Windows 7 BitDefender Anti Virus free 1 year (I think)

[LTTP]

Every now and then, bitdefender gives me some license keys for free cuz i been with them for a while.

NOW i have 3 keys that no one claimed yet so here you are I guess:

63A7PIE
W437TIS
QBNR53P

each line is its own licence.
Needs to be activated with in 30 days I got the email (Got it on Feb 6th)

ITS FOR BITDEFERNDER ANTI VIRUS



Enjoy I guess

 

[seekermeister]

I already have a license for BD, but I've not used it, because it disables MBAM and Windows Defender on install, plus it crashes one of my video encoders (DVDFab8). Since you have been using this AV for a while, I'm wondering if you ran into these problems, and if you found a solution to them? Also I'm wondering if their is any compatiblity problems with Comodo Firewall?

 

[LTTP]

I never had an issue with BitDefender, thus why I used it for 3-4 years now.
The basic BD (The one I gave keys for) does not have a firewall so I don't see it giving any issues with Comado Firewall.
Lots of AV's don't like Windows Defender, and really if you have a good AV with a firewall, u really don't need it enabled.
also if it interrupts your programs, you can just add that file/program/exe/ext... to exclusions (add to both exclude file and folders and processes).
Other then that, not much else I can say about it :3.

 

[seekermeister]

I was wrong about having a license, because my license was older than I thought, so I used one of your keys, thanks. I've been doing without an AV longer than I should have, because of various conflicts with one or another AV. In addition to the things I mentioned previously, it also disabled Comodo's Defense + function, but I haven't been using it anyway, because of some problems that it was causing.

I didn't spend very long at all with BD the first time around, so it is still very strange to me. I received an email from BD with a link to confirm the installation, but all that did was take me to a webpage with some other options, only one of which says that it can be activated free (Identify Theft Protection), but that doesn't particularly interest me at the moment. As for Facebook and Twitter, I never use them. Parental Control doesn't apply for me, and Safebox (whatever that is) says that it is undergoing maintenance, so I guess that is out for now. All that leaves is Anti-Theft, but it requires some addition software to work. Is that free and what does it do?

EDIT: I just noticed that the current version of BD is 2013, and what I just installed from my archive is 2012...does that matter? It still activated properly.

 

[LTTP]

ya if u have a 2012 key it will work with 2013, I do not know about going backwards tho.

 

[seekermeister]

Apparently it goes backward also, assuming that your keys are for 2013, because as I said, I used one of them, and it shows that 2012 is activated for 365 days. My question was more about if there is some kind of difference in the versions that matters, other than activation?

I'm currently having BD do a full system scan, and one thing puzzles me, the very high number of skipped files. The scan still has a long time to run, and it has already skipped over 37,000 files. That number doesn't include password protected files, because there is a separate counter for that, so what is it skipping?

 

[LTTP]

BitDefender has a feature called SmartScan, which decreases the duration of the scan by adding clean files to a cache so that they will be skipped at the next scan if the files have not been accessed or modified in any way. If a file that is already present in the cache is accessed, then it will be removed from the cache.

The "Cache" created by Bitdefender is the same for all types of scans*, also for all the scanned files . Once you ran a scan, the clean files are moved to this Cache. Also, BitDefender is scanning all the files and processes accessed in real time. These are also added to the same cache if they are clean.

Only the clean files are moved to this Cache. When you will start a scan, BitDefender will first check this Cache in order to know what files it will skip. Also, once a file from the Cache is modified, it will automatically be removed from the cache list and BitDefender will scan it again in order to make sure the file is clean.

 

[seekermeister]

Thanks, I sort of figured that out, because after asking you my question, I realized that the full system scan was going to scan every drive and partition on my system, which would have taken forever. I decided to switch off my external drives to shorten the scan, but that caused a blue screen.

In a way that was good, because it caused me to take a closer look at the scan options, and set a custom scan only for C:. However, I noticed that it still hits on some of the other partitions on my C: drive anyway. Yet it appears that it is going to take a lot less time than before.

EDIT: I also set the scan to not skip over anything, old or new.

 

[seekermeister]

BD just finished scanning C: and gave it a clean bill of health, but that raises another question...isn't BD designed to detect trojans as well as regular virii? The reason that I ask is because Comodo has been flagging a video downloader that I use (GetFLV) as having a trojan within it's exe, and Googling it seems to confirm that. That is one reason that I was particularly interested in scanning with BD, to see what it would say about it.

