Filed under: OS Updates, Security, Utilities, Windows, Beta, Windows x64
Kaspersky offers free preview of Antivirus for Windows 7
by Lee Mathews Feb 2nd 2009 at 3:00PM
If you're running Windows 7 beta, the team at Kaspersky wants you to take their latest offering for a test drive.
The new version features not only antivirus and anti-malware protection, but a number of other tools to protect your pc. Kaspersky has also bundled firewall, anti-spam, anti-spyware, and registry defense tools. There's even a banner blocker to help banish annoying advertisements from your browser.
As always, resource utilization is very low with Kaspersky - task manager reports about 38Mb of memory. Scanning is extremely fast and has been tweaked for multi-core processors. The new heuristics engine is also capable of launching unidentified but suspicious applications in "an isolated virtual environment" in order to safely analyze their behavior.
The technical preview is a free download, and beta activation keys are currently valid for 90 days.
The new version features not only antivirus and anti-malware protection, but a number of other tools to protect your pc. Kaspersky has also bundled firewall, anti-spam, anti-spyware, and registry defense tools. There's even a banner blocker to help banish annoying advertisements from your browser.
As always, resource utilization is very low with Kaspersky - task manager reports about 38Mb of memory. Scanning is extremely fast and has been tweaked for multi-core processors. The new heuristics engine is also capable of launching unidentified but suspicious applications in "an isolated virtual environment" in order to safely analyze their behavior.
The technical preview is a free download, and beta activation keys are currently valid for 90 days.
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Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike said 3:28PM on 2-02-2009
While I believe in free AV, I will give it a try for the hell of it.
Avast: although you work with W7, get your ass moving. I want features like this for free.
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David said 3:46PM on 2-02-2009
I'm happily running Avast on Windows 7 without any problems or complaints. While Kaspersky is more comprehensive in a unified package, I'm happy with my free solutions of Avast (anti-virus), Windows Defender (anti-spyware) and Windows Firewall (firewall) with Vista Firewall Control from Sphinx Software (the Vista version works without problems on Windows 7). There's also IE7Pro (works with IE8) for Internet Explorer or Adblock Plus for Firefox to remove ads too.
Mike said 4:56PM on 2-02-2009
Oh boy.....you do realize that Defender does almost nothing to prevent spyware?
Chris Liphart said 3:52PM on 2-02-2009
Kaspersky has been offering this for at least several weeks now. I passed it up as AVG is fine for my uses (I dual boot with Mac OS, and I'm only in Windows 7 for testing features).
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Jash Sayani said 4:21PM on 2-02-2009
Thanks!
BTW, even Norton 360 ver 3.0 has a 0- day free trail for Windows 7 beta testers...
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burnblue said 4:31PM on 2-02-2009
I was using Kaspersky on Vista and was very fond of it, so I tried this out. I bluescreened several times (kl1.sys or something), and promptly removed it.
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Neoprimal said 4:54PM on 2-02-2009
It's pretty horrible in Windows 7. I've never bs'd with it but there's a big problem with the updating system in relation to how it hooks into the Windows Activity Center. The updates are for one, DEAD slow. And even after it updates, WAC still 'thinks' it needs updating until after several restarts. It also felt pretty clunky...at least compared to what I use in Vista which is Eset Nod32.
Right now I have Avira Free running on my Windows 7 machine, and I've tested it with several 'virusy' websites and some virus ridden files I've downloaded - it works fine. And it hooks into the WAC fine so when it's updated WAC shuts up. I may test Norton 360 (though I would never, ever use Symantec AV products again unless Eset died) and I'm of course waiting for Eset to release a beta trial for Windows 7.
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Mike said 4:57PM on 2-02-2009
Avira has no practical use, because its lacking an on-demand scanner. Switch to Avast or AVG.
Mysterius said 1:42AM on 2-03-2009
@Mike: What do you mean? Avira has real-time AND on-demand scanning. Real-time scanning is the important part for me, but on-demand (or scheduled) scanning is available for certain files, directories, or the whole system.
In fact, I'm running the full-system scan right now, for the first time on this system. (And just realized that the scanning window has been titled "Luke Filewalker"...)
There's a few basic tips that will improve Avira Antivir for home users. Namely, disabling the update nag-screen, killing the start-up splash (if you don't want it), and making updates run invisibly.
For disabling the nag-screen and making updates run invisibly:
http://www.tipsfor.us/2007/08/15/make-avira-antivir-free-edition-more-usable/
And for killing the splash screen (and another set of ways to disable the nag-screen):
http://www.elitekiller.com/files/disable_antivir_nag.htm
Neoprimal said 12:07AM on 2-04-2009
Mike....
lol. Yes, yes it does. As I mentioned, I tested it on a couple files that Eset had caught, as well as some websites that I've known to be shady.
I used to go with Avast and AVG, but Avast had been missing bad files left, right and center and AVG even more so. As the last solution (at the time - now there's PC Tools AV and Comodo around), I found Avira free to be amazingly effective for a free product. I wish Eset came with a family license though - it's down right THE best AV solution I've ever used.
Secondly. Defender isn't as horrible as you make it out to be. But it's effectiveness is dependent on the 'social', ie: for it to work well, you need to join and help out spynet. Otherwise it catches only the most horrible and obvious of spyware/malware. Not to kick free software, but when something is free - don't expect it to perform miracles. It does its job though.
El Taco said 5:30PM on 2-02-2009
this has been available since Windows 7 beta was released. When you first install it, it warns you that you need an antivirus, and if you tell it to show you what antivirus programs are available, it takes you to a page that links to this. I installed it right away, then realised that it didn't have a firewall so I installed KIs with my existing code.
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chrisaroz said 8:04PM on 2-02-2009
Holy crap this software is annoying! I've been using Avast happily since I installed Win7, but figured I'd give this a shot. Every 0.3 seconds I have to approve access to something or click yes on a prompt. Horrible for productivity!
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Jnetty said 11:00PM on 2-02-2009
I'm with Neoprimal. This has been available since Windows 7 Beta came out and its got a lot of issues. It would always say that the antivirus was out of date and to update. I got tired of it and download Free AVG and that is working well.
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Jason said 10:18AM on 2-03-2009
Hah, I've been using Avira and it's on-demand scanner for years. Good thing we have guys around like Mike to set me straight, and make me realize I was dreaming.
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Loois said 5:22PM on 3-28-2009
I have been using Avira free for quite some time. It works relatively well, and scores extremely high in tests (at least the premium version does).
Recently, I've noticed the scheduler uses a lot of cpu randomly (20%). I don't know why as I don't have anything scheduled, and it lasts longer than an average update.
For a free AV I'm debating about going back to Avast. I wouldn't pay for an Av, especially since I'm careful enough to have not been infected in quite a while. Kaspersky is nice, but their newest version annoyed me on Vista let alone a preview for 7.
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