- Internet Security 2010 offers premium protection from viruses, spyware and all malware threats
- Advanced up-to-the-second protection and threat intelligence
- Built for fast, optimal PC performance
- Comprehensive identity theft and phishing protection
- Powerful anti-spam and two-way firewall
Product Description
Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 provides the world’s most advanced PC security with premium protection from all malware threats. When you buy Kaspersky, you get more than just a box of software. You’ll benefit from unique technologies that deliver the best protection, performance, and security utilities available. Raise your defenses against the ever-increasing threat of cybercriminals!Amazon.com Product Description
The most advanced Internet security … More >>
Initially reviewed on August 24, 2009
I had serious problems installing Kaspersky Internet Security on my desktop PC running Windows XP Home. The install procedure would give me an “Installation complete” window with instructions to click “Next” for the Installation Configuration Wizard. Doing so would kill the installation with no warning or indication that anything had happened. My product disc was for the 2009 version. I also downloaded the 2010 version and got the same results. I did multiple uninstall/reinstalls of both versions (with the associated system reboots) and the same thing always happened. And yes, I did remove other security software as directed – Norton in this case, with the Norton Uninstaller tool.
Of course this was on the weekend and Kaspersky’s customer support is only available Monday-Friday, so I was on my own to search for a solution. After trying several system tweaks and updating my OS to SP3, I had made no progress. KIS simply would not complete the installation process. Finally, I downloaded the AVAST! anti-virus freeware. This installed with no problem, located about a dozen infected files and disinfected them. I then uninstalled AVAST! and KIS was able to install successfully. What a pain, and what a black mark for Kaspersky!
Shame on KIS for terminating its own installation with no warning or error message.
Shame, shame on KIS for not doing some sort of pre-installation scan to determine if it can install properly (this IS a security suite, after all).
Shame, shame, SHAME on Kaspersky for not having a “plan B” for failed installation on an infected computer.
SHAME, SHAME, SHAME on Kaspersky for needing third party anti-virus software to clear the way for it!
Praise and glory for AVAST! for being able to install where the big dog couldn’t.
Praise and glory for AVAST! for being able to clear the way for the big dog for free!
Once I got past the several hour installation ordeal, KIS seems to be functioning quite well and offers some very nice features. I’m running the 2010 upgrade. It has been fairly transparent so far and has a light touch on system resources. You might wonder why I didn’t just stick with AVAST! … in some ways I feel like I should have, but KIS is a total protection package with firewall, and several other features I want to try. The new Safe Run “Sandbox” feature looks especially interesting. AVAST! is principally anti-virus… a HERO anti-virus in my book. You can bet I’ll keep it around in case of emergency.
EDIT: Money saving hint – Buy the 2009 version at a much reduced price and get a free upgrade to 2010 at the Kaspersky web site.
——————————————————————
UPDATE, 27 August 2009: KA-BOOOOOM!
I leave my system on all the time and KIS 2010 did a great job for about three days. Then one morning it was showing the dreaded red light – System Unprotected. The message from KIS was that some of its own files had become corrupt. I pushed the “Fix now” button and nothing happened, KIS just sat there. Finally after waiting 45 minutes or so I decided I’d better reboot. Well… on restarting, the mouse cursor froze on the welcome screen. Tried rebooting again… and again… and again. No go every time. Tried booting in safe mode. Tried different mice. Nothing could bring it to life.
After trying everything I could think of and using another machine to search the internet for solutions, I finally bit the bullet and did a full system restore (Yikes!). Fortunately most of my data files live on drives other than where Win XP is parked so I didn’t lose anything. I just had the aggravation of doing reinstalls, fiddling with settings and searching for elusive drivers. But my story doesn’t stop there. I decided to give KIS another shot because I actually liked it when it was working.
I removed the trial Norton from the restore then I got KIS back on and running. I next decided to remove the other bloat from the system restore. Well, while uninstalling MS-Money, KIS didn’t like something and sent me a couple of messages to which I replied to let the uninstall continue. Then suddenly BOOM! KIS sent a message that its blacklist had become corrupt and another message that a base GUI was also corrupt. The interface went all squirrely and KIS quit responding again!
