Bitdefender 2017 Review

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JoshRoss

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Jul 11, 2017
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Interesting, so that is not an explicit OS configuration issue, I have had those in the past. Weird how it doesn't work on a clean install, but on used Windows, it has no issues, that barely makes much sense to be fair. Maybe you can try poking them around and see if they had a chance to get a solution. Emails do get lost or want to be lost, persistence might be a key :)
 

HamBown81

Commendable
Aug 3, 2017
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Not worth it for me honestly. There are other products.

I am 99% sure it is something on their end that is blocking my IP address because of irregular activity due to multiple installs or something of that nature. The forum post that I found was a year old at the time and was like reading exactly what happened to me including all of the troubleshooting.

Several releases later, different OS, different country probably, with the exact same issue... I say it is on their end.
 

rita_rodriguez

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Sep 9, 2017
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Bit Defender 2017 was a fairly wonderful peice of kit although very infrequently would cause DPC Latency spikes with my network driver. Bit Defender 2018 on the other hand is not very good, not only does it still cause issues with latency but it often decides (despite the setting you use with ATD) to delete important files. In fact it will tell you exactly what is wrong, what it is going to do and no option to say "No dummy, don't do that". Rebooting into safe mode just might trigger deletion (if you chose to remove Bit Defender 2018). I reinstalled it last night, and my issue with mactype hooking was fixed but it is still too wonky, buggy and not much user control or input. Mayhap autopilot off might solve some issues, but I was so frustrated by its standard behavior that it is a larger risk then it is a benefit. (Anti-Virus or not i've not been infected by anything for over 10 years, despite that I enjoy the feelings of safety provided by these products over Windows Defender which is just a waste of resources).
 

aideeaidee

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Sep 19, 2017
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BD2018 is nothing but trouble. It detects my development environment (WAMP, Lazarus/Free pascal, even bare php files) as infected by Malware. BD 2017 was ok, I had to whitelist some directories to get it running well. But these settings - although present - are totally ignored by BD2018. I hope I can warn the developers here. Don't upgrade. I have my backups and nothing of my work got lost. But I can't reinstall because BD prevents it. I probably have to remove BD and reinstall my PC to get things running again. Have reported to the helpdesk, but I fear...
 

intelligent542003

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Oct 29, 2017
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I just enrolled in Tom' guide because of reviews for latest Antivirus for Android mobile, Tablet and PCs (Single User/Complete Protection, Multiple Devices, Free Trial) I was very impressed with the No# 1 (Too Rated) Antipating a purchase, the Customer Reviews, cause much concern! inquiry- Is this a Company Paid Review? Issues: Refund Issues, Customer Support (response time) I want convenience of Installation, also Security peace of mind, at a resonable cost! (from the Best!) Thank you!
 
May 29, 2018
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I find the product to be useless.

First off, it interferes more with my computer than even Norton did. There is not support. What little advice is given is slow and mostly wrong. It is difficult to get any type of help. Sorry, I cannot recommend this product no matter how well it protects.
 
Jun 2, 2018
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Seems a lot of trolls and people who may not really understand what they are talking about here (pretty sure I could solve any their issues with a Teamviewer session!). Very rarely do happy customers go and post to sites like review sites and forums anyway, and they are the unheard majority. Some comments here I see people simply need to learn how their SW and PC works. As far as customer support of Bitdefender is concerned I have no issue. As an IT professional I am familiar with pretty much every current antivirus product out there (though usually business editions) and I certainly trust Bitdefender to do it's job well. Every software has it's quirks, so if you don't like something then tell support, and they will welcome your constructive criticism, and help improve the product. Behaviour of some software on your PC may do some things in an unusual way that a security product may decide to block, such as the Bitdefender safe files feature.. but all you need to is configure it or temporarily turn off to allow a certain action. As IT pro I find 99% of issues is the PC hardware, some other software, driver or OS issue or the user him/herself.

I moved to Bitdefender after being a long time ESET user but lost trust after several business customers caught ransomeware on their servers with fully up to date ESET. Independent tests of Bitdefender over last 5 years are consistently good with low false positive so I decided switch to Bitdefender Security 2017, and now I have updated to Total Security 2018 and it is working very well. Security to me is paramount importance so I will use what I consider the best protection. The only other AV I might consider is Trend Micro who I did not like in the past but recent years have come a long way to improve.

Since this review was written Bitdefender has introduced a VPN as cheap add-on, though I don't use it because I use something else already, but a good addition.

