Since weather started to cool down and I even got a small cold last days, I think it's the right time to talk about viruses again. Of course I'll leave the health issues for those specialized in the field, because I usually work with computers, not people. Since computers also get sick from time to time, everyone had their eyes on antivirus software lately, and the application I spotted today is called simply ID AntiVirus.


Setup

ID AntiVirus is a fresh product on the market, its current version being only 1.2. Priced at $47, this application is also available for a free trial, but with some limitations, of course. The setup package is very small in size, having about 1.7MB, and the installation went fine, as you can see in the screenshots below...


Interface

If you want to enter the over crowded antiviral and security market, having a bad interface is suicide, unless you compensate for that with incredible detection rates and speed, and since the later are harder to achieve, most antiviral products look great. ID AntiVirus doesn't get out of this pattern, and you can see in the screenshot to the left that its producers can be proud of their work, because nobody can say this program looks bad...


Features

Each time I get my hands on a new security product, the first thing I do after installing it is to update the database, or at least check for updates, and this time I have done the same. Unfortunately, all I got was a window saying that "In order to complete delete all the viruses from your computer you have to register for a full license". Well, first of all, I didn't try to delete any virus, I was just trying to update the database, and second... "in order to complete delete" - is this English or Klingonian?

After closing my browser, that opened after pressing the OK button in the window mentioned above (the only button available, of course), I checked to see the current status of the program. Just as a mention, the page that opened when I pressed the OK button was supposed to allow me to purchase the program, but I got a nice "The requested document was not found on this server." error! Now... the database seems to be dated on the 26th of March 2005, and the number of definitions is 33592. Oooh, this trial version also expires in 15 days! Great...

In the Settings area, the only real-time protection setting I have found is the Hijack Protect area, which allows you to set default pages for Internet Explorer, and nothing more. Well, for almost 50 bucks, it would be nice that this antivirus could protect at least Firefox's settings!

Scanning my drive using the Quick Scan setting wasn't quick at all, so I cancelled the process. Now, when I get to press the News button, I get another "Not Found" error, and this is the last drop to fill the bucket - enough is enough!


The Good

ID AntiVirus looks very good, is easy to use and includes a Hijack protection tool.

The Bad

The Help, News and Register buttons lead to dead links on the official site, and this says it all. The database included in the trial version is ancient, and the price is huge, considering what I have seen.

Conclusion

ID AntiVirus managed to have a good interface, and that's a point to start with, but there's a lot more needed to make this product ready for use. I don't know how different can be the full version, but after trying the shareware one, I can't recommend it to anyone.

Developer: Fastlink2
Price: $47
Trial Link: Download