Another reboot and guess what – KIS was gone!! It didn’t start at boot-up and the program file directory showed no indication that KIS files were still on the system. Well, since I was fresh off a full system restore, I figured I’d better do another one because there was no telling what else got messed up.
Call me an idiot, but I put KIS back on yet again!! I guess I’m just determined to make it work. This time I put it on after removing MS-Money and the other bloatware. So far it has done a full system scan and found no problems. It was working when I left for work in the morning, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that this time is the charm.
As far as evaluation, I’m revising my ranking to ZERO stars. This is software that is supposed to PROTECT your system. Instead, within a week KIS 2010 has repeatedly corrupted itself and my OS along with it. Where is the protection in that??? I’ll be looking for something other than Kaspersky next time.
——————————————————————
UPDATE, 10 September 2009: Two weeks of stability.
It has been two weeks since the last of the events chronicled above. Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 has been stable and I have had a chance to evaluate it more properly. There is much to like about it. Compared to my old version of Norton Internet Security, this uses hardly any system resources at all. It runs pretty much invisibly with very few notification windows popping up. The only thing I changed from the default settings was to schedule updates for a certain time each day rather than letting them run automatically.
KIS has not interfered with my ability to access the internet. That was a common complaint in reviews of the 2009 version. In fact, it allowed my browser and torrent tool full access right off the bat.
The full system scan is very fast, and the Quick scan is lightning fast. I have about .5 TB of disk space in use and the quick scan only takes a minute or two to complete! So far the reports are showing that zero bad things have gotten past KIS. My system is clean.
There are still, however, a couple of minor points that are mildly bothersome. First, my daily updates usually give me a “not all components updated” message. Viewing the logs reveals that one or two update files were corrupt; about 80% of the time it is an update file for APU – whatever that is. There doesn’t seem to be any way to get a description of the corrupt files or to determine their importance.
My other small gripe is that clicking the support menu choices is not working for me. No browser window opens when I select “Support” or “My Kaspersky Account”. A minor complaint to be sure, but it is a non-functioning feature.
To sum all this up, I do like the 2010 version of Kaspersky Internet Security. However, I cannot overlook the serious problems I had both with getting it installed and with the repeated system problems it caused after installation. The full system restores that KIS made necessary are NOT conditions one would expect from security software. Now that things have become stable I feel that it is doing a top notch job of protecting my computer.
I think I will now rate Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 on two levels:
ZERO STARS for ease of installation and initial system compatibility.
FOUR STARS for performance once it is operating in a stable mode.
Rating: 1 / 5
Initially reviewed on August 24, 2009
I had serious problems installing Kaspersky Internet Security on my desktop PC running Windows XP Home. The install procedure would give me an “Installation complete” window with instructions to click “Next” for the Installation Configuration Wizard. Doing so would kill the installation with no warning or indication that anything had happened. My product disc was for the 2009 version. I also downloaded the 2010 version and got the same results. I did multiple uninstall/reinstalls of both versions (with the associated system reboots) and the same thing always happened. And yes, I did remove other security software as directed – Norton in this case, with the Norton Uninstaller tool.
Of course this was on the weekend and Kaspersky’s customer support is only available Monday-Friday, so I was on my own to search for a solution. After trying several system tweaks and updating my OS to SP3, I had made no progress. KIS simply would not complete the installation process. Finally, I downloaded the AVAST! anti-virus freeware. This installed with no problem, located about a dozen infected files and disinfected them. I then uninstalled AVAST! and KIS was able to install successfully. What a pain, and what a black mark for Kaspersky!
Shame on KIS for terminating its own installation with no warning or error message.
Shame, shame on KIS for not doing some sort of pre-installation scan to determine if it can install properly (this IS a security suite, after all).
Shame, shame, SHAME on Kaspersky for not having a “plan B” for failed installation on an infected computer.
SHAME, SHAME, SHAME on Kaspersky for needing third party anti-virus software to clear the way for it!
Praise and glory for AVAST! for being able to install where the big dog couldn’t.
Praise and glory for AVAST! for being able to clear the way for the big dog for free!
