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G Data Anti Virus 2008

Posted on the August 28th, 2009 under Software by admin

A simple package that combines two detection engines for maximum efficacy

German security specialist G Data has been producing anti-virus software for over 20 years, but there’s nothing retro about anti virus 2008.

Open it up and you see a basic user interface giving direct access to the main functions (starting and scheduling scans and updates), as well as a few information panels. Click on “Options” and you can set some default behaviors  and toogle options like heuristics. As with Spyware Doctor . the emphasis is on practically.

G Data Anti Virus secret weapon is it “Double Scan” technology, which uses two independent detection engines to scan suspect files. They’re referred to simply as “Engine A” and “Engine B”, with Engine A described as the more effective but slightly more resource –heavy of the two. In reality, Engine A is a licensed implementation of Karspersky’s scanning engine, while Engine B is licensed from Avast. You can use both in combination or just one if you’re worried about resource usage we saw no penalty to using both engines, as per the default configuration.

This raises a potential concern: since G Data doesn’t own the scanning engines, it’s reliant on third parties to keep its libraries up to date. But the Karspersky engine has a great track record, and runs to a commendable hourly update schedule.

G Data supplements this with its own “Outbreak Shield” system, using data from email security specialists  Commtouch to identify traffic patterns that look like a virus outbreak. In theory, this lets it keep malicious emails off your system even before the threat is identified. It may be largely redundant in these days of web mail and hardened email clients, but it’s good to have.

Despite its multiple engines, G Data anti virus added just six seconds to our boot time (CPU spikes and hard drive activity continued for around 20 seconds afterward, though that’s always a hazard on a Vista system). It then occupied 46mb of RAM when idle-same as Kaspersky.

It was only to be expected that, in our tests, G Data anti virus would duplicate Karspersky’s excellent score. But, thanks to the Avast engine, it also flagged up the eGuardian chile-protection package that the Russian scanner considered harmless. That’s a very impressive performance.

G Data anti virus has its share of interface foibles. We’ve never known a product to provoke so many Vista UAC prompts-even anodyne actions such as opening the “options” window caused a system interrupt. And many windows( such as the virus scan details view) don’t appear in the taskbar, which can be confusing.

Another slight downside to G Data anti virus is its price. It isn’t extortionate by any means, but Karspersky 2009 can be found more cheaply online. Since the Russian offering is also more configurable , and gives practically identical protection, we’ll keep Karspersky as our A list choice.

But G Data anti virus is a simple, functional package, and when it comes to ppeace of mind it’s hard to fault its “belt and braces” approach to malware detection.