AntiVir's main window is clean and spare; it performs a quick system scan on launch, and this caught a number of Trojans and other threats in memory. AntiVir couldn't remove them, though. You can determine whether the program should repair infected files, delete them, or delete only if repair fails. You can also set what types of "Unwanted Programs" (that is, spyware) will be removed, and set which heuristic detection techniques are invoked. But you don't have to meddle with the settings—most users may choose to go straight to a full scan.
AntiVir's full system scanner generates a report that includes details about the system, program versions, settings, and scanned files. The report appears designed for submission to tech support, which is available through AntiVir's online forums.
AntiVir's Guard module (the on-access scanner) puts its protection out in the open—if you double-click the tray icon it will display its current settings, current status, and the name of the most recently scanned file. Its "Unwanted Programs" protection, configured separately from the on-demand scan, isn't fully enabled by default. When we turned it all the way on, it was quite effective. We threw nine Trojan and spyware threats at AntiVir, and it blocked eight of them instantly (the ninth was caught when it tried to install). It let all four keyloggers install, but prevented one from logging keys. On the other hand, when installed on systems already infested with spyware, it removed only two of eight threats.
Unlike avast! and AVG, AntiVir doesn't specifically scan incoming or outgoing e-mail messages or attachments. The on-access scan kicks in as soon as an attachment is launched or saved to disk, so this isn't a huge problem. We like AntiVir's ability to exclude up to a dozen processes from on-access scanning—so it can coexist with, for example, a spyware scanner.
