[Wickerman]

I downloaded the trial version of Bitdefender 10 Antivirus because pcworld had it at the top of their ratings for antivirus programs ( Well, actually it was v9. ). From the very start the thing has managed to piss me off. It went and tried to delete a couple apps. from my pc that I know for CERTAIN are not viruses. The deletion failed so instead it moved them somewhere. Once I saw what had happened I stopped the scan and started to look at the settings because I didn't want it deleting/healing/etc. anything without asking me first. Well, as far as I can tell there is no setting that you can pick which tells it not to mess with a file unless it asks for permission. The least deadly option I see is for it to take away permissions from the file. So what's the deal? Is there a way to make it ask for permission before doing anything to a file that it labels as a threat or is the user forced to let it take over the pc and delete/heal/etc. anything it wants to? If the latter is the case than the rating pcworld has given it is baffling to me. How can you give a high score to an app. which carries on like a hijacker deleting files without asking that it has incorrectly recognized as threats? You slammed Zone Alarm's virus scanning capabilties that are packaged in with ZA's suite but at least it doesn't behave like it owns the system by deleting things without asking to first. ZA Security Suite is what I've used for quite some time but after reading your reviews I wanted to try Bitdefender for viruses and Spy Sweeper for spyware. I'm very pleased with what I've seen from Spy Sweeper so far but if the only way I can use Bitdefender to scan for viruses is to allow it to take over my pc and not give a damn about what I think than I'm going to stick with ZA despite you saying it is crappy. But hopefully the answer is that Bitdefender does have options for making it ask before acting and I simply have not located them yet.

[Wickerman]

To elaborate a bit one of the files that it recognized as a virus and then tampered with was the EvID4226 patch. That app. is not a virus but a fix. If anything regarding that matter is a virus it is MS's Service Pack 2 with its goofy limiting of half-open connections to 10. They have their claims as to why they do that but I suspect their reasoning is a ruse and is actually an attempt to kill p2p, proxy scanning, etc. But anyway, ZA also called that file a virus ( Perhaps it has something to do with the heuristic scanning these programs use but I'm not sure. ) but the difference is that ZA gives me the option to tell it to leave that file alone where with Bitdefender I can find no such option.

[Wickerman]

Wow, this forum is a ghost town which is surprising to me since pcworld is a popular site.

[TheNameless]

I'm guessing it has to do with the heuristics. It probably has an option to take heuristics off of on-demand and/or on-access scanning.

[jeep61890]

its probably because you wrote us a book about your problem. i have bitdefender a.v.10 but when i got to about the 75th sentence on your post , i quit reading. please make it short and sweet.

[KellieCM]

I wouldn't call the forum a "ghost town"... in fact is grows larger and busier every day. Just because you don't get an answer to your question in 2 hours doesn't mean that the forums are desolate.

[Cosmo]

Yea, it takes a month. Aug29 - Oct 29.