14 DAY TRIAL // As far as anti-malware protection is concerned, users no longer have to rely on a handful of solutions. The current market offers more than a dozen alternatives, each claiming particularities that make it more efficient compared to what the competition offers.
Bitdefender’s 60-Second Virus Scanner does not encompass the necessary technology to rival with a full-fledged solution but, according to the developer, it has no problem working as a sidekick.
The company makes this small malware fighter available absolutely free of charge. It can be placed on the computer via a web installer, which should download and install the necessary data in a matter of seconds; during our tests, it completed the job in about 10 seconds, but factors like bandwidth and computer specs influence the speed of the routine.
Immediately after downloading the resources, it is ready to install on the system. You can choose to provide anonymous usage reports that can help the developer build a more stable and functional version of the application.
By the looks of it, Bitdefender has made a minimum investment in the interface of the application and has decided to put more hours into the technology behind the scanner.
60-Second Virus Scanner pops on the desktop as a gadget that can sit anywhere on the screen, if you don’t feel encumbered by it.
The first action it takes after installation is to check the computer for malicious code. Since this is not a full-blown antivirus solution, the procedure targets only active areas of the system such as memory, running processes and system files.
The application is basically a standalone version of the quick-scan function present in most security products on the market.
In order to make it extremely light, at the core of the product there is cloud technology, which manages a large pool of information that can be disseminated very fast to the user community.
60-Second Virus Scanner acts as a bridge between the system and Bitdefender’s servers, which receive data from the user, analyze it and provide an answer. The analysis looks for irregularities specific to malicious activity: valid digital signatures, hidden processes, etc.
Just as the name suggests, scanning for malware takes one minute, at most. Our first scan took about 35 seconds to complete and the wait time kept decreasing upon subsequent verifications.
A scan can be triggered by the user or it can start automatically when new items with suspicious activity are detected (modification of specific registry areas, actions affecting driver functionality or processes running with elevated privileges).
By default, Bitdefender’s scanner checks the system on a daily basis, but this can be changed from the settings panel to weekly or monthly actions.
The list of options is limited to just a few choices, such as enabling the scan of critical areas in real time, launch with the operating system or check for updates automatically.
We used a small batch of threats to test 60-Second Virus Scanner detection and it managed to accurately point to them. However, the biggest downside is that it does not bring to the table a malware removal tool to eliminate the samples.
As such, if you have the necessary computer knowledge, you can take the matter into your own hands and eliminate the threats manually. Depending on what you are up against, this is a time-consuming process.
The alternative is to get a full-blown antivirus to do the job for you. Obviously, in the threat detection panel, 60-Second Virus Scanner suggests a Bitdefender product for cleaning the computer, namely Antivirus Plus.
If you do not want to shell out the money, but still get rid of the infection, you can use the trial mode of the product. Free alternatives may also achieve the same results.
60-Second Virus Scanner is far from being a complete security suite that users can rely on for full protection of their system, but it was not intended to fill that role, either. It is just a simple tool providing an extra layer of protection that may pick up threats that the default solution may miss.
It works in the background and does not require too much of the system resources to function properly. We noted a 35% peak in CPU usage on a low-specced test computer, while RAM stayed well under acceptable values.
The Good
It informs if security measures such as Windows UAC (User Account Control), firewall or antivirus products are functioning on the system.
The Bad
Lack of malware removal capabilities lowers its value drastically and in most cases, it is a dealbreaker.
