The protection of your computer against malevolent agents, be they under the form of spyware, viruses or any other type of nasties, must be enforced on the system. Otherwise, you risk infections, which lead to corruption of important data and files or worse, to losing them to unknown third parties. The list of suites ready for the job is not too long and most of them are up to the task. But there is this little detail called "rate of success," which is basically the detection and elimination rate that makes the difference between a good antivirus and an even better one.

Ikarus Virus Utilities has a $65 price tag attached to a list of features for protecting your computer, such as virus checking with preset scans, or watching over incoming email. You can test it at full capacity for a period of 30 days so that you know beforehand what your money goes on.

Before proceeding to installing the application, you'd better make sure there is no other antivirus software installed on the system since, as the message provided by the Ikarus wizard window indicates, this could lead to complications. Disabling the existing antivirus will not avoid its detection by Ikarus. However, the checking of Ikarus seemed to be quite inaccurate in my case, having wrongly listed Symantec's Live Update and Norton Ghost as possible antivirus software.

Setting up Ikarus Virus Utilities theoretically requires you to cover eleven steps but, in practice, there are much less to pay attention to, because some of them are simply introducing you to the actual settings (e.g. the first one welcomes you to the wizard and recommends closing all other applications before proceeding). There is nothing fancy or complicated, as this is actually a wizard that will provide you with hints all along that will help you make the best decisions.

Step three of the wizard will check for setup prerequisites like running MS Outlook, administrative rights, old Ikarus versions and updating GuardX driver. This is where the application also looks for competition on your computer, prompting you with the warning of possible complications due to another antivirus application present in the system. After this, steps four through six are all about the location to install Ikarus and opting for a menu folder.

With all the files installed, it is time to make your network settings, which are paramount for updating Ikarus Virus Utilities. The app will immediately check for a connection and proceed to downloading the latest signatures in order to keep your computer up to date and malware-free.

The wizard will also present you with options for monitoring your system. It can keep an eye on system activities, watch email traffic and Internet downloads, activate the spyware and dialer protection. You can also enable automatic scans of the computer at a specified day and time and with specific frequency.

Ikarus' setup wizard is pretty simple and an experienced computer user will definitely find it underdeveloped considering that there isn't much left to the choice of the end-user. And, despite this being a demo version that we tested, it should have made available different types of scanning, as well as various levels of protection, especially for email and Internet download fields.

With the installation completed, the application will place itself in system tray and act on your system constantly scanning what is launched and copied on the computer. It is continually watching over the system and, unfortunately, it is not always doing so in a good way, as there are pretty good chances of it bumping into a false positive, a perfectly safe file misinterpreted, and of preventing you from copying or launching it.

The system tray agent of the application is quite a nuisance in demo mode, since it constantly alerts you of the missing license with a red pop-up, exactly the same as in the case of malware detection.

As for the interface and configuration options available, Ikarus Virus Utilities is divided into four modules, each dealing with a specific task: scanning, quarantine, program update, and settings area. I can't say choosing your options comes with a high degree of flexibility, because the application fails to provide the user with the necessary information about the alternatives.

Scanning

Scan module, for instance, comes with four types of scan, but no explanation is offered on how they will affect the computer or what areas will be checked. If you are not familiar with the procedures, it will take some lucky guesses to find the answer. The purpose of both Entire Computer scan and Removable Media is clear, but with Fast System Scan you tread into unknown territory, given that you're given no clue whatsoever about what areas of the computer will be checked. In the case of System Partition, as the name clearly suggests, Ikarus will look on the drive the operating system boots from.

Each type of scanning supports minimum configuration in the sense that all you can do is make it automatic and schedule the operation to take place with a specific frequency. If this does not suit you, you can always start the engine manually whenever you feel like it.

Sure, you can add your own scan profile, as well as folder locations or even file paths. The same scheduling utility is available to make the operation as frequent as you deem necessary. But that's about all the configuration you can make with scanning. There are no threat levels for the user to set, and everything is mostly predefined.

