Product Reviews

Along with PC-cillin 2000 (see opposite), Command AntiVirus has been in existence for many years, starting life as the simple F-Prot utility. However, one of the main differences with this software is that it's aimed not only at single users but also at small businesses, so the former group will find a number of redundant features. Installation isn't the smoothest and can be confusing, as the routine has options for networked workstations and installing to a server.

AntiVirus offers a spartan main interface, showing a list of tasks that can be activated by a couple of mouse clicks for swift scanning of hard disks, folders or network locations. It can either scan every file on your PC or use a list of file extensions that can be teamed up with two more lists containing files and directories to be excluded from the scanning process.

A scheduler allows each task to be automated so it can be run regularly on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The time spent when your PC isn't being used can be gainfully employed, as the scheduler can be set to fire up a scanning task if no activity has been detected for a specific number of minutes.

Real-time scanning is handled by an F-Agent utility, but there's not a lot to customise here - all you can do is decide whether

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to scan floppy, hard and network drives and allow AntiVirus to attempt a repair of infected files, delete or rename them, or just report. We could see no options for moving files to a quarantine area. Even so, AntiVirus did a fine job of detecting our test viruses, as its DVP (dynamic virus protection) feature refused to allow any access to the infected files. Unfortunately, reporting is limited as AntiVirus only provides a running commentary during the scan and displays a log file at the end - no information is retained about previous activity.

It has to be said that AntiVirus could do with a serious spring clean. The product documentation on Command's Web site is over four years old and the online help files still refer to the original incarnation of this version, when its name was changed from F-Prot Professional to AntiVirus for Windows 95 over three years ago.

The biggest drawback of not having a separate single-user version of AntiVirus is the excess network-related baggage it drags along with it, hence the extra installation options. Furthermore, the advanced preferences include options for entering UNC or drive letter paths for remote setup and updating across a local network - single users won't be interested in this. A bigger surprise is that, even with all the network support, there are no options for adding details of a proxy server for Internet downloads - a feature offered in virtually all other anti-virus products.

There's no doubt that Command AntiVirus will keep your PC virus-free, but there are so many other products available that can do this with a lot more style and for a lot less cash. AntiVirus is comparatively expensive, its rudimentary interface can be difficult to navigate and the supporting documentation needs updating - there's nothing here that will knock Norton AntiVirus 2002 off the PC Pro A List.