Dr.Web Anti-virus 10 Review - Hits All the Right Notes

excellent
key review info
application features
  • Anti-malware application
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Made as an all-around anti-malware application that can fight off viruses, rookits, Trojans, spyware, adware and other malicious agents, Dr.Web Anti-virus is approachable and powerful. The default configuration made for novices is enough to ensure PC safety, while the program reserves some extra customization preferences for experienced users.

The trial edition can be tested for 30 days without any feature limitations. Once it expires, you can either uninstall the app or purchase the full package for $29.74 / €26 (1-year license, excluding VAT).

Customizable installation and intuitive interface

Installing an antivirus solution is not usually an easy task, and Dr.Web Anti-virus makes no exception. Firstly, it's advisable to uninstall any existing av products (especially if they have a real-time guard) to avoid any software conflicts that may lead to system stability issues.

Secondly, the setup parameters are customizable. Apart from the automatic updating utility and virus scanner, the full package includes an email scanner (SpIDer mail), a real-time safeguard (SpIDer Guard), a virus and spam scanner for Microsoft Office emails, and a firewall that replaces the built-in Windows Firewall. Any of these components can be excluded from setup.

Additionally, Dr.Web offers to connect to cloud services to get the latest information about new malware as soon as possible, in order to update your definitions. Although this is not mentioned in the setup, it integrates an entry into the Windows Explorer shell extension for custom-scanning files and folders. System reboot is necessary to finalize the installer.

Once launched, the application creates an entry in the system tray area for quick access. Keep in mind that administrative privileges are required to turn on the protection components: SpIDer Guard, SpIDer Mail, firewall, and preventive protection (against incoming threats).

Different scan modes and actions

Dr.Web has three scanning modes available: "Express" verifies the critical system areas which hold common malware hiding spots, "Full" looks into all parts of the local drives and any removable media, while "Custom" enables you to scan only selected files and folders.

During a scan job, you can check out the start and remaining time, current scanned objects, detected threats, the full path of the currently scanned file, along with a progress bar. The task can be paused to temporarily allocate system resources to other programs.

When infected or suspicious items are identified, the app loads the name, type and full path of each one, giving you the possibility to move them to the quarantine for closer examination, attempt to cure the files, or to directly remove them from the PC. All threats can be neutralized with one click once you specify the preferred course of action.

Advanced scan settings and the quarantine manager

As far as scan configuration is concerned, it's possible to activate sound alerts, ask the tool to automatically apply actions without your intervention, interrupt the scanning if the notebook switches to battery mode, modify the resources usage limit (default is 50%) or remove it, as well as choose the automatic action when it comes to infected, incurable or suspicious objects, adware, dialers, jokes, riskware, hack tools, containers, archives, and email files: move to quarantine or delete.

Dr.Web Anti-virus 10: Protect your computer from Internet perils
Dr.Web Anti-virus 10: Protect your computer from Internet perils

Removing currently used files requires system restart, and Dr.Web can do this automatically or ask for your confirmation. What's more, you can exclude any files and folders from the scan, skip archives, emails and installation packages, or specify the logging level for reports. Settings can be restored to default.

Items sent to the quarantine can be thoroughly inspected in a manager, where you can study their file name, threat type, date of addition, along with full path. They can be eliminated or restored to their original location on the disk.

Other protection components and settings

The SpIDer Guard, SpIDer Mail, firewall and preventive protection modules can be activated and deactivated with one click. You can exclude any files, folders, programs and processes from the real-time guard, disable rootkit scanning or heuristic analysis, choose the default action for each threat type, as well as exclude scans for loading programs and modules, installation packages, LAN objects, removable media and autoruns.

Dr.Web Anti-virus 10: Examine statistics about the real-time guard
Dr.Web Anti-virus 10: Examine statistics about the real-time guard

The mail scanner may also verify archive content. Furthermore, you can adjust the real-time guard's security level or pick an allow/deny/ask action for each protected object (e.g. drivers loading, Hosts file, Winlogon notifiers), monitor and change network access for the applications via Dr.Web's firewall, modify the working parameters for the known networks, and select the firewall operation mode: allow or block unknown connections, create rules for known applications, or interactive learning mode.

Configure general settings

It's possible to hide desktop notifications if you plan to play video games or work with other tools in full screen, enable email notifications for threat detection, critical, major and minor events, alter the update frequency and change the update source, apply a proxy configuration, check encrypted traffic, disable Dr.Web's self-protection module, enable remote control, or examine statistics and log details. Plus, you can password-protect the av to restrict other users' access.

Settings can be exported to file and imported later or another computer running Dr.Web Anti-virus.


The Good

With the help of this program, you can protect your computer from viruses, worms, Trojans, rootkits, adware, spyware, dialers, jokes, hacktools and riskware. It features a real-time guard against incoming threats, virus and spam scanner for Microsoft Office emails, along with a firewall.

There are three scanning modes available (quick, full, custom) and you can customize advanced settings regarding heuristics, exclusions, and resources usage limit, together with automatic actions for each threat type, removable media, installation packages, archives, and so on. Items can be sent to a quarantine.

Likewise, you can configure advanced settings for the mail and real-time guards. As for the firewall, you can create rules for each app, control their network access, and modify the working parameters for known networks. In addition, you can enable password protection, email notifications and a self-protection module, as well as study statistics and reports.

The real-time protection module performed excellently in our tests, as it immediately reacted while we extracted several thousands of virus samples from a password-protected archive. The scan time was very good (scanned all virus samples in roughly 5 minutes). As for the malware detection ratio, Dr.Web Anti-virus had a success rate of roughly 94.4% (identified 8951 virus samples out of 9002).

The app is multilingual and worked smoothly on Windows 8.1 Pro during our evaluation, without triggering the OS to hang, crash or prompt error dialogs. OS compatibility extends to Windows 7, Vista and XP.

Help documentation is available. CPU and RAM consumption was low when the tool was in idle state.

The Bad

It has a lot of processes running in the background. A quick look in Task Manager showed us two entries for the SpIDer agent (one for the admin module), anti-rootkit server, control service, one firewall process for the Windows notification module and another for the Windows service, along with two entries for the scanning engine.

The Truth

To be honest, we didn't expect much from Dr.Web Anti-virus, since it's not very popular amongst antivirus product users. However, we were more than impressed. According to our tests, Dr.Web Anti-virus is light on the system resources, speedy, highly effective, comfortable to work with, filled with advanced settings, and not expensive when considering all these aspects. Needless to say, you should download, install and test it for yourself.

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


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 
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Dr.Web Anti-virus (25 Images)

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