Trend Micro PC-cillin review

Effective, fast and well integrated with Web browsers, but its inability to stop a harmful script rendered our test machine unusable.

Prevention

PC-cillin worked hard in our tests, but exhibited a number of blind spots.

It picked up our standard Back Orifice Trojan as you'd expect, but missed our customised one. It also failed to detect or prevent our harmful script, which went on to destroy our Windows installation and thus ruined our morning. The program supports code analysis (heuristics) for detecting unknown viruses, but only for macro viruses. We assume this is why it missed our Visual Basic script.

It also failed to detect a change to the boot sector, and lacks the ability to check and record the integrity of files - a shame, as this is a useful fallback for detecting virus activity.

Another small point worth mentioning is that the setup program insists on performing a virus scan before allowing the installation process to commence. While it's probably a good idea to give this as an option, it was irritating to be forced to wait before setting the installation on its way.

Ease of use

Appearing as a standard Windows program with a nifty sidebar for navigating between update windows, scanning wizards and a quarantine section, PC-cillin is reasonably straightforward to use. Because it lacks some of the configuration options available in other products, there are less knobs and dials to play with - and set incorrectly. Simplicity is often the best policy with critical programs like virus scanners, and PC-cillin strikes a good balance.

Overall

Had this package not fallen at the last hurdle and allowed our PC to die (as well as harbour a Trojan), we'd have considered it for first or second place. As it is, Trend Micro needs to sharpen up its heuristics and enhance script protection.

Author: Simon Edwards