Last Updated
August 24, 2010

Editor's Rating

• Easy-to-use interface
• Minimal system impact
• Real-time scanning & heuristics
• 5GB of online storage

• Overbearing firewall notifications
• Slow online file transfers

BullGuard Internet Security 9.0 is a simple, easy-to-use security program that offers virus protection along with a firewall to protect against attacks, an antispam e-mail filter, online file backup, and phishing protection. Its friendly interface make it simple to use and the program's features make it a good choice.

The interface is very clean and simple to use. The BullGuard home screen gives you one-click access to many of the program's features and settings, as well as links to program updates and more. The interface uses large, cartoon-based icons as opposed to long text-based links to help users navigate through the interface. Right from the main screen, users can start a system scan, control application access to the Internet, access online storage, check for system updates, and more. Along the bottom are more broad links to settings and features related to the antivirus, firewall, spam filter, backup, and gaming modules of the BullGuard Internet Security 9.0 software.

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Clicking on "Scan for Viruses" from the home screen quickly starts a full system scan, but it doesn't allow you to perform a custom scan without first doing a full scan. Custom scans are scans of specific files/folders or of the Windows registry. The antivirus component of the program does use real-time scanning with heuristic detection to seek out suspicious, virus-like behavior. There is also spyware protection and the ability to scan files on local drives, network shares, and removable media too. Specific files, folders, and processes can be excluded from scanning as well. Scan speeds were pretty fast compared to most other antivirus software, but not the fastest out there.

There is an antiphishing protection feature as well that is turned on by default. It monitors the Web sites you visit and compares them with a known database of phishing sites, or sites that mimic authentic Web sites in hopes of capturing your personal information. BullGuard also adds a phishing report button to your Web browser that allows you to report a potential phishing site to BullGuard. We were able to get the button to appear in Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

The firewall in BullGuard Internet Security 9.0 is rather overbearing. When first installed, it displays a pop-up notification in the lower right corner of the screen for each time a program or system process attempts to access the Internet. We can understand asking for permission with more "borderline" software, like AOL Instant Messenger or Mozilla Firefox, which aren't crucial to the computer's operation. But we didn't understand the need to show when the "Host Process for Windows Services" or "Bonjour Service" attempted to access the Internet as these are all things that need Internet connectivity for normal system performance. BullGuard could be a little more selective in what notifications it shows for system processes that are integral to Windows, as many other firewall programs do. Another oddity is when a notification is shown asking for permission to access the Internet, it has a default of 30 seconds to select an action. Some users may need more than 30 seconds to read the screen through and make a choice, or sometimes you might be away from your computer when it happens and the default action after the 30 seconds is to deny access. This can be rather annoying and just outright a nuisance. You can, however, choose to not show notifications or disable the automatic answer feature.

The firewall allows you to setup application rules, disallow/allow Internet access to individual applications, specify port allowing/blocking, and other more advanced settings.

The built-in spam filter can be setup to be used in conjunction with Microsoft Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, and IncrediMail. Some of the features include the ability to whitelist contacts that you send e-mails to, blacklisting known spam senders, and specifying what folder in your e-mail software to send the spam to.

One of the other useful features included with BullGuard Internet Security 9.0 is 5GB of online storage that can be used as file backup for any files stored on your computer. The online storage shows up right in Windows Explorer as a system folder, so drag and dropping of files is allowed. Users can create backup "profiles", where specified file locations and/or e-mails are regularly backed up for safe keeping in case of a system failure or disaster. We really liked that the online backup location integrates right into Windows and shows up as a storage folder, which really makes moving files around a snap. As a test, it took 3:25 to transfer a 8.25MB file from our computer to the online storage, which is a little on the slow side.

Another unique feature to BullGuard is a gaming module, which decreases the "activity" of the software while playing a game, which helps increase performance. It also will disable real-time scanning and any scheduled tasks, like a system scan of file backup, while you're actively playing a game. What's even more unique is the software's ability to automatically recognize when you're playing a specific game listed in its 30 game profiles. Each game profile includes a whitelist to automatically allow the execution of the game's files without any slow down for real-time scanning. Admittedly, the game profiles included are a little out of date and lacking, but you can create your own easily enough.

System performance with BullGuard installed and real-time scanning enabled was pretty good with minimal to no noticeable performance hit with it installed on a dual-core AMD Athlon computer with 2GB of RAM running Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit). In the Windows Task Manager, the BullGuard process took up about 30,000K of system memory, which is on average for a security program.

BullGuard Internet Security 9.0 is available for $59.95 from BullGuard.com and includes licenses for up to three PCs, one-year of virus definition updates, 5GB of online file backup storage, and free 24/7 support. If you want to try out BullGuard before you buy it, there is a free 30 day trial available. BullGuard works with Windows XP SP2 and above, including Windows 7 (both 32- and 64-bit versions). It requires 512MB of RAM and around 200MB of hard drive space.

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