Bullguard’s anti-malware protection is among the best in the industry and is highly recognized by leading independent testing laboratories. All my viruses and malware samples were flagged by the system in seconds.
Fast and complete scanning options are available, as well as customizable scanning. The presence of a quarantine zone makes you possible to restore as well as completely delete the detected files. The awesome feature of fast scanning is that it can be run in one click directly from the main window ? there won?t be any extra window opening. Also, the bar under the antivirus icon shows the progress of scanning.
It took me around 90 seconds for the test scanning and in the detailed report you could see the scanning speed, the number of missing files and the exact time of completion. I was impressed with how little system resources are used in this process. During sleep mode scanning and full mode scanning, no more than 2% of the CPU resources were used.
Vulnerability scanning with the respective scanner is possible in the premium plan. The tool will be able to scan for expected dangerous processes, such as execution of previously released or not updated programs, making a connection to an insecure WiFi network, and usage of the digitally unsigned drivers.
Premium Protection fails in protection from extortionists. The program does not have a special scanner to detect ransomware and quarantine as well. Though I did not have a test pattern, other users reported that this aspect was less effective than malware detection.
Various extra features are also included in the program. Some of them are explained below:
Firewall BullGuard
Though there is no inclusion of own firewall in the premium protection plan, it greatly simplifies the work with built-in Windows protection. The program will show all the programs which are installed in your computer with their basic rules for blocking or allowing firewall. For more complex configuration changes, such as connection port restrictions, you will be asked to click on a button which will land you to Windows Firewall under the enhanced security.
This is not the most advanced firewall manager on the market, but it should be more than enough to make sure that fraudulent system programs do not connect to the Internet and that there is no leakage of user personal information.
Backup BullGuard
Premium Protection has a common backup utility that integrates well with several cloud storage systems (including Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive) as well as physical media such as external USB drives, network attached storage and additional internal hard drives. Users can create profiles where they can specify which files they want to copy to the cloud and then assign each backup to a specific destination. You can fully manage the scheduler. You can also configure the backup to run only manually.
Configuring your PC for BullGuard
Premium Protection has a built-in system configuration and optimization tool that performs useful actions such as Windows registry defragmentation and browser cache cleaning. It also removes unnecessary Windows files such as temporary directories, various log files, and crash dumps.
The first time I run the utility, it found 734MB to delete. It was an impressive amount of disk space. After carefully examining these files, I decided to let the program continue its work. You can also save the cleanup processes for future scans, so you don’t have to check what has been marked each time the program is started.
Parental control
Parental control and web filtering are important for many users, so I was glad that these features are present in the product. The tool easily imports all user accounts from the operating system, so you can immediately apply for protection at the user level. The program includes templates based on the user’s age, as well as the ability to configure whitelists and blacklists, and there is a very detailed program for scheduled access control.
In addition to limiting access to the Internet at certain times of the day, administrators can set up maximum usage periods. This ensures that children will not have access to inappropriate websites and will be able to use the Internet within a reasonable time frame. Finally, the Parental Controls tool automatically marks all chat programs for blocking. Users can also manually add programs that have not been automatically detected, which I had to do for Rambox, a popular program for managing multiple messaging accounts.
Home network scanner
Premium protection includes a home network scanner that monitors all devices connected to the network and displays real-time alerts. As soon as my Wi-Fi-connected printer went online, I received a pop-up notification that a new device had joined the network. I was able to assign a user name to any connected device, see its MAC and IP address, and even add it to a category (such as tablets). This is a great feature for anyone who is concerned about unauthorized access to the network.
Premium Protection, which can be used on Windows, MacOS, and Android, is not budgetary if you protect only one device, but one license can be activated to use up to ten devices. This is one of the most generous offers with several devices I have seen, and if you have so many devices, I highly recommend Bullguard.
