I own a 3-year-old Dell XPS 410 with an Intel Core 2 6700 CPU @ 2.66GHz, equipped with a RAID 0 650 GB dual hard drive, 4 GB DDR2 RAM and an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB "Direct X 10"-compatible graphics card; for the most part, I have been displeased with the performance of my computer ever since my initial purchase... and this disappointment extended to the performance of my chosen internet security suite, KIS 2007-2010.
After several years of using the miserably sluggish, sporadically buggy Vista Ultimate 32-bit OS, I have recently upgraded my computer to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit (all I can say is WHAT A DIFFERENCE... for those interested, upgrade ASAP). After a clean install, I reluctantly decided to reinstall KIS 2010 and see how well it would perform with my new OS. I wasn't too impressed with KIS 2010's overall performance when I ran it on Vista Ultimate 32-bit (although it was improved over KIS 2009), but running it on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit is another story altogether.
The Good:
A newly-streamlined interface makes it far more user friendly than previous editions;
There's lots of smart configuration tweaks for experienced users;
It uses a lot less system resources to run than the last few versions;
It works extremely well with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit (which I have just upgraded to), with no slowdown or start-up hangs;
Firewall, malware and virus protection is among the best of any current security suite;
The "safe run" sandbox virtual environment is a nice new feature;
The free software upgrades means you only have to continue renewing your subscription, as opposed to shelling out twice as much for annual software upgrades.
However, there are a few cons:
My experience with KIS 2010 on Vista Ultimate 32-bit was erratic, as most of the time it would work well, but on occasion would tremendously slow down my computer's start-up time, sometimes to the point where I would have no choice but to re-boot the computer;
The spam filter needs work;
The interface could still stand to become a bit more user-friendly for novices in the settings section;
There is an issue with KIS 2010 that blocks the "Windows Experience Index" from completing in Windows 7 (UPDATE: a recent patch finally seems to have corrected the issue);
Scanning is fairly slow with large hard drives.
Still, for the several weeks that I have been using KIS 2010 with Windows 7 64-bit, I must say I am quite pleased with the smooth, quick and reliable performance it has exhibited, as none of the issues that marred KIS 2009 and 2010 while using Vista Ultimate 32-bit are occurring with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.
UPDATE, 5/29/10: It has now been well over seven months since I installed KIS 2010, and it is working better than ever.
Overall, my recommendation is if you are using Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit, I'd give Norton Internet Security 2010 a shot before KIS 2010. However, if you have a comparable (or superior) PC setup to mine and are using Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, Kaspersky 2010 Internet Security Suite does its job excellently and I would strongly encourage those in need to give it a try.
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