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If there’s one thing that is most important to your PC, it would be an antivirus program that can really protect you from the unlimited number of malicious content out on the Internet, and even from external storage devices you borrowed from your careless friends. However, picking the correct Antivirus program to use can be a headache, first there’s the need to consider the price, then you’ll have to see the type of security they offer and whether their technology is reliable, and finally and probably the most important feature, if it slows down your computer so much you’re better off living with spywares. We were recently given a copy of the Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security Pro 2010 to test.

The first thing you need to know before installing the PC-cillin Internet Security is you will have to remove your existing antivirus software of different brand, and close all your browsers before installation starts. It is pretty much an idiot-proof installation, just pop in the CD, wait for its instruction to remove your existing antivirus program, close your browsers, and let the installation commence. You can choose to update the database immediately after installation, which took me about 10 minutes.

Review continues after the jump.

The interface is pretty simple and straightforward, even the most novice user will know how to operate it. A summary of the protection status, subscription and security report will be listed out on the main interface, together with a scan and update button.

Scanning your system with the PC-cillin is pretty smooth; it doesn’t slow down your PC performance even if you put it through a 30minutes full scan with external storage devices plugged on. It doesn’t hog up your memory either, however, after trying out the Internet Security for two days, I did encounter quite a massive lag the past two mornings when turning on the PC. At first I thought it was just the Internet connection, but even opening a new tab on the browser took quite some time.

Memory usage during scan

Other features I found useful in the program includes the parental control. Not that I have any children to lock it from, but it’s always a good choice to block certain websites that are usually filled with spyware and viruses.

Pro Features

Mobile Security
One of the major advantages of getting the Pro version of Trend Micro Internet Security is it comes with a Mobile Security application which you can download and activate via the Trend Micro interface. The Mobile Security application is only applicable for Windows Mobile and Symbian OS devices. Although you can only install it onto the internal memory of your mobile phone, it takes up relatively little space so it doesn’t cause your gadget to lag at all.

There’s nothing much to praise about this application though, besides being able to protect your device from malicious programs, it comes with an anti-spam feature to block out SMS. It would be much better though if it was able to protect files such as documents and gallery, and perhaps protect and deny access to SMS folders.

Vault
There are probably other Security program that gives you such feature but because this is the first time that I’m actually using it, I have to say it’s VERY handy and easy to use. All you have to do is drag your sensitive files into the vault, then lock it up. If you should misplace your computer, Trend Micro will allow you to do a remote locking on the vault.

System Tuner
The System Tuner is very customizable and can save you at least a few hundred MB of disk space. You can choose which part of your system you would like the program to clean up such as registry and software histories. The System Tuner comes with a recovery point too so in any case you wish to restore it because it has accidently removed some important files, you can easily do so.

Overall, the Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security Pro 2010 is working very well, apart from the daily lag that lasts for about a minute or so. So far, after visiting hundreds of webpages in the past few days, safe and those that have not been checked by Trend Micro, I did not encounter any problems at all; even when I browsed to websites that are prone to have spywares. The Pro version is really worth getting for all the extra features it provides, especially if you’re very sensitive over your data.

The Trend Micro Internet Security Pro 2010 (3 PC) is available for RM168 (12 months subscription) and RM268 (24 months subscription).