A closer look at F-Secure Anti-Virus 2010

F-Secure Anti-Virus 2010 protects your computer against viruses, spyware, infected e-mail attachments, and other malware. It uses DeepGuard cloud computing technology to ensure fast protection against new threats.

The installation process is simple and you can choose between an automatic or step-by-step installation. Restarting your computer is required to download updates – the process might take up to 20 minutes (depending on your network speed). The welcome screen:

Press the Status button to check the status of the installed security features (DeepGuard, Virus and spyware scanning, Scheduled scanning). Turn on everything you think necessary. The Tasks button presents you with these options:

Three of the tasks (Scan, Check for updates and Settings) you can choose from this menu can also be accessed from the main window. Before you start scanning, I recommend checking out the Settings menu and decide on the various scanning options and actions for the program to perform after finding a virus or spyware:

While you’re at it, you can also decide if you want Deep Guard to be turned on (it is by default). Other Settings regard your connection, automatic updating, your subscription and privacy (you can choose if you want to participate in the Real-time Protection network, i.e. contribute anonymous data to further improve the service – this option is also checked by default).

Let’s start scanning. You can choose to perform a Virus and spyware scan (which targets only the system), a Full scan (C: + system + rootkits) or a Custom scan. I tried a Full scan, and this is what I got:

Since I decided that the program must ask me what to do with the files, I am able to choose which files get quarantined, cleaned, deleted – or left alone. Some of them could not be processed for a variety of reasons, but you know where they are and you can delete them manually. But, even then you may not be able to access them and F-Secure steps in and let’s you delete it permanently:

Another thing you can do with this software is to check which programs Deep Guard has blocked and let them start if you choose so. You can, of course, also access the Quarantine and restore files you want to keep – scanning reports will let you know why the files were detected in the first place.

F-Secure Anti-Virus 2010 is a very simple anti-virus solution. It doesn’t offer a myriad of options, but it has all the right ones – and this makes it very easy to understand and use even for novices.