Review: Trend Micro Internet Security 2008

This package from Trend Micro offers comprehensive protection against a wide variety of Internet threats.

As well as protecting against viruses and spam it can filter dodgy websites and protect personal information and financial details.

It comes with a year’s worth of regular updates to combat any new threats that emerge.

The program took only a few seconds to install, and once installed it places a little icon in the Notification Area that changes to show problems as they may arise.

The main internet security program can be launched by clicking on this icon. In the main window the program indicates the nature of the problem that's occurred and offers a simple Fix Now button to can click, which instructs the program to deal with the problem automatically.

More advanced users who want greater control over how it works can click the series of additional buttons that offer specific options such as controls for the firewall and email scanner. We don’t have any complaints about the features provided by the program - it includes key features that we always look for, such as the ability to block personal information being sent out in emails or chat programs, and we liked the option to scan a wireless network to see a list of all the computers that are connected to it.

However, some of these options were either turned off when we first installed the program, or the protection was set to the minimum level. As a result, we had to spend a fair amount of time looking through the control panels to see if they were set up properly. Some of these options also came with vague headings such as ‘protection against web threats’, which don’t really explain very much, so we often found ourselves flicking through the online help files to try and locate specific features and options.

So while Internet Security 2008 provides a good range of features to protect the computer - or, to be precise, the three PCs in a home that are covered by the license - it could do a bit more to help new users get all those features set up more quickly.

Vista compatibility: Yes