Labs

Kaspersky's anti-virus software has a lot to live up to. Previous versions reviewed in Computer Buyer have been fantastic at detecting viruses. With the exception of F-Secure's virus scanner, none can match it.

In the past, our main gripe with Kaspersky's technically brilliant software was its interface. It was complicated to use and had no central control panel. This made it unsuitable for non-specialist Windows users. The latest version breaks the mould and has a pleasant and simple set of screens, with a Windows XP look and feel.

When our victim computer downloaded its infected messages into Outlook Express, Kaspersky Personal 5 quietly removed them. Most of the infected attachments were caught this way. Those that weren't were picked up by the real-time scanner when we tried to run them. The scanner detected every file, including our customised Visual Basic scripts and even our specially disguised Trojan. Not only did Kaspersky stop all our test viruses running, it did so without setting off a battery of alarms and pop-up warnings. This is good, as these can be a real pain when a major virus is spreading and you get lots of infected mails.

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F-Secure Anti-Virus, Kaspersky's program provides three levels of security with a slider button that makes it easy to configure. The least thorough level is referred to diplomatically as High Speed. Kaspersky recommends that you use the default level. This is virtually the same as the Maximum Protection level. The only difference is that a system set to the default level won't scan outgoing e-mail and self-extracting .Zip files. Unlike F-Secure's software, Kaspersky's program scans the contents of regular .Zip files by default.

Updating virus definition files and scheduling scans with Kaspersky Personal 5 is very easy. If you have a broadband connection, schedule the software to update every time you log on to your PC. Otherwise, set the program to update only when you tell it to. This prevents your modem connection getting choked with updates every time you use your PC.

When you run a scan and the software detects viruses, it displays a prompt asking you what it should do: delete the file, disinfect it or ignore it. You can answer the prompt and tell the scanner to do the same thing to any similar items it finds. This saves a lot of time if you have a badly infected system. You can set up the scanner to delete infected files or perform other recommended actions, depending on the type of file it finds. Once it has determined that a file is virus-free it will ignore it during consecutive scans, as long as the file has not changed in the meantime. This makes running system scans very fast, after the initial slog.

This is an impressive program that completely protects your computer from viruses. It's as effective as our winner, F-Secure, and only misses out on a place in the Top 50 because it's a little more expensive.