ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS antivirus software doesn’t measure up to some of the best antivirus software. ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS covers a range of malware and other threats, including keyloggers, dialers, adware, worms, Trojans, spyware and rootkits. ParetoLogic utilizes traditional virus signatures (regularly updated) to detect and defend from malware in real time. This antivirus software also uses advanced heuristics to uncover rogue threats. Heuristic detection analyzes file behavior to determine if files are dangerous. New malware threats are often just variants of old viruses that have been changed just enough that traditional signature-matching antivirus app won’t detect them. Heuristics observe how it behaves to see if the file is indeed malware. ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS also protects your PC as soon as it starts. The antivirus software scans startup objects (programs and processes that start as soon as the OS launches). Several viruses target these essential startup programs, so it’s nice to have a first line of defense available.

Effectiveness:
During and after a scan, when a dangerous file is detected, the software displays a nice graphical representation of the relative threat level. You can click on each suspicious file for additional information and ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS is effective at removing (or repairing if possible) infected files.

Ease of Installation:
We had no problem downloading and installing the software. The install took us only a few minutes and didn’t require a system restart. We were up and scanning in no time.

The program is available as a download directly from paretologic.com.

You’ll hardly know that ParetoLogic is running because it protects you in the background.

Ease of Use:
The user interface of ParetoLogic Anti-Virus PLUS isn’t overly impressive, but it's simple enough to use and is fairly intuitive. Whether you’re performing manual scans, running updates, setting up custom scans or scheduling tasks, the process is pretty self-explanatory.

There are three basic scans you can complete: a full scan, quick scan or a customized scan. Custom scans let you decide exactly what files and folders to scan (and which to exclude).

Features:
ParetoLogic’s antivirus software has all the essential features, but not much beyond that. Scans are scheduled to run automatically but can also run manually. If you have a specific file you want to scan for viruses, simply find it on your computer, right-click on it and send to the ParetoLogic software to scan immediately.

One of the unique advanced features that ParetoLogic incorporated in Anti-Virus PLUS is cyclic detection. Some malware is able to write a new entry on your registry even after it has been detected and blocked. The new entry causes another pop-up alert to display and just keeps repeating. Cyclic detection in Anti-Virus PLUS identifies the pattern and will disable the block option temporarily, allowing you to run a system scan to detect and remove it.

Updates:
The virus definition files are updated daily and automatically. Of course you can always perform a manual scan at any time, and ParetoLogic will let you schedule updates, just like you can schedule specific virus scans. The software can also update via a proxy server.

Help & Support:
The in-program help file is fairly detailed and ParetoLogic also has some good support available online. The support center includes several FAQs and an online community where you can provide feedback, read their blog or check out ParetoLogic on Twitter. Unfortunately, they don’t offer support over the phone or online chat, and submitting an email request requires you to register (though it’s free).