Once I got past the several hour installation ordeal, KIS seems to be functioning quite well and offers some very nice features. I’m running the 2010 upgrade. It has been fairly transparent so far and has a light touch on system resources. You might wonder why I didn’t just stick with AVAST! … in some ways I feel like I should have, but KIS is a total protection package with firewall, and several other features I want to try. The new Safe Run “Sandbox” feature looks especially interesting. AVAST! is principally anti-virus… a HERO anti-virus in my book. You can bet I’ll keep it around in case of emergency.
EDIT: Money saving hint – Buy the 2009 version at a much reduced price and get a free upgrade to 2010 at the Kaspersky web site.
——————————————————————
UPDATE, 27 August 2009: KA-BOOOOOM!
I leave my system on all the time and KIS 2010 did a great job for about three days. Then one morning it was showing the dreaded red light – System Unprotected. The message from KIS was that some of its own files had become corrupt. I pushed the “Fix now” button and nothing happened, KIS just sat there. Finally after waiting 45 minutes or so I decided I’d better reboot. Well… on restarting, the mouse cursor froze on the welcome screen. Tried rebooting again… and again… and again. No go every time. Tried booting in safe mode. Tried different mice. Nothing could bring it to life.
After trying everything I could think of and using another machine to search the internet for solutions, I finally bit the bullet and did a full system restore (Yikes!). Fortunately most of my data files live on drives other than where Win XP is parked so I didn’t lose anything. I just had the aggravation of doing reinstalls, fiddling with settings and searching for elusive drivers. But my story doesn’t stop there. I decided to give KIS another shot because I actually liked it when it was working.
I removed the trial Norton from the restore then I got KIS back on and running. I next decided to remove the other bloat from the system restore. Well, while uninstalling MS-Money, KIS didn’t like something and sent me a couple of messages to which I replied to let the uninstall continue. Then suddenly BOOM! KIS sent a message that its blacklist had become corrupt and another message that a base GUI was also corrupt. The interface went all squirrely and KIS quit responding again!
Another reboot and guess what – KIS was gone!! It didn’t start at boot-up and the program file directory showed no indication that KIS files were still on the system. Well, since I was fresh off a full system restore, I figured I’d better do another one because there was no telling what else got messed up.
Call me an idiot, but I put KIS back on yet again!! I guess I’m just determined to make it work. This time I put it on after removing MS-Money and the other bloatware. So far it has done a full system scan and found no problems. It was working when I left for work in the morning, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that this time is the charm.
As far as evaluation, I’m revising my ranking to ZERO stars. This is software that is supposed to PROTECT your system. Instead, within a week KIS 2010 has repeatedly corrupted itself and my OS along with it. Where is the protection in that??? I’ll be looking for something other than Kaspersky next time.
——————————————————————
UPDATE, 10 September 2009: Two weeks of stability.
It has been two weeks since the last of the events chronicled above. Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 has been stable and I have had a chance to evaluate it more properly. There is much to like about it. Compared to my old version of Norton Internet Security, this uses hardly any system resources at all. It runs pretty much invisibly with very few notification windows popping up. The only thing I changed from the default settings was to schedule updates for a certain time each day rather than letting them run automatically.
KIS has not interfered with my ability to access the internet. That was a common complaint in reviews of the 2009 version. In fact, it allowed my browser and torrent tool full access right off the bat.
The full system scan is very fast, and the Quick scan is lightning fast. I have about .5 TB of disk space in use and the quick scan only takes a minute or two to complete! So far the reports are showing that zero bad things have gotten past KIS. My system is clean.
There are still, however, a couple of minor points that are mildly bothersome. First, my daily updates usually give me a “not all components updated” message. Viewing the logs reveals that one or two update files were corrupt; about 80% of the time it is an update file for APU – whatever that is. There doesn’t seem to be any way to get a description of the corrupt files or to determine their importance.
My other small gripe is that clicking the support menu choices is not working for me. No browser window opens when I select “Support” or “My Kaspersky Account”. A minor complaint to be sure, but it is a non-functioning feature.
To sum all this up, I do like the 2010 version of Kaspersky Internet Security. However, I cannot overlook the serious problems I had both with getting it installed and with the repeated system problems it caused after installation. The full system restores that KIS made necessary are NOT conditions one would expect from security software. Now that things have become stable I feel that it is doing a top notch job of protecting my computer.