Running a Fast System Scan took quite a while and did not limit to system files and usual locations where malware would hide, but included removable drives as well. Generally, the action would not baffle me but, since there is a special scan profile dedicated to these drives, including them in a fast system scan seemed a bit superfluous.

Quarantine

All baddies are automatically sent to quarantine the moment they are detected on your computer, thus annihilating them and any action they might enterprise. The section dedicated to the incarcerated elements contains options for deleting caught nasties, save and delete (an options that makes a backup of the deleted file in case you want it back later), treating the infected file or temporarily unblock it. The weird thing is that in the case of quarantined false positives (and Ikarus tends to be a bit too quick in taking the decision in this instance), you cannot make the app hand back the file unless it's been through the "Save and Delete" procedure.




The module reserved for updating the application is scarce in options and offers little to the user. Save for the update settings that let you turn the process of finding and installing them to auto, what's left are details on the virus database version and the date of Virus Utilities update. This module also comes with its share of imperfections because, as you can see from the images, the application lets you calculate the time spent since the last update.

Guarding your system

Configuring how the application should protect you is made under Guard tab of the interface. The list of protection settings is brief and they themselves vary from scarce to none. As mentioned before, Ikarus Virus Utilities is designed to protect you from viruses, spyware, dialers, to keep a close lookout on what is downloaded from the Internet, as well as to scan incoming mail messages.

Internet downloads, spyware protection and dialer protection seem to be included under system protection because unchecking that button will disable all these protections as well. Re-enabling system protection should re-enable the three types of protection as well - but it will not and the procedure must be completed manually. However, if you check only the system protection button, the application will signal a "partly active" alert although all other protections are off, and the program will work in the background protecting you from executing malware.

When it comes to email protection, Ikarus does not present you with too much flexibility either. Actually, the only settings you benefit from are saving infected attachments, and scan report options for incoming and outgoing emails.

Regarding the detection rate, a $65 protection suite should do better. My experience with the product resulted in plenty of false positives and a quite low accuracy level. The false positives combined with the accuracy do not label it as a trustworthy antivirus. If its purpose is to play in the "Big League" of computer protection software, then there is plenty of work still left to be done.

The application is in early development and, unfortunately, this is shown not only by the version number but even by the entire behavior of the program, from the looks to the list of available settings, and detection rate. Should the developer consider sticking to this price, numerous aspects must be taken into consideration.

The Good

The application has a head start in that it is easy to use, given the fact that handling any of the modules available is done with absolutely no difficulty.

Uninstalling the program will not be a problem for any user, because it leaves no critical remnants in the registry.

The Bad

Ikarus Virus Utilities did a poor job at pinpointing the nasties we faced it with, and there were lots of false positives. Activating the modules and detecting other antiviruses on the system also presented some problems.

Stalling all protection is ruled against by a simple restart of the computer, as all security is re-enforced without any warning. It would be a great idea to add a pop option that lets the user decide on the duration of the protection interruption.

During my testing, the application scored quite high and managed to eliminate the nasties by deleting them. However, in one test, the computer's performance was affected while trying to "cure" the infected files and it took quite a while for the job to complete. During the procedure, the application was non-responsive for some time.

Ikarus also recorded the greatest number of false positives compared with all software we used as calibrators.

The Guard module will be displayed in the tray alert as inactive, even if it includes one single unchecked box. In order for it to become active, all checkboxes must be turned on.

The Truth

The application is rigid and deficient in offering the user the flexibility in setting up the desired level of protection. To make it a big leaguer, the price needs to be dropped just as much as the list of options needs improving. Users have little to tinker with, and the program practically does the job on its own leaving them with two options only: either obey its decisions or disable the protection.

However, the version number should give you a fair warning regarding Ikarus' maturity in antivirus protection. On the bright side, future versions have a base from where to start the improvement.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: