or setup the scheduled scans with ease. We were also pleased with the easy setup of routine maintenance functions, and like most other antivirus software, CA has been designed to run on its own with very little to no required user interaction. The system will scan files once they are accessed by the user and without bogging your system down and furthermore, CA AntiVirus Plus includes a smart auto-scheduling feature that recognizes when your computer is idle, and performs the scan then.
Update Capabilities:
As with most virus prevention programs, regular virus signature updates are a literal must and CA doesn’t fall short in this regard. Updates are performed on a daily basis to ensure the virus definitions are up to date and this is done automatically or you can manually check to ensure updates have been performed.
Help & Support:
CA offers a complete lineup of help and support functions wherein you can seek out support on the program itself or directly online. If you choose online you will find several help resources to include phone or online chat assistance, and also a community forum. In the program itself, CA AntiVirus Plus has the usual help file/manual, but also has several additional help files, including video tutorials.
So In Summary:
So to summarize, even though CA AntiVirus doesn’t rank as highly as other virus protection programs available, it is still a solid platform and can effectively protect your system from most threats you may face. However, as compared to other systems CA AntiVirus protection pales in comparison and lack of advanced features are significant setbacks.
But all in all the modern interface and internal updates makes CA far better than the 2010 version and if you are loyal to CA you will enjoy this version much more than the previous. Aside from that if you are interested in purchasing a license for yourself please click on the button below.
