what is it about Bitdefender?

[aip11]

This is an AV program I wanted to give a try, but when i installed it and read the readme file, it informed me that the Bitdefender may not be compatible with Spybot. I wrote to their tech support, asking about it, but they won't talk about it other than saying that it's drivers that are not compatible, and that they strongly recommend not to install Spybot with Bitdefender.

The new computer (XP/SP2 media center) where I installed it did not have Spybot on it yet, so now I'm unsure what to do.The Bitdefender looks pretty good, but I'm not considering letting go of Spybot. The Bitdefender has a registry surveillance module, which seems similar to the Teatimer's. Could that be where a problem could arise?

Would appreciate any insight or experience anyone might have.

[tashi]

wrote to their tech support, asking about it, but they won't talk about it other than saying that it's drivers that are not compatible, and that they strongly recommend not to install Spybot with Bitdefender.

I have not heard this before.

I downloaded BitDefender 9 Standard Documentation Guide.

As the Registry Defender apprantly watches for changes it might be confusing if you had teatimer also running.
Multiple windows asking for permission or deny; making it easier to make mistakes; not to speak of being really annoying.

However it is easy to disable teatimer and I don't understand:

they won't talk about it other than saying that it's drivers that are not compatible, and that they strongly recommend not to install Spybot with Bitdefender.

A Goggle search has revealed no information.
"Strongly recommend"?

Perhaps someone who uses Bitdefender can shed light on this.

[aip11]

Tashi, thank you for responding.

That's what I was thinking too, that both programs doing the same thing with registry protection creating instability.

I asked them if that might be it, and they just ignored my questions. And I had other questions too, and it's impossible to get an answer. Not very helpful, to say nothing about annoining. That's what anyone considering bitdefender should be aware of - don't count on any support.

I could turn off teatimer, if that's all that it's doing, watching over registry. I'm not sure of that, though. Or I could turn off biodefender's registry shield instead.

[LonnyRJones]

Hi

What build and version of bitdefender is it you are trying ?
I installed one and only saw a normal referance to not have Two antivirus programs installed.

[aip11]

9 standard. This is from their readme file:

Known compatibility issues when using :
---------------------------------------
- SpyBot Search & Destroy
- A2 - Security Solutions
- Norton Clean Sweep
- Nero Imagedrive - and other similar applications (only on Windows 9x)

Disable the Virus Shield while using the programs listed above to avoid data loss and/or system instability

and this is what their rep said in an email:

> > > > Our incompatibility with Spybot is caused by
> > > > incompatible drivers. We strongly
> > > > recommend not having both products installed at
> > the
> > > > same time.

Does that make sense? What kind of data loss they are talking about?

I since installed Bitdefender on a computer with a spybot already on, and the two seemed to get along fine, but it's not a computer i use a lot, so I can't be sure. I like the bitdefender and have confidence in it as an AV program, but not so much in its registry shield module. One thing about it is that when it detects change it displays an alert but if you do not respond to it in like 10 sec it just disappears. There appears to be no way of changing it, except turning it off completely, and they won't answer your questions, like what does happen with the attempted registry change in such case. So I'd rather continue using Teatimer for that.

Does that sound as a reasonable strategy?
Thanks

[LonnyRJones]

"Does that sound as a reasonable strategy? "

That would be what i suggest, turn there reg shield off and use tea timer instead.
But if you have to completly turn the Virus Shield , dont,
PS, Thanks for posting that information.

[PepiMK]

By the way, I installed BitDefender as well on my home Linux machine, and out of ten current viruses, it just found one. It didn't even find the Eicar test file. Not sure if it's a Linux issue, but if the Windows version is as weak (and I'm pretty sure they at least use the same viruses databases), it won't do much good

[Tarheel]

PepiMK, I've recently downloaded BitDefender 9. I ordered the CD during this process. I received the CD today and it's powered by Macromedia Flash. My understanding is that my Internet Explorer regards Macromedia Flash as taboo. I've also blocked it via SpyWareBlaster. What do you recommend? Thank you.

[Mele20]

I have been using Bit Defender on my XP box for a over a year. I use the on demand free scanner which is version 8. It is my only AV and it is outstanding. In the latest AV-Comparatives retrospective testing, it scored higher than Kaspersky. It usually scores A+. Obviously this "conflict" is only with the on access scanner as I have no problems running Spybot and Bit Defender. As for it doing poorly on Linux that has got be Linux because Bit Defender won't let me get anywhere near any of the eicar tests on XP Pro.

I just installed Bit Defender free on my 98SE box. Before I did that I ran the Bit Defender online scan on that box and even though I specifically set it up to ONLY report...not automatically delete any virus it found...it ignored that and started going through a zipped folder where I have 900+ viruses for testing purposes and it was busily deleting all of them when I caught it and stopped it. That is what made me decide to install it instead of running the on line scanner as I know the installed version obeys me on XP and doesn't automatically delete viruses as I have some zipped and stored on XP also but it finds all of them. In fact, of this 900+ viruses, it finds all but 2 and that is a better score than Kaspersky. It is an excellent AV right up there with Kaspersky and NOD32 as the three top AV currently.

[ohmyhead]

I've got many machines loaded with BitDefender Client Pro Plus 8 with S&D. The only conflict I've seen is with the machines that the users have blocked (unknowingly I'm sure) the bdnagent.exe load in the registry. TeaTimer has a sh*t fit on startup due to that.