In the crowded antivirus software field, it is difficult to find positive ways to stand out. BullGuard Antivirus software does it with antispamware tools, some impressive early-detection features, an attractive interface and excellent customer service. Those things are not quite enough to take them to the top of the pile, but this antivirus software does some solid work when it comes to protecting your computer from all sorts of attacks.

Scope of Protection:
BullGuard antivirus software is designed to identify and remove a wide range of viruses, spyware, worms, rootkits and Trojans. It will continuously scan your computer’s disk and memory looking for virus signatures. It also is designed to protect you online and filter for spam, keeping your inbox clean.

Effectiveness:
BullGuard antivirus software earned certification from ICSA labs, which tests and retest products at least on a quarterly basis in order to ensure that they are able to defend your computer against emerging threats.

This product can also claim VB 100 certification, which means Virus Bulletin has tested it for its ability to detect in-the-wild viruses and its ability to generate no false positives.

BullGuard antivirus software also is basking in the glow of 2011 AV-Test Labs certification. That does not happen for every product, so it comes with some bragging rights. They scored a very respectable 99 percent for real-world attacks, where the industry average was 82 percent. AV-Test Labs gave them a 100 percent for blocking malware. The industry average there was only 55 percent. Against their “representative malware set,” BullGuard scored 99 percent and the industry average was 96 percent. BullGuard antivirus software got a perfect score on Wildlist malware, but so did the other antivirus software products in that particular study.

The Av-Test Labs scores are good but not great. Eleven products in the very same study scored higher than BullGuard, including BitDefender and Kaspersky, which both scored 15.5. However, 10 products scored lower, so BullGuard basically finds itself in the middle of the pack.

BullGuard Antivirus also lacks West Coast Labs certifications. It’s not the only test that matters, but we prefer products that have the good opinion of this well-respected lab. Many others in our lineup do have it, in addition to the other certifications we looked for, which tends to sway us toward them.

Ease of Installation:
This antivirus software was faster and easier to install than we expected, especially when compared with other antivirus tools we tried. Part of the installation process is a notification-level option at the outset. You can tell this program to notify you about any and all activities or you can tell it to notify you only when necessary. If you are not well-versed in the antivirus lingo you may not want to know every detail about what BullGuard is finding on your computer.

Ease of Use:
The basic interface is easy to understand and very user-friendly. We like that throughout the interface of this antivirus software product designers use wording that is understandable for any user. The mostly red-and-white graphics really pop out and help you find your way. The basic menu options are Antivirus, Spamfilter and Support.

In our initial scan, BullGuard antivirus software found a few minor problems with our test computer. We like the way the problem areas are listed in a simple chart. You can ultimately decide what to have BullGuard fix and what to leave alone. With a couple of clicks our suspicious files were eliminated.

Features:
This product really takes early detection seriously. BullGuard antivirus software will help you not only eliminate existing threats on your computer but also help prevent future threats. BullGuard has what it calls a Behavioral Detection feature, which helps identify viruses before they become part of the virus signature database. This technology helps identify viruses based on abnormal registry, file process and network events. Behavioral detection helps find problems early and thwart zero-day attacks, which take advantage of weaknesses discovered during new software’s infancy, before developers can send users the patch.

Another early detection tool BullGuard offers is the Safe Browsing feature, part of its antiphishing module. Safe browsing means you can surf the web with an extra safety net. BullGuard will flag any sites that may have malware so you won’t be tricked into downloading infected programs or giving your personal information out to the wrong people. Safe Browsing works in Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Updates:
BullGuard antivirus software automatically checks for updates against new threats about every two hours. You can manually tell it to check at any time by pushing the Check for Updates button on the interface.

Help & Support:
The customer support options are impressive. Emailed questions have a response in an hour, and that is the non-emergency option. For even more urgent matters, users can start a live chat with BullGuard associates. Each account comes with a message center so you receive important updates and information directly from BullGuard. You can personalize your support settings too. Decide whether you want to check for new items in your message center automatically, add sound to your chat conversations, keep the chat window on top of all other windows and more.

The chat assistance was also impressive. It was very fast and friendly. When we asked why BullGuard had listed some files as “skipped” on our scan, the operator was quick to explain some of the reasons – password protection, encryption and others – that cause BullGuard to skip.

It’s sort of surprising that there is no telephone support option, but we didn't miss it with the excellent live chat responses we got.