VirusBarrier Review: Clean and Simple Virus Protection

In the last few months there have been many new Mac viruses. Granted, you have to enter your password to install some of them, but virus protection is always good. You could go with a virus protector like good ol’ Norton, or one that just scans when you tell it to. If you want the option to do both of these on a Mac, then you should check out Intego’s VirusBarrier.

VirusBarrier includes a Real-Time Scanner and an On-Demand Scanner. By default, the Real-Time Scanner will be enabled, but if you want to turn it off, go to the Scanner pane of VirusBarrier > Preferences and click the Disable Real-Time Scanner… button. As expected, this scanner will scan every file created on your Mac (which includes downloaded files). When it finds a virus, there are three things you can have it do: Display an Alert, Repair it, or Put it into the Quarantine Zone. The first two are self-explanatory, but the third needs some explaining. When a file is added to the Quarantine Zone, it cannot be opened or read, but it doesn’t repair the file either. If you want to repair it, you just have to access your Quarantine Zone by going to View > Quarantine or clicking on the Malware Quarantine button in the main window. You can then Delete the file, Consider it Safe, Scan, or Repair the file. You may think that scanning the file again is dumb, because it has already done that — but since the file was automatically added to the quarantine, you never got to see what kind of virus it was. So, you may just want to see what it is infected with. A file will also be added to the Quarantine Zone if you do not respond to a Virus Alert Window. To choose what happens when VirusBarrier finds an infected file, just go to the Scanner pane of VirusBarrier > Preferences.

As said above, VirusBarrier also has an On-Demand Scanner. To use this, you need only open the application and click the Scan button. If a virus is found, VirusBarrier does what you have it set up to do in the Scanner pane of the preferences (as talked about above). VirusBarrier also gives you a very nice looking dashboard-like view, showing you how much your CPU is working, percent complete, etc. If you want VirusBarrier to give you a more accurate percent completed, you will want to have the Count Files Before Scan checkbox checked, in the Scanner pane of VirusBarrier > Preferences. By doing this, VirusBarrier will count your files (which takes a little bit of time) before it looks for viruses. In this same pane, you can also choose to scan archives. Archives are files like Zips, Tars, etc. What VirusBarrier will do (if you have the Scan archives checkbox checked) is look through all of the files like these, and make sure there are no viruses in them. VirusBarrier really scans all of your files — even those in compressed archives!

One feature that really brings VirusBarrier so far ahead of the pack is its support for iPhone and iPod Touch scanning. iPhones can be vulnerable to viruses — not usually, but it is possible. So, what VirusBarrier will do (if you have the Scan iPhone/iPod Touch checkbox selected in the Scanner pane of VirusBarrier > Preferences) is copy the entire contents of your iPhone or iPod Touch to your hard drive, scan them, and tell you if there are any files that need repairing. This feature is a little bit of a stretch for those of us not Jailbreaking our iPhones, but for those who do, it will help you feel secure. To just scan an iPhone or iPod Touch, go to View > Scan Selection (or command-1), click Hard Drives, and select your iPod Touch or iPhone.

This brings me to another nice feature in VirusBarrier: the ability to scan only certain types of files. If there’s a certain type (or types) of file that you download from sites that may be less than trustworthy, you may want to just scan that type of file. VirusBarrier makes it easy to do this. Just go to the View > Scan Selection, select Documents, and then select all the types of files you wish to scan. You can also do this for Applications and certain locations by clicking on either Applications or Browse in the Scan Selection view. If you go to the Browse item, there is actually a little gem — you can browse your iPhone or iPod Touch. Although you could easily find a way to scan certain file types in other virus apps, it is nice to have it built in (with a little gem too).

Intego’s VirusBarrier retails for $69.95, and you can download a demo from their site. One thing to note about the demo is that it includes old virus definitions and won’t let you update to the newest. If you want us to buy your software, Intego, you should at least let us see accurate definitions before we buy. VirusBarrier is pretty expensive compared to McAfee or Symantic (or ClamXAV), but it is the only one with a Mac-like interface and ease of use.

Disclaimer: Our sponsor, MacUpdate, is currently offering a Promo Holiday Bundle that includes VirusBarrier and 9 other great Mac apps for only $49.99. This review was written without any influence from MacUpdate or the developer. If you would like to purchase the bundle, click here.

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