ESET Smart Security 4.2 Download:

What's striking about ESET Smart Security at first glance is how spartan it is, even in Advanced Mode. Users looking for advanced Internet Security options such as Parental Controls will be sorely disappointed. ESET doesn't even appear to offer a Gamer Mode option.

What ESET does contain are basic antivirus features, including a virus scanner, antispyware engine, anti-spam, and a personal firewall. In Standard Mode, users can't even configure these options. From a usability standpoint, that's good: ESET obviously aims for simplicity for the majority of its users, and provides strong anti-virus protection out of the box. Advanced users, however, will find that some of ESET's features aren't as customizable as similar features from its competitors. The options for the antispam engine, for example, are fairly basic. The entire Advanced Options dialog is crowded and ugly when compared to the rest of the application, giving the impression that ESET wishes you'd turn around and head back toward the nicer neighborhood.

ESET doesn't offer much in the way of advanced features at all. Three of the options on the Tools menu - Log files, Quarantine, and Scheduler - are standard in all antivirus packages.

ESET Smart Security 4.0 and 4.2 introduced a series of improvements, most of them incremental. The largest feature addition is SysInspector, a security analysis tool available from the Tools menu. SysInspector thoroughly analyzes a computer's processes, registry, running applications, installed drivers and other critical areas for potential lurking threats. A great feature - for users who manage to find it.

Speaking of buried features, ESET's new SysRescue functionality enables creating a bootable CD-ROM or USB drive on computers where the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) is installed. You may not find SysRescue in the application, however: on our system, it was only available from the ESET folder in your Windows Start menu. But our test machine also didn't have the AIK installed, so other users' experience may vary. (Warning: The AIK for Windows 7 is a 1.7GB download. Zoiks!)

UI-wise, ESET 4.0 introduced a few enhancements, including keyboard navigation shortcuts, and better control over notification status messages. ESET also made a series of hardening improvements: a Self-Defense Module to protect ESET from corruption by malware; digital signing of major components to prevent unauthorized tampering; and password-protected uninstallation. For virus protection, ESET introduced email scanning over encrypted connections, antispam support for Microsoft Live Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird, and improved malware classification.

In keeping with its philosophy of keeping the easy things easy, ESET's Personal Firewall defaults to Automatic Filtering Mode. Users can choose instead to activate Interactive Filtering Mode, which produces a (frankly annoying) series of prompts for each application that attempts to access the Internet. Ultra-geeks can dig into the Advanced Options dialog to fiddle with a wide variety of firewall configuration options.