ESET Smart Security review

ESET has a strong record of reliable Internet security software, and Smart Security continues to uphold its reputation.

In 2008 it was awarded both the Westcoast Labs Checkmark and the VB100 award for the sixth consecutive year. It also achieved the highest rating in the AV-Comparitives test for background on-access scanning, and the second highest rating for its on-demand scanning. These results also reflect the suite's anti-spyware performance.

In our own more modest tests, Smart Security thwarted our attempts to download a sample virus in any of its forms - disguised as another file type, or compressed into a zip or multiple zip files.

Smart Security installed on our test laptop in just three minutes, without requiring a restart. Its speed continued to impress us during use, and its small memory requirement meant its impact on performance was negligible. The startup time and time to open its control panel were also very quick. When using web browsing and email applications such as Internet Explorer and Windows Mail, there was a pleasing absence of annoying program access alerts from the ESET firewall.

ESET products in the past might have been effective, but they were notorious for their cryptic user interfaces. This version is quite the opposite. In fact, it has one of the best thought-out, easiest to use and most visually attractive control panels we've seen. In the basic view, options are kept to a minimum, but all the main functions and settings are accessible and clearly placed, with little reason to need the advanced view. We're constantly surprised at how few security suites manage this.

Smart Security's updating procedure was superbly silent and automatic, simply informing us via an unobtrusive pop-up message when it had been completed. Overall, this is a superb security suite which, at a shade under £40 for a one year licence, is reasonable value for money too.