Baidu Antivirus 2014 Review

very good
key review info
application features
  • Identify, repair and remove malware
  • (9 more, see all...)

Baidu Antivirus is becoming quite popular in the antivirus community, mostly thanks to its minimal impact on system performance. Last month, AV-Comparatives conducted a research to find out the most undemanding antivirus products concerning resources consumption available to date, and Baidu Antivirus scored some impressive points, gaining a top position alongside Bitdefender and Kaspersky.

We wanted to test Baidu Antivirus for ourselves to find out if it's impressive in other aspects as well, mostly malware detection ratio and scan speed. The antivirus utility puts emphasis on the fact that it will be always be free to users, and that it can run as the secondary line of defense against malware by pairing it with another av product, without software conflicts that trigger Windows stability issues. As far as the antivirus engine is concerned, Baidu uses its own av and cloud security engine, while also turning to Avira's antivirus engine for a helping hand.

NOTE: Baidu Antivirus 2014 was tested on 64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro and 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.

Baidu is wrapped in a highly intuitive and pleasant interface that makes antivirus configuration a breeze for users, even the ones less familiarized in security software. It automatically runs at system startup by default and creates an icon in the notifications area to immediately bring up the main panel, configure settings, run a quick scan, disable real-time protection and toggle gaming mode.

Showing the interface in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Showing the interface in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Showing the interface in Baidu Antivirus 2014
The left, middle and right panel of the highly intuitive and elegant interface

Scanning modes and configuration

Three large buttons in the main menu provide access to the scanning modules. Quick performs a fast checkup on the computer to look for suspicious activity in vulnerable areas such as system services, browser add-ons and scheduled tasks. Full takes the entire computer for a spin to do a thorough investigation, while Custom enables users to select the exact files, folders and drives to scan, and automatically excludes the system areas run by Quick mode. Hovering the mouse cursor over the Custom Scan button reveals options to quickly scan the desktop, My Documents or portable devices, as well as to repeat the last scan.

Showing a quick scan example in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Showing the virus scan configuration options in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Run a quick scan and customize settingsThe virus scanner can be customized by specifying the types of files to look for. By default, Baidu looks only for executables, documents and archives, but it can be set to take all file formats into account. Specific extensions may be excluded, while the maximum archive size can be modified. On threat detection, the tool automatically resolves the issues and backs up the files to the quarantine (can be disabled). Otherwise, users can manually select the course of action for each suspicious file: delete or trust.
Showing the engine options in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Activate the Baidu and Avira antivirus enginesThe Baidu antivirus engine is set to normal mode to fully detect suspicious files. This level can be either lowered or raised, although the latter increases the risk of false positives. Moreover, the scan scope may be extended by asking the tool to look for adware, PornDial, keygen and cracker tools, along with auxiliary and risk utilities. The Avira engine is used by default for virus scanning, but it is turned off for real-time protection.

Scheduled scans and real-time guard

Scan jobs may be scheduled in quick or full mode to run daily, weekly or monthly at a specific time. Plus, it can be disabled when the laptop switches to battery mode. Meanwhile, the real-time guard can be deactivated at any time, customized in terms of detection level to favor either resources consumption or thorough scanning, as well as set to manually or automatically resolve issues (auto-fixing infected files is optional).

Showing the scheduled scan settings in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Showing the system protection settings in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Schedule scan jobs and configure system protection settings

Proactive defense, USB and download protection

Baidu integrates a proactive defense module that basically shields itself from other apps which may modify the av tool's installation or configuration files, in an attempt to disarm and infiltrate the computer. Its monitor level can be increased to look out for any suspicious behavior, and users may hide the protection process. In addition, this module can be temporarily disabled (restarted at the next Windows boot).

Showing the proactive defense settings in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Showing the USB protection settings in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Configure proactive defense and USB protection settingsAs the name suggests, the USB protection tool prevents USB drives from infecting the PC with malware. It scans the devices in normal or automatic mode (depending on the user's preferences) and can disable the autoplay feature. What's more, the software application is capable of automatically scanning executable and zipped files when downloading them. It can be asked to verify all file types instead, and notify users on threat detection.

