Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2010

Outwardly, Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2010 is all but identical to last year's release. That's a mixed blessing: the main status window is simple and clean, but the tabs on the left hand side expose a bevy of collapsing panes and secondary configuration windows. If you know what you're doing it's manageable, but novices may struggle.

The major feature list is unchanged too. Naturally there's malware detection, a firewall and web protection. There's also a spam filter, a home network monitor and a parental control module with a neat feature: you can specify which users are allowed to transmit certain strings (such as credit card numbers) to remote servers and which will be blocked.

With this Pro edition you also get a secure file vault, where sensitive data can be password protected and remotely erased if your PC is stolen, and the latest edition of Trend Micro Mobile Security for Windows Mobile (up to version 6) and Symbian, otherwise sold separately for £22.50 inc VAT.

What's new for 2010, according to Trend, is improved performance. But in our tests the suite failed to impress. It added one second to boot time, but we then saw 22 seconds of subsequent CPU activity while the software initialised - seven seconds longer than A-List champ Avira Premium Security Suite. RAM usage was higher too: 613MB for the system running Trend, versus 586MB with Avira.

On the upside, malware detection has improved: last year it scored a mediocre 83% hit rate against our malware, but this month its successor achieved a stonking 98% score, matching Avira.

And the firewall remains competent: with default settings it deflected all our attacks without bothering us, though it didn't completely cloak our PC as Avira did, enabling a would-be intruder to at least confirm the presence of our machine.

Next to a feature-packed suite like Norton Internet Security 2010, Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2010 feels a little unsophisticated: it won't automatically scan your system while you're away from the keyboard, it doesn't annotate your web search results to help you look before you leap and there's no reputation checking at the file level.

But simplicity can be a virtue, and Trend 2010 has teeth enough to protect you from the vast majority of threats. Its biggest weaknesses are middling resource usage and a high price. If you don't need the Pro features, check out the standard edition, which is £10 cheaper.

Author: Darien Graham-Smith