In all the years I've used the McAfee and then Norton antivirus (AV) programs, a software upgrade has never worked right the first time. At some point in the process, I always had to call McAfee or Norton tech support. Actually, I'd call the president of McAfee on my own dime to get somebody from tech support to call me. I stopped calling Norton when, after being on hold for 45 minutes on a toll call, I was unceremoniously disconnected.

Now along comes Kaspersky Anti-Virus (KAV) Personal Pro, version 4.0, from Kaspersky Lab Ltd. Which is based in Moscow, Russia of all places. This is a technoid's dream. It has dozens of features. The documentation is a challenge. The interface, the "Kaspersky AV Control Centre," isn't Windows-like. (That seems to be typical of AV products.) Even "basic," versus "advanced," configuration is difficult.

Yet KAV works. It installed without any problem on my Windows 2000 workstation. (It also cleanly uninstalls, leaving no program "droppings" to manually delete in the registry or, except for log files, on the hard drive.)

KAV scanned my hard drives in their entirety — the first time that's happened on my computers in five years or more. The scanning was quick.

KAV lets my Eudora email program start up faster. (Norton always checked Eudora upon startup, delaying my access to the computer. And unlike Norton, KAV doesn't insert lines into the email headers to indicate it's scanning.)

Moreover, downloading KAV program updates and virus databases works. (Kaspersky provides free daily updates for one year.)

Like many people, I've had to deal with other people's Klez-infected email programs for at least a year now. Such attachments have petered out now, but at least once a week KAV pops up to tell me that yet another attachment is going to quarantine. I noticed that KAV did a good job at trapping Sircam and Magistr when those viruses were "popular." It's caught others; I just don't pay attention anymore. (Unless I have my speakers on — the default KAV warning sound is a pig's squeal. Not pretty, but effective.)

A quick perusal of independent, documented tests of AV products shows that KAV is as effective as McAfee and Norton in intercepting, disinfecting, and deleting viruses before they get written to your hard drive, including those within .zip and other compressed files, and those being downloaded as attachments. KAV works only with Microsoft's Outlook, Outlook Express, and Exchange clients. To handle other email programs, KAV continuously inspects for virus in files received from the Internet, as well as files while they're being used.

KAV checks for viruses in the memory of running programs. It also has Office Guard, an AV module for protecting Microsoft Office 2000 documents from both known and unknown macro viruses. The KAV Inspector traces content modifications to detect unauthorized changes in files or system registry. Inspector does not require anti-virus database updates because it checks integrity by developing the hard disk files' CRC database and later, when started again, it checks files for CRC modifications against this database. KAV quarantines infected files, including those downloaded off the Internet, and lets you restore those files if need be — if you can figure out how to do that.

Let that be a good segue to some of the problems with KAV. The documentation seems complete, until you read it. Regarding downloads: I would like to know the size of program updates and virus database files before downloading them. KAV's status bar isn't good enough, and it's usually misleading. The Kaspersky website used to load quickly; now it's junked up with some cute, useless animations. Nevertheless, Kaspersky's www.viruslist.com is relatively fast and chock full of virus information and free utilities for detecting and deleting viruses. The phone number for product/technical support leads to Kaspersky in Moscow. The promise of 24-hour tech support through email is just that: A promise. However, Kaspersky does respond to emails; it just might take two email requests.

One other problem: KAV Personal Pro is expensive relative to other AV programs on the market. KAV Personal, which directly competes with McAfee and Norton's consumer AV products, costs $50. For another $50, KAV Personal Pro includes Inspector and Office Guard. By contrast, KAV Lite, for $20, does basic virus detection and removal, and its AV database is updated by appending details of new viruses and appropriate remedies.

Despite these detriments, KAV does the job, does it well, and I'm quite comfortable with it. Better, my computer is secure against viruses.

Kaspersky Personal Pro 4.0
Product: Antivirus program

List price: Personal: $50; Personal Pro: $100; Lite: $20. For small and medium business, price varies based on workstation, servers, and mail servers. Personal Linux: $50; Linux File Server: $560. Palm OS: $14.

Operating systems: Windows 95/98/ME, Windows 2000/NT 4.0 (SP3 or better)/XP; Linux; Palm OS.

Requires: Under Windows 95/98/NT 4.0 Workstation, Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.01 (SP2) or higher. Processor: Intel Pentium or equivalent. RAM: 4 MB (12 MB for NT/2000). 9 MB hard disk space.

Under Linux, Linux kernel version 2.2.x or 2.4.H and libnss_compat.so.1. library. Processor: Intel 486 or higher. RAM: 64 MB. 30 MB hard disk space.

Under Palm OS, OS 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x. RAM: 35 KB.

Vendor: Kaspersky Lab Ltd.
10, Geroyev Panfilovtcev Str.
Moscow, Russia, 123363
(7) 095-797-8700
www.kaspersky.com

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