Labs

Kaspersky's mission is to eradicate every known and unknown virus it discovers.

Prevention

Kaspersky found every virus and Trojan we used in out test, even when we hid the viruses inside compressed files. Another trick we tried was to 'double-infect' a file and then compress it using WinZip. Kaspersy detected the presence of both viruses within the zipped file, and asked us if we wanted to quarantine the file. The software ran quite happily on

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our Pentium III 800 test PC, and the system remained responsive during scans.

Ease of use

Previous versions of Kaspersky's antivirus software were let down by its controls, which most users found hard to use. Kaspersky has obviously taken note of this criticism, as the new version of the program is much easier to get to grips with. Settings are much easier to find and change than they were in previous versions - although some might still be a little confusing for complete novices. The Advanced mode is heaven for more technical users, allowing them precise control over a multitude of settings.

Overall

Kaspersky's software made short work of identifying every virus we threw at it - both the well-known viruses and our home-made nasties. The program also gets full marks for detecting the presence of the Trojans and backdoors installed on the computer. The interface may still seem a little daunting for novice users, but watertight detection and cure of all the harmful programs we put its way more than makes up for that.