I think I will now rate Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 on two levels:
ZERO STARS for ease of installation and initial system compatibility.
FOUR STARS for performance once it is operating in a stable mode.
Rating: 3 / 5
I run Kaspersky for several years. From XP to my new Vista64 laptop. KIS version 7 was the best one. It was light on the system, and very secure. Things started to go wrong after that. Starting with 2009. KIS works terrible in Vista64 bit. The real pain started after upgrading to 2010. Opera browsers takes 10 more seconds to boot and the same can be said for allot of other softwares. I noticed that my dual core with 4 GB laptop was getting slower and slower with each Windows updated that was rolled out. One night browsing folder and files it became terrible slow. Taking 10 seconds or more to open each folder. I disabled Vista Search Index. Rebooted system several times, check allot of things to get to the problem on what was using so much the disk. All I could find was that the disk access was 4 KB per second !!! Kis was always using somehow allot of CPU but I was blaming this on explorer.exe
So I finally decide to uninstall KIS. It took me like 2 hours so slow it was.
After that I booted and VOILA. Its like a new system. Almost all programs open on the fly, browsing files is a pleasure. And even boot times it no longer 3 minutes. I do happen to do allot of maintaince on my system with with TuneUP which is great but i was realy shocked on how fast everything was without KIS. I had to basically uninstall it completely so I could gain control back of my system. KIS was such a resource hug that I cannot believe I was using it so long. I changed to Norton and the system runs 100% perfectly as it did not had any antivirus. Perfect. KIS is an incredible resource hug on the system and their support is TERRIBLE. I happen to have bought my licenses directly from their website and pay like 40% that you pay for a boxed version. They never even reply your emails. And whats worst they make it hard or almost impossible to contact them. What kind of company is this that avoids paying clients? One year I could not even renew my license and they charged me a new one because I losed my key. Dont get me wrong KIS is a great security tool or I can say WAS.
It has almost nothing new from version to version except their sandbox features which I do like but besides that its not worth the resources it takes to run it even on new machines. My laptop is 4 months old so I cannot imagine how this runs on older systems. Did I mention that upgrading to 2010 changed my master password? Yes. I could not change the KIS setting anymore as it said incorrect password and I had to download a registry patch to reset it.
PLEASE do make yourself a favor. If you use your PC for work its not worth the delay. It increases opening of almost every program in your system by double. Disk access or any kind of file access gets also terrible slow to the point thats unacceptable. I hated norton for year but their version is just amazing. It runs perfectly. I just miss some features like to watch on real time files that are connected to the internet and the fine tuning KIS allowed you. Norton just works out of the box and I could love to play with setting more but its runs incredible smooth that I dont think any security solution right now can match it.
Rating: 1 / 5
Kaspersky 2010 installed pretty fast and found and fixed some malware I had on my computer, which surprised me, because I’d been running Bitdefender 2009 and thought it was pretty good. Well, it is pretty good, but apparently it missed some things.
I like that the red, green & yellow status indicator flashes now when the program wants your attention and a simple click of the Fix It Now button gets me right back to work, worry free. I understand that there is a slowdown with security software, but my computer actually seems a little faster. I assume that’s because I uninstalled Bitdefender 2009, then installed this. So for me, Kaspersky runs faster than what I had. It runs in the background and doesn’t hassel me. So, I’m liking it just fine right now.
Rating: 5 / 5
Tried this product for 30 days before buying it.
Went to specific websites known for bad trojans, spyware, viruses and malware.
Tested these websites with the free antispyware products. Although they blocked most of the trojans, certain spyware (especially VIRTUOMUNDO) ended up sneaking into my computer. I formatted my HDD and cleaned it.
Then installed Kaspersky 30 day trial. Went to the same websites again. Every trojan,malware and virus was blocked. System is as clean as ever. Best thing is that it just kills an infected website before even the page loads. Displays a message “website blocked because its infected”. Now purchased a full version of kaspersky. Very happy with the product.
Running WIN XP, 1GB RAM…and system performance is very good too!
Rating: 5 / 5