When your formerly speedy PC starts to stutter and drag, you may be inclined to pin the blame on your antivirus. Hey, it's an easy target, right? Chances are good, though, that any slowdown is due to things like over-filled hard drives or too many programs running in the background. IObit's Advanced SystemCare Ultimate 9 has the answer for you—it combines antivirus protection with a full suite of system tune-up tools. At $29.99 per year for three licenses, it costs a less than many competing standalone antivirus products. Unfortunately, the core antivirus protection didn't hold up in my testing.
IObit's main window reports your current security status and features three extra-large glowing icons that launch a Quick, Full, or Custom Scan. Tested on my standard clean virtual machine, the full scan took 26 minutes, which is good, given that the current average is almost 40 minutes. Some antivirus products actively avoid rescanning known good files, making repeat scans very fast. AVG AntiVirus (2016) and Total Defense Anti-Virus (2015) zoomed through a repeat scan in about one minute. IObit doesn't seem to attempt this kind of scan optimization.
Easy StartWhen you launch IObit's installer, you see a simple screen with one big button that simultaneously accepts the product license and launches the installer. The install process completed. To finish the process, I updated antivirus definitions and activated the product to enable real-time protection.
After I finished activation, the program presented me with a big screen full of additional features and settings, most of which were flagged as enabled. Clicking a link activated the features that weren't enabled by default: Surfing Protection, Registry Deep Clean, and Secure File Deletion.
I noticed that even though I activated the program, it still displayed an advertisement across the bottom, offering me an 80 percent discount on IObit's Drive Booster 3 Pro, along with "super gifts." This kind of internal advertising is found throughout the program. The Action Center notifies you about security problems, but also touts special deals on other IObit products. An Exclusive Offers button on the scan-complete screen likewise takes you to an advertising page. Some users may find these elements annoying.
Mediocre Malware ProtectionIObit uses Bitdefender's antivirus engine, so, in a perfect world, its lab-test scores would track precisely with the excellent scores attained by Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2016. However, the independent labs state very clearly that test results apply only to the actual product that was tested. None of the labs include IObit in testing, so the only test results I can rely on are my own. My own testing shows that IObit's protection doesn't track with Bitdefender's at all.
To start my malware-blocking test, I open a folder containing my current set of malware samples. The minimal file access that occurs when Windows Explorer checks a file's name, size, and creation date is enough to trigger real-time protection in many antivirus products, including IObit. After a few minutes, it had eliminated 75 percent of the samples. Bitdefender wiped out 79 percent at this point, but the set of samples caught on sight by the two products didn't completely match. IObit missed some that Bitdefender caught, and caught one that Bitdefender missed.
When I continued the test by launching the samples that weren't wiped out immediately, the two products diverged further. Some of the samples IObit caught after launch managed to install executable traces on the test system, a problem that didn't happen with Bitdefender. Overall, IObit detected 82 percent of the samples and scored 7.9 of 10 possible points. Bitdefender detected 93 percent and managed 9.3 points. That's the top score among products tested using this same set of samples. Bitdefender shares that top score with Avast Pro Antivirus 2016. Tested using my previous malware collection, Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus (2015) managed a perfect 10 points.
In order to precisely compare how thoroughly different antivirus products fend off malware attacks, I necessarily use the same set of thoroughly analyzed samples for quite a while. My malicious URL blocking test, on the other hand, always uses the very latest malware-hosting URLs, supplied in a daily feed by MRG-Effitas. I load URL after URL, noting whether the antivirus keeps the browser from reaching the URL, wipes out the payload during download, or sits idly twiddling its thumbs. I continue until I've captured data for 100 active malware-hosting URLs.
Throughout this test, IObit teetered back and forth, almost evenly balanced between wiping out downloads and completely missing all detection. I began to think that its Surfing Protection component wasn't designed for this sort of test. Near the end, though, that component did kick in to block precisely one URL at the browser level. IObit's overall score of 50 percent protection is a little better than the current average, but nowhere near Bitdefender's 74 percent protection. Top scorers in this test are McAfee AntiVirus Plus (2016) and Symantec Norton Security Premium, each with 91 percent protecton.
See How We Test Malware Blocking
Poor Protection Against PhishingThe Surfing Protection browser add-in serves to block both malware-hosting URLs and other types of dangerous URLs. That includes phishing sites, those nasty frauds that masquerade as PayPal, your bank, or some other secure site, attempting to steal your login credentials.
Given that this component blocked access to just one in 100 malware-hosting URLs, it couldn't fare worse in the antiphishing test unless it earned a big fat zero. It actually scored better than that, but still failed to impress.
For this test, I gather URLs that have been reported as fraudulent, but that haven't yet been verified and blacklisted. I launch each URL on five test systems, each protected in a different way. One system uses the product under testing, of course, and another uses Norton, a long-time antiphishing winner. The other three rely on protection built into Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Since the nature of current phishing sites varies from day to day, I report results as the difference between the detection rate of the product and of the other four test systems.
IObit's detection rate was a full 76 percent lower than Norton's, which puts it in the bottom quarter of recent products, score-wise. Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2016) came very close to tying with Norton, while Bitdefender is the only recent product that actual outperformed Norton in this test.
