CoGen Anti-Virus:
so, as promised this is the second part(read the first part here) in the series of anti virus software reviews that we analyze to decide upon the best alternative to norton anti-virus! So, today we analyze and see Cogen Anti-virus, a little heard of an anti-virus and a company Cogen Media, atleast for me has pleasantly surprised me with the quality and the efficiency of the anti virus software that they provide. Cogen Media surely is a though competition for norton anti-virus as well as Anti-Virus 2007 from CA!
So, here are some of the features of the Cogen AntiVirus software:
Virtual machine Unpacking Engine (VUE)
Virtual machine Unpacking Engine (VUE) is new innovative technology featured in CoGen Anti-virus 2007. This new technology detects viruses even when disguised under multiple layers designed to evade detection by many of the anti-virus solutions in the market today.
What is packing? Packing is the process of placing layers over viruses to disguise them from being detected by many anti-virus software applications. Viruses may be packed with many layers and anti-virus software without strong unpacking capability cannot detect the virus, Trojan, or malware. As a result, the packed viruses are identified as new viruses and the anti-virus software vendors are required to update their database of virus definitions in order to remove the packed viruses.
VUE was developed to provide a fast and effective solution to detecting and removing packed viruses. In order for packed viruses to infect a computer system, they must first remove the many layers that have helped the viruses evade detection. VUE creates a virtual machine system environment for viruses to automatically remove their layers which are then detected and removed by CoGen Anti-virus.
Unknown Virus scan and Clean technology
Unknown Virus Scan Technology scans unknown DOS, email, script, macro and Windows viruses, keeping you one step ahead of unknown future viruses.
Pre-Login Scan
This feature allows you to scan your computer system before logging into Windows. Some viruses are difficult to remove once you have logged into Windows, hence this feature allows you to perform a virus scan and remove those viruses.
File Monitor
This feature scans all files before you open them, thereby eliminating the opportunity for viruses to be opened and destroying them before they can infect your computer system.
File Monitor Whitelist
File Monitor Whitelist is a feature that includes files and directories that are skipped and not scanned by CoGen Anti-virus. By adding trusted files and directories to the File Monitor Whitelist, you can improve the amount of time that it takes CoGen Anti-virus to scan your computer system.
Memory Monitor
This feature monitors all running application programs for viruses. Once a virus is detected Memory Monitor will clean the virus and prevent it from infecting your computer system.
E-mail Scan
Incoming emails (POP3) and outgoing emails (SMTP) are scanned for viruses and CoGen Anti-Virus will alert you of any potential virus threats. CoGen Anti-virus currently only supports POP3 incoming and SMTP outgoing email protocols. The Email Scan feature helps to prevent certain Trojans from stealing your passwords and scans and cleans any outgoing emails before they are sent to ensure that you don’t infect other computer users.
Script Blocking
This feature helps to protect your computer system when you are browsing the Internet by blocking certain malicious web scripts. If you visit a web site that contains high-risk web scripts, you will be alerted by CoGen Anti-virus and prompted for action.
Boot Record Monitor
This feature scans for viruses and other malicious files that reside in the boot records of floppy disks, CD-ROMs, or USB storage devices and blocks them from infecting your computer system.
Registry Protect
This feature monitors your system registry for any modifications. If an application program attempts to modify your system registry, you will be alerted and prompted for action. Registry Protect will inform you of the name and location of the application attempting to modify your system registry and how it will be modified.
Vulnerability Defence
If Windows updates are not installed and system vulnerabilities exist, Vulnerability Defense can help protect your computer system by alerting you of any potential attacks on any system vulnerabilities.(This is another major advantage over norton )
File Shredder
File Shredder allows you to protect your privacy by permanently deleting unwanted sensitive files through Windows Explorer. To permanently delete a file, simply right-click on the file and select File Shredder. Any files deleted by File Shredder cannot be recovered.
Network Blacklist
When the Auto-Protect feature detects that a network computer is attempting to spread a virus, Network Blacklist will intercept the virus and record the name and IP address of that computer. Other computers can be manually added to the Network Blacklist. Once a computer has been added to the Network Blacklist, that computer will not be able to copy of modify the shared directory of your computer.
Embedded Scan for other Programs
CoGen Anti-virus can provide added virus protection for third party applications such as instant messaging programs, download management tools, and compression tools. The following thirty party applications are supported by CoGen Anti-Virus:
- Microsoft Office 2000 and 2003
- Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher
- MSN Messenger
- Yahoo! Messenger
- AOL Instant Messenger
- FlashGet
- NetAnts
- Net Vampire
- WinZip
- WellGet
- WinRAR
Once Embedded Scan has been applied to these third party application programs, CoGen Anti-virus can automatically scan all files received through these programs for viruses and other malicious files.
Thus, Cogen Anti-Virus is definately an anti virus from the big league with many features that are not even present in norton, so i would suggest giving cogen anti-virus a try, atleast download a trial version and have a look.
My review, best alternative for Norton Anti-virus, it is either a CoGen AntiVirus 2007
or an Anti-Virus 2007 from CA!
Coming up in the next section, 10 features to look for when buying any anti-virus software.
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