Antivirus Test Comparison on Win 8/8.1

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Sure wish I had found this thread before buying BD:

http://malwaretips.com/threads/disappointed-with-bitdefender.13619/

This one too:

http://malwaretips.com/threads/disappointed-with-bitdefender-settings-notifications.15110/

At least I only wasted $8.00, and I guess it really was not a waste if I learned BD is not all it's cracked up to be. Even if I had to learn that the hard way. I am removing BD and going back to my free ESET trial for today. Some time this weekend I will probably just buy the ESET deal off New Egg. ESET was good but I did not get much time this week to tinker with it and really see if it suited me. I am not computer-smart enough to tinker too much with AV's or any other programs but I do want o be able to set my AV how I want it. BD is not allowing that.
 
BD was not slowing down my computer. I just can't make any changes to the program. Can't remove the red notifications from the GUI. Can't set any exclusions. Can't delete any files or scan reports. Nearly all of the user functions on the GUI are all grayed out. I even tried a "repair" from the add/remove function and still get the same thing. When I rebooted after the repair it took a long time to get the desktop back on. BD may be rated great for protection but so is ESET and it's a lot easier to work with. I am buying the ESET deal and counting this little BD experience as a lesson learned.
 
Well now ESET will not let me re-start the free trial so for the time being I will have to reinstall BD so I don't leave my computer unprotected until I figure out what to do here. I tried to buy the ESET 3 PC deal on New Egg just now and it's not a download. Maybe I will have to buy ESET and keep using BD until I receive the disc. Either that or try to find out why I am having so much trouble with BD. I want to like BD, but if I can't set it the way I need it then it's no good to me.
 
That is odd,did you try clicking on the help and support in the control panel? they give you three choices of help that avalible

,whats your system specifics?
 
For the past few years Bitdefender has always received rave reviews by several labs but in my personal experience it is buggy and the customer service is terrible. Maybe they need to include things like that in the reviews.

It does not matter what the detection rate is if you keep having problems with the software. And if the customer support is terrible you can't even get help.

Bitdefender may have a great detection rate but I will take Kaspersky or ESET any day. And I have even found some buggy behavior in ESET so for me it is still Kaspersky.

I wish there was an American antivirus as well designed as Kaspersky but there is not so there is nothing to do but get past that. I also wish I could recommend the Microsoft Security Essentials (for Vista and Windows 7) or Windows Defender for Windows 8/8.1 but I simply can't.

If a person does want to run Windows Defender I would recommend running the ESET online scan occasionally or else downloading the Kaspersky Rescue CD and running it from time to time.
 
I did try the help function on the GUI. It lists nothing about the problems I am having. It's like I have the program but cannot make any adjustments to it, most of the control/settings buttons are all grayed out, they don't work and I can not even delete the list of performed scans or delete the numbers off the GUI that indicate there are issues that BD found, even though the issues are corrected. Right now I have a 2 on the widget telling me there are 2 issues. One is an update for the virus data base, I already updated it just a few minutes ago. The other is a warning telling me BD can not address 8 cookies it found even though I already did 2 scans today the warning still remains on the GUI. This kind of reminds me of when you have a problem with your car and the CEL light comes on. You fix the car but the CEL stays on. You want the CEL to turn off so it can alert you to any problems in the future, it's not good to leave the CEL on but no matter what you do it stays on with the same code for the problem you already fixed...Very frustrating.

I am in the middle of another project right now but will take a look online tonight. If I can find a fix for this problem I may keep BD but I have reservations about it being this buggy right out of the box. I reinstalled it for the time being so at least my pc is not without protection.
 
I don't think I will have any updates on this BD problem. For some reason I am now having start-up/wake from sleep problems. It took forever to wake my computer just now when it was asleep. Never had that problem before BD. I will check Amazon and other places online and see what kind of deals I can find for an ESET license. I am done trying to make BD work and I am glad it was only an $8.00 lesson to learn.
 
Here is my final update on my Bitdefender troubles...

I kept trying to fix BD but had no luck with it. I removed it permanently and was able to re-start my ESET free trial after I located my trial ID and password in my saved email file. Earlier today I was doing several projects at once and did not have the time to search for that email from ESET so I just re-installed BD so my computer would not be sitting here naked with no AV.

So I have ESET NOD32 AV again now, it is working fine, I can use all the settings and controls on it. I had no trouble at all with installing ESET again, I added my exclusions in ESET and MBAM Pro to avoid any conflicts between the two and also excluded Itunes in ESET. ESET ran its first scan, it did not take very long and I am not having any trouble at all with my computer or the ESET AV. The scans I did with BD each took over an hour to complete.

I went ahead just now and ordered the $20.00 one-year ESET AV with 3 licenses from New Egg. One for me, one for my wife's laptop and I guess I could give one to a family member if anyone needs it. I have no idea why I had so much trouble with BD. It seemed to be OK in the beginning, maybe I screwed it up somehow but I don't see how when I did the standard "let us configure everything for you" installation. Maybe it was because I removed and reinstalled BD too many times. I only bought the BD deal because it was said to be the very best, top of the line and the price was only $8.00. Oh well. $8.00 lesson learned.

Thanks for your help here.
 
jimmy, thats what I was alluding to in some of my posts

its BD is a great protector but some people just have wierd buggy issues with it. The reviews scared me away.. not the feeling I would be less protected.

I have person experience with kaspersky and eset for years and a bunch of the free ones.

BD would have been great I could afford to gift it to relatives at 2$ a computer. But I got the feeling I'd be getting alot of phone calls about it so I didnt go that route.

only problem I've ever had with eset was it would spaz out with one brand of cruzer "glide" 16GB flash drives.

I have 9 other drives they all worked but these would spaz.

Seems like many have that problem so I'm not blaming eset for it.
 
BD free lets me select files to ignore and gives access to quarantine and everything. Odd that the paid version has less access to important pieces.
 
I find it depends on which account I use. If I use a non-admin account, I can't make changes. Admin account, change away!
 
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