All three browsers handily beat IObit, despite Chrome having an apparent bad day. The lesson is clear—don't turn off your browser's fraud protection, because IObit won't take its place.
See How We Test Antiphishing
Clean and OptimizeAntivirus is just part of what you get with this product. IObit's full-scale system tune-up utility, similar to Iolo System Mechanic 14, is included in Advanced SystemCare Ultimate. Note, though, that while you can use the Iolo product on any number of computers, cleanup with IObit is limited to the three licenses that come as part of your subscription.
Once you get past the Antivirus page, the rest of this product is devoted to system cleanup and optimization. The Clean and Optimize page lets you launch a scan to clean up unwanted junk that may be slowing your system, among other things. Just half of these modules are enabled by default, probably because those not enabled can take a long time to finish.
I was mildly surprised to find Spyware Removal and Security Defense in this collection (the latter says it will prevent spyware installation). I would think those belong with the antivirus.
The components that are enabled by default sweep your system for spyware, boost your Internet speed, fix broken shortcuts, eliminate junk files and Registry items, and sweep away activity traces that could compromise your privacy. Running a scan using just these components took just a couple of minutes. On completion, it offered a summary of found problems with the option to dig in for detail and even exempt certain items from cleanup. Most users will probably just click the big Fix button.
Before making any changes, IObit creates a rollback record. That way if by some mischance the cleanup causes trouble, you can undo its changes using the Rescue Center. As with the antivirus scan, the final page offered an Exclusive Offer button, encouraging me to buy more IObit products.
The components not checked by default serve to defrag the Registry and hard drives, check for drive errors, optimize system settings for speed, and fix Windows vulnerabilities. I started a scan using all of the components, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it took just a few minutes more. The process of fixing found problems took about 30 minutes this time, since it included installing a few Windows updates and partially defragging the hard drive. But that's really quite a reasonable time to perform those deeper optimizations.
Speed UpApparently speeding up your system isn't quite the same as optimizing it, so IObit offers a separate Speed Up page with four choices: Turbo Boost, Startup Accelerate, Deep Optimization, and App/Toolbar Cleaner.
Turbo Boost is something you'll use sparingly, for times when you really need every ounce of performance. It terminates unnecessary applications and services and sweeps the system to release RAM that's allocated but not in use. Note that IObit maintains a tiny desktop widget that reports RAM and CPU usage—you can click its broom icon to sweep for RAM that can be released.
By default, Turbo Boost operates in Work Mode. You can configure it to use Game Mode, which terminates even more services. Economy Mode aims to minimize power consumption so you can keep using a laptop whose battery is low.
The Startup Accelerate component simply lists the programs that launch at system startup and lets you manage them. On the basic Startup Accelerate page, I couldn't figure out what to do. The two items listed just had Ignore in the Action column, and when I clicked it for one, that item vanished.
Clicking the link for advanced configuration made things clearer. In this mode, I found I could set each item to enabled, disabled, or delayed, much like the similar feature in Norton. Its Deep Optimization list displayed Windows features, including Intelligent Disk Accelerate and Fast Startup, but reported them already optimized. Other tabs listed add-ins that launch with various browsers and non-essential Windows services.
When I clicked for details under Deep Optimization, IObit offered a laundry list of settings to speed hard drive access, network connections, and overall system speed. Finally, the App/Toolbar Cleaner didn't show a thing, because it didn't find any suspicious browser apps or plugins. Avast and Panda Antivirus Pro 2016 offer similar toolbar clean-up tools.
Toolbox and Action CenterYou may be a bit overwhelmed the first time you open IObit's Toolbox page. This page sports more than two dozen icons representing various types of utilities from IObit. Some are not currently installed, but can be downloaded (represented by a down-arrow icon overlay). Some of those must be purchased separately. Others are, those with no icon overlay, are already present, but may require payment for Pro features. To help you deal with icon overload, IObit now includes the option to put your favorite tools at the top.
The only one of the toolbox items that's related to antivirus protection is a button for IObit Malware Fighter. Given this product's abysmal performance in our testing, I can't imagine why you'd choose to install it.
As noted earlier, the Action Center tab touts a "VIP exclusive offer" to purchase other IObit products at drastically slashed prices. If you're not interested, just click the link to hide these offers.
You'll also find IObit's software updater list in the Action Center. On my test system, Chrome, Firefox, and Java all needed update. IObit handled them as automatically as possible, though finalizing the Java update did require my participation. Given that Java and browsers are subject to extreme scrutiny by malefactors seeking security holes, keeping them up to date is very important.
Not the Antivirus You're Looking ForIObit Advanced SystemCare Ultimate 9 uses Bitdefender's antivirus engine, yet its test results don't come close to Bitdefender's. The independent antivirus labs don't include it in testing. And where Bitdefender is the only current product that has beaten Norton in our antiphishing test, IObit scored near the bottom. As an antivirus, this product doesn't impress.
Our Editors' Choice picks for commercial antivirus protection are Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, and Bitdefender Antivirus Plus. All three cost $10 more than IObit, but that's a well-spent 10 bucks, as they offer much, much better protection. If you want antivirus plus system optimization, choose one of these products and add a top-rated tune-up product.
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