So for me, thumbs up, highly recommend to protect your system.
 
Jun 9, 2018
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Do not purchase. Bitdefender is provided automatically as Windows Defender with Microsoft Windows 10 which you cannot turn off. I purchase Bitdefender total security and only just found out that it essentially will not work with any other products than Microsoft. For example I use Incredmail and Firefox but the spam and domain block will only work with outlook and firebird. DO NOT PURCHASE. NOT REQUIRED. MICROSOFT is once again trying to set up a monopoly. Note: Try turning off Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Defender or Outlook and you will find that you cannot.
 
Jul 1, 2018
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I installed the trial version of Bitdefender Anti-virus 2018 and it was working pretty good. Browsing was good and computer seemed normal so I took them up on their 29.99 offer. I had to register and activate and then it did another download and uninstalled the trial. After install there were significant performance issues. Every boot took forever, my security camera program would freeze up, and browsing was so slow and that's without the firewall option. After dealing with their crazy tech service I uninstalled and went back to Norton. Don't install on Win7.
 
Oct 4, 2018
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I bought BD Total based on the review given here. I am having a problem with streaming audio not playing. I sent request for help both on the BD site and via e-mail and have not received any help/answer to my request. I did get a reference number, but no answer. Chat does not work on the site. No response from customer service. I am not happy. I think I'm about to uninstall and request a refund. I am almost ready to put this in JUNK Software. It took over an hour and a half to do a system scan on a very fast computer, with SSD's, and not much data. Your review does not match with my experience. Just thought you should know.
 

727stretch

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Nov 8, 2008
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Low performance impact may be the case when measuring using synthetic benchmarks, but as far as memory use goes, BD uses more than any other AV product out there - 300MB at idle? That's more than double the perennial resource hog, McAfee. Not a big deal if you have a system with 16GB RAM, but lots of people still running 4GB. Something's off when BD requires that much memory to run, yet similarly effective competition can do it with 10% of that.
 
Dec 7, 2018
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The security business is based on trust. Two days ago, Bitdefender renewed my subscription without my permission. This is maybe somehow legal, but it is definitely unethical and bad business. I have tried to contact them serval times via email but no one reply which shocked me. I have lost my trust in them and from now on I will never use their services.
 
Dec 13, 2018
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I have Bitdefender total security for three years. In 2018 it was good, after update to 2019 it is a garbage. It locks almost all Firefox
 
Jan 13, 2019
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Cette compagnie a d'énormes problèmes de crédibilité pour ce qui est de gérer votre carte de crédit. J'ai dû changer de numéro de carte; ils prennent de l'argent à leur gré, sans votre consentement ou en vous piégeant dans les conditions; vous devez enlever un crochet qu'ils ont mis à votre place. Si vous ne lisez pas les conditions de A à Z, vous êtes piégé et ils se donnent libre cours. Je ne sais pas si leur système d'affaires "2Checkout" vous dit quelque chose, mais vous l'apprendrez à vos dépends.

C'est probablement un bon produit, mais j'irai vers une compagnie plus honnête, moins sournoise. Le temps qu'ils vous font perdre lorsque vous tentez de régler les problèmes monétaires est irrécupérable, c'est aussi un très long processus. Je déconseille à tous de faire des affaires avec eux. À vos risques et périls, si vous avez du temps à perdre.

This company has huge credibility problems in handling your credit card. I had to change my card number; they take money at will, without your consent or by trapping you in the conditions; you must remove a hook that they put in your place. If you do not read the conditions from A to Z, you are trapped and they give themselves free rein. I do not know if their "2Checkout" business system tells you something, but you will learn it at your expense.

It's probably a good product, but I'll go to a more honest, less underhanded company. The time they make you lose when you try to solve monetary problems is irretrievable, it is also a very long process. I advise everyone to do business with them. At your own risk, if you have time to lose.
 
Feb 4, 2019
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This review is nonsense. I was lured in by these reviews from supposedly "reputable" sources. This is the worst anti-virus software I've ever had. First of all the customer service is terrible. They don't respond, stall, and won't resolve issues. I need something cross-platform/device and was surprised to find out that for mobile devices you have to use their app and it only provides VPN (which I already have and don't need). The app is poorly rated and I can see why. It was completely useless for my devices. I have a powerful laptop and it has suffered slow-downs and performance issues since I installed Bitdefender. Internet browsing is even more problematic. Do not buy it!! There are much better options out there. Save your money and the hassle.
 
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