Another free (to me, anyway) antivirus for the netbook

I’m on my third antivirus for my Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook.

The first two – Avast and AVG – were free to start, but eventually wanted me to step up to paid versions. And neither of them played well with my netbook’s Windows XP. I got the Blue Screen of Death a few weeks ago when I told AVG to give a particular program access to the Internet. Since then, I’ve told it to refuse access to that program. When my AVG trial period ended last weekend, I decided not to pay to continue it. But I didn’t have a plan for a replacement.

Until I remembered that I have a copy of Bitdefender Internet Security which retails for about $50 – but I got it for free from the Amazon.com Vine program with the expectation that I write a review of it. I’d been reluctant to install it on my new desktop computer because there were already some less-than-flattering reviews of Bitdefender on Amazon.com. But I did need an antivirus for my netbook, so I picked up the box yesterday afternoon. My eyes fell upon the upper right corner, where it says, “Netbook compatible.” That means it has to be fairly lightweight, since netbooks don’t come with a lot of RAM or hard drive space. And Steve Ragan at The Tech Herald likes it.

I uninstalled AVG, did a reboot, then connected my external CD drive to the netbook and installed Bitdefender. It has three levels of user control – Novice, where pretty much everything runs in the background without involving the user; Intermediate, which adds some controls; and Expert, for users who want total control of the program’s features. I opted for Novice, which still give me the option to move up one or two levels if I want to later.

It’s been less than a day since I installed it and all I can say is that it doesn’t appear to be hogging memory or slowing things down. It remains to be seen whether I’ll see the dreaded BSD in the weeks or months to come. If I do, you’ll know about it. And so will Amazon.com.

If it behaves itself, I’ll install it on our Sony VAIO laptop and maybe Maria’s desktop or mine. One registered copy can be used on up to three computers for a year before they start asking for money.