| Feature |
Description |
| Realtime scanning |
Automatic, constant, "behind-the-scenes" scanning for suspicious behavior. As long as the program is running, it will be scanning in the background. |
| Manual scanning |
Allows you to select a drive, folder, or file to be scanned immediately at your request. |
| Scheduled scanning |
Allows you to schedule a recurring day (weekday/day of the month) that a full system scan will take place. |
| On access scanning |
This will scan a file when you attempt to open it, or when it is downloaded to your computer. |
| Heuristic scanning |
As opposed to scanning for known viruses pre-specified in a database, heuristic scanning scans various behavior patterns of files such as
a specific date, an oversized file, suspicious memory allocations, suspicious entry points, attempts to access your address book, etc. |
| Anti-phishing protection |
Ability to detect and prevent access to phishing sites. A phishing web site or web page is designed to fool you into giving away your login information, credit card information or other private information. Email is the primary way that links to phishing pages are distributed. The phishing page will look like it's from a legitimate site (such as Paypal, or eBay) and ask you to log in or provide other personal information hoping that you think it's actually from the legitimate site. Phishing scams are extremely difficult to detect because they usually appear exactly as the site they are trying to impersonate. |
| Anti-rootkit protection |
Ability to detect and remove rootkits. Rootkits are a form of trojan virus which allows an intruder to gain control of your computer in one way or another without you knowing. |
| Scripting protection |
Script files are simple text files which contain programming language such as VBScript or Javascript. Many viruses take advantage of this technology and use malicious programming to cause havoc to your computer. These files can easily be downloaded inside your browser without you even knowing. Some antivirus programs can detect when these scripts are attempting to be run. Some cannot. |
| POP3 Email protection |
E-mail protection for email clients that connect to POP3 email. Such as Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape, etc. |
| IM protection |
Instant messaging protection. Some viruses can be sent through instant messaging programs such as AOL instant messanger, Yahoo instant messanger, MSN instant messanger, etc. Some antivirus programs can detect and prevent viruses being transferred through these programs. Some cannot. |
| Registry protection |
The windows registry stores massive amounts of information about your computer, your operating system, and software that is installed on it. Some viruses take advantage of the registry by manipulating things such as programs that startup when Windows boots, modification of your web browser home page, various security settings, etc. Some antivirus programs have the ability to monitor the registry for suspicious modifications. Some do not. |
| P2P protection |
Peer-To-Peer or File sharing program protection. There are many Peer-To-Peer / File sharing programs out there such as Kazaa, Morpheus, and a slew of others. These programs are one of the most common methods of virus transfer from computer to computer. Some antivirus programs have the ability to monitor file transfers through these programs and detect and eliminate viruses. Some do not. |
| ICSA certified |
ICSA labs is the global leader in information security product certification. In order to be certified, a program must meet certain criteria such as:
Detect 100% viruses listed on the current In The Wild List,
Detect 100% viruses listed in the ICSA Labs Common Infectors Test Suite,
Detect 100% of ICSA Labs Polymorphic Test Suite,
Detect 90% of the ICSA Labs Virus Collection, etc. |
| VB100% certified |
Virus Bulletin certification. The VB100 certification is given to all programs that:
- Detect all In the Wild viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning in Virus Bulletin's comparative tests.
- Generate no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.
|
> Antivirus Software 
