For many years, Virus Bulletin has carried out independent comparative testing of anti-virus products. Indeed, Virus Bulletin's tests are widely recognized within the industry. The tests tend to focus on virus detection rates and scanning speed, as well as looking at how each product fares when scanning a set files that are known to be clean.

The VB100 award was first introduced in 1998. In order to display the VB100 logo, an anti-virus product must have demonstrated in our tests that:

• It detects all In the Wild viruses during both on-demand and on-access scanning.
• It generates no false positives when scanning a set of clean files.

The product must fulfil these critera in its default state.

  See also: More in depth details of the VB100 test procedures.

Impartial advice

Virus Bulletin's aim is to offer readers the best impartial advice about anti-virus security and the products on offer.

As the virus threat is continually changing, you should look for products that have achieved a succession of VB100 awards, rather than just one or two. Developers that can best keep their products up to date are more likely to receive VB100 awards.

The relevance of In the Wild detection tests is that the viruses that appear on the WildList are known to be active, causing real-world virus incidents, and doing so in more than just one or two isolated places. Products that are unable to detect these viruses are unlikely to be of widespread appeal.

Virus Bulletin lists the outcome of comparative tests as follows:

Vendor test history

See how a specific vendor or product has fared in VB's testing.

Test results by platform

See the test results relating to a particular platform.

Full test history

The results of VB's comparative testing dating back to 1998.

Recent test summary

A tabulated summary of the most recent comparative tests.

Complete details of the most recent test results are available to Virus Bulletin subscribers.

A VB100 award means that a product has passed our tests, no more and no less. The failure to attain a VB100 award is not a declaration that a product cannot provide adequate protection in the real world if administered by a professional. We would urge any potential customer, when looking at the VB100 record of any software, not simply to consider passes and fails, but to read the small print in the reviews.

  See also: Who can use the VB100 logo?

Next review

The next comparative review will appear in the December 2008 issue of Virus Bulletin and will review products for Windows Vista x64.

  See also: Schedule for forthcoming comparative reviews.