I know that the smart thing to do would be to uninstall the program, but it is the only one that I've found so far that works for downloading the videos that I want. I'am still looking, but nothing else seems to work.

 

[LTTP]

False detection's happen, if you know its not a threat, then add it to exclusions.
Yes its also designed to detect Trojans also.

 

[seekermeister]

True, but I'm not yet convinced that it is a false positive, not only for the reasons that I mentioned, but also because sometimes when I try to use the downloader when my browser is open, I get alerts that something is wanting to install a new certificate. The last one appeared to be Russian, and apparently it would allow full remote control. Now I make sure that I never run both together.

 

[LTTP]

if ur not sure of some detection, then id go wit that the AV says.

 

[Mike]

The detection rates, heuristics, and general effectiveness and speed of anti-virus software is constantly changing because the causes, results, origin, and nature of the threats are constantly changing. The firewall component can always create an issue, depending on the software and how well and often it is developed, QA tested, and updated. For the effectiveness of the anti-virus itself, use this as a baseline (these are independent lab studies, as opposed to editorials or even paid editorials found in some magazines):

AV-Comparatives - Independent Tests of Anti-Virus Software
AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute: Home

 

[seekermeister]

Guess that I'm going to have to break down and buy BD, because I'm rebuilding from a clean install, and those free keys are no longer valid...unless someone knows of some more current free keys?

 

[Mike]

Guess that I'm going to have to break down and buy BD, because I'm rebuilding from a clean install, and those free keys are no longer valid...unless someone knows of some more current free keys?

Here is one from our affiliation with BitDefender:

Please click here: https://store.bitdefender.com/order...29345&AFFSRC=http://windows7forums.com&CART=1

Sorry, we do not have a valid coupon code for the product at this time, but you will save around $10 by ordering through this method from the price listed on the website as of 7/24/2013 ($69.95 instead of $79.95). Normally, we can generate discount coupon with affiliates but not with BD.

Best,
Mike

 

[seekermeister]

Thanks for the effort, but I remembered an email upgrade offer that they sent me just 5 days ago, that permitted a choice of either AV, Internet Security or Total Security for just 29.95, which I tried to use, but the webpage that it took me to was for full retail prices. One would think that an offer was good for more than 5 day.

At those prices, I'm considering going to Kaspersky instead. On a very quick scan of Google returns, it appeared that I can buy at about the same price as the BD email offers, and Kaspersky is rated slightly higher on their detection rate. The only reason that I didn't consider them in the first place was because I bought their Internet Security locally several years ago, and even though the box said that it was for Windows x64, it wouldn't install properly. I can't really complain about that, because Kaspersky gave me an immediate full refund without any questions, apparently because they were premature in their box labeling.

The only other thing that I have to decide now is which version to buy...just AV or Internet Security, because I already have a lifetime license for OutPost that I don't want to waste. Actually I have a lifetime license for both their firewall and Internet Security, but am not as comfortable with their AV, because it never appears on any of the more prominent comparison charts.

 

[Mike]

Hey seekermeister,

Internally, I show the $20 discount offer is running 09-Apr-2013 3:00 AM to 14-Aug-2013 3:00 AM. So you do have time to think about it. After August 14th, there will probably be another promotion, but I have no knowledge of what it would be. Kaspersky and ESET are the best in the industry in my opinion. All statements like that are subjective but its not biased, even though we have affiliations with these companies. The affiliation is a very small, sometimes zero dollar amount. Whatever you decide, look at what is suitable to your needs and requirements.

 

[seekermeister]

You are right...at least partially, because the page that I Googled was less expensive than what I got when I used the email links. However that $20 dollar off still isn't as inexpensive as what was in the email. I think that BD has just lost a customer, but I will have to look more closely at Kaspersky before deciding.

 

[LTTP]

@Seeker
No free keys atm.
I normally get some after I renew my BD.

As people been saying, their are some deals going on with BD, pretty good offers.

Tho normally after my BD ends or comes close, they ask for like 5-10$ for a full year, which is neat.

 

[seekermeister]

I agree that those renewal fees are pretty good, and is a factor to consider in choosing. However, you used the word "normally", does that mean that sometimes the renewal fee is much higher?