NOD32 Anti-Virus Review - A Look at NOD32

I recently updated from NOD32 version 2.7 to the latest v3.0. I found that Eset has dramatically simplified the structure of the NOD32 controls. They had been criticized in the past as creating a great product for advanced PC users.

The new version has a simplified "Standard Mode" that is much easier to use.

The Advanced Mode is still there — a simple click on the "Display: Standard mode" in the bottom left-hand corner will let you toggle into Advanced mode to enable control of many more options.

Upgrading from a previous version was easy. I uninstalled the older version, rebooted, and installed the new version. Many anti-virus programs work this way, since some of their components are installed during early parts of the Windows boot process — and not changeable without a reboot.

Then, installing was straight forward.

Once NOD32 is running, the first screen displayed is the Protection Status screen. If all is well, you see a display with a green monitor labelled Maximum Protection. If any features have been turned off or disabled, you'll see either an orange warning that the email or web access protections are disabled, or you'll see the red warning that real-time file system protection is disabled.

The second screen is where you manually trigger an antivirus scan of your computer. The custom scan allows you to choose between in-depth scanning and smart scanning (for certain types of files only). You can also choose to scan individual drives or drives by type — removable, local (internal and external) and network.

The next screen (left) shows the update status and also lets you trigger an update. The screen on the right gives the Standard mode Setup options and the option to toggle to Advanced mode (the bottom option is on every screen).

The next screen (left) is the entry to the excellent Help system. You can also search their knowledge base and contact Customer Care from here. The screen on the right is a sample of what you see while NOD32 is performing an on-demand scan of ht ehard drive. Notice that it shows the name of the file that's being examined (driver.cab). Since this is actually a cabinet file (a type of archive similar to a zip file), and since NOD32 is configured by default to check files that are enclosed in archives, we can see that it's scanning the file ntkrpamp.exe that's inside the .cab archive file.

The next four screens are the ones that you find when you select Custom Scan and then click on the "Setup..." button on that screen. The options that are checked are the ones that are checked by default.

I've used NOD32 one all my computers since late 2003. Based on my initial impressions of the new version 3.0, I think I'm going to be even happier with it.

NOD32 is available for individuals (1-, 2-, 3- and 4-user downloads), for multi-user small business (5-, 10- and 15-user downloads) and enterprise packages.