Extra security components in the toolbox

Swiping the main menu to the left reveals four components. The cloud file scanner uploads EXE and DLL files to an online database to verify them for malware using the latest virus definitions via cloud assistance. The browser protection tool monitors the homepages of popular browsers (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are supported) to prevent hijackers, and it can lock the browser or default homepage.

Showing the in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Showing the plugin cleaner settings in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Upload files to the cloud and remove dangerous pluginsThe malicious plug-in cleaner scans the PC for suspicious or unwanted plugins to prevent identify theft when surfing the web. Lastly, Baidu integrates a tool that enables users to translate the interface into their native language by editing each word.

Seamlessly deactivate each protection component

Swiping the main menu to the right gives users the possibility to turn off each component when it comes to computer, Internet and privacy protection. The real-time guard may be customized by deactivating shields for the system, registry, drivers, USB, applications, critical system locations and anti-injectors. Regarding online and privacy protection, it is possible to disable anti-phishing, download protection, anti-keylogger, screen capture prevention, and webcam shield.

Showing the real-time protection settings in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Disable any component that provides real-time protection

Other settings

At installation, Baidu integrates three entries into the Windows Explorer shell extension in order to quickly shred files and scan them via the antivirus engine or cloud tool; they can be disabled. Furthermore, the program can be removed from the Windows autostart sequence, and its notifications can be hidden when running applications in full screen (i.e. gaming mode). Settings may be restored to default.

Quarantine, exclusions and logs

Quarantined items may be examined in terms of full path, threat type and time of submission, in order to decide between deleting and restoring them. It is also possible to manage files excluded from scans, proactive defense, anti-hacker (i.e. privacy protection module) and URLs. Log details can be investigated when it comes to the virus scan, detected threats, proactive defense, anti-hacker, downloads and software updates; information can be exported to file.

Showing the quarantine in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Showing the exclusions area in Baidu Antivirus 2014
Manage quarantine items and exclusions

Performance results

We submitted 8,874 virus samples spread across 2.36GB to the test in order to evaluate Baidu's virus detection ratio. Default settings were applied. The testing machine was an Intel Core i5-3470 with CPU @3.20GHz and 12GB RAM, running Windows 8.1 Pro.

Baidu Antivirus finished the scan job in 4 minutes and 16 seconds, identifying 8,401 threats. Resolving the issues took a very long time (4 hours and 16 minutes): 1,788 items were repaired, while 6,613 were deleted, so only 473 virus samples remained undetected. Overall, Baidu identified and cleared 94.6% infected items.

On the other hand, the real-time safeguard was completely unresponsive, even after turning on the Avira engine and increasing the detection level for the Baidu antivirus engine. It worked smoothly on Windows 7, though.

The browser protection component discovered that Internet Explorer's homepage was hijacked and immediately resolved the issue after requesting permission.

The program returned 8 false positives in our evaluation. Seven of them were cleared with Baidu's cloud file scanner, so this created confusion.

The tool identified a malicious plugin made by Baidu itself.

It displayed alerts when attempting to access phishing websites, identifying 28 out of 30 links.


The Good

Baidu Antivirus supports a few languages for the interface and allows users to translate it into anything else by editing each word. It supports Windows XP through Windows 8/8.1 and both 32- and 64-bit architecture types.

The interface is among the most intuitive and pleasant ones we've seen in antivirus applications.

The developer promises it is permanently free to use. It can be run as a safety measure against malware by installing Baidu alongside another av product to strengthen defenses.

The anti-phishing module scored high in our tests.

CPU and RAM consumption was minimal during scans.

Thanks to the antivirus engine and cloud, scans are blazing fast.

The Bad

Although it is intuitive enough to be figured out by users, no software application is complete without a help file, and Baidu Antivirus lacks one.

The app does not integrate an option for setting the virus scanner to look only for user-defined file types.

The Avira Engine is not turned on by default for real-time protection. The real-time protection module did not react during our tests on Windows 8.1.

Many false positives were detected in our tests, and most of them conflicted with Baidu's cloud file scanner.

The Truth

As a standalone product, Baidu Antivirus is not the most reliable anti-malware application, since its real-time guard was disappointing in our evaluation. However, thanks to minimal resources consumption and excellent virus detection ratio, the utility may become trustworthy as a secondary line of defense.

user interface 5
features 4
ease of use 4
pricing / value 5


final rating 4
Editor's review
very good
 
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