K7 Computing Antivirus Review
The history of antivirus software goes back to the days when I got my first computer. Although antivirus software existed way before that but got popularity only when computer users became aware of the potential threats online. Today there are nearly 50 different antivirus software available but only a few stand out of the crowd and provide the best security for your computer. K7 Computing Antivirus is one among the most known antivirus and security software. They have scaled their security products as per a computer user's need. They have different security solutions for home users and business computer users. I'm writing this K7 Computing antivirus review to familiarize you with the features and capabilities of the software. I have also ran some tests to check the strength and system impact of the software. Using these ratings and statistics, computer users will be able to assess if K7 antivirus is good for their computer or not. Also, this review will be helpful to you in deciding which K7 Computing security software is the best to protect your computer against virus, spyware and other malware.
K7 Computing Antivirus Review
K7 antivirus is a product of the well known company K7 Computing Pvt. Ltd. You may not be aware of the fact that K7 Computing is among the oldest companies to provide antivirus and security products. It goes back to the year 1991 when the company was founded by Jayaraman Kesavardhanan in Chennai, India. The company constantly grew to become one of the best antivirus and security software provider today. The only reason for this tremendous success is the best technology software and free support provided by knowledgeable K7 Computing tech support. When you buy their product, you get free phone, email, chat and Live remote PC support. K7 Computing Pvt. Ltd. is also a member of AVAR (Association of Asia Anti Virus Asia Researchers).
K7 Antivirus Testing and Ratings
In order to write an accurate review of the K7 Computing antivirus software, I tested it on various different scales. First of all, I checked the performance of my computer before installing any sort of antivirus or security software. Then, I downloaded the latest version of the antivirus software from K7 website and installed it on my computer. Based on the comparison between the performance pre-install and post-install, I have provided the K7 antivirus ratings on a scale from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest score and 1 is the least score. Here are the complete details of the test:
System Performance (Speed) Test
System performance before installing K7 Antivirus on the computer:
In the above test results, the CPU speed was 7270 MIPS, it could process 7270 million instructions per second. The memory speed was 3090 Megabytes per second. Hard drive speed was 16.8 Megabytes per second and 2D video speed was 8.67 MP/s (processing millions of pixels per second). When the K7 antivirus was fully installed, we ran the same test again to check if there is any difference in the system performance scores.
System performance after installing K7 Antivirus on the computer:
In the above test results, the CPU speed has changed to 7200 MIPS in comparison to the older 7270 MIPS, that shows the CPU speed has decreased marginally post-installation. The Memory speed has changed to 2950 MB/s, there's a slight difference in the memory speed post-installation. The Hard drive speed dropped to 14.8 in comparison to the older 16.8 MB/s reading, the difference is minimal. The 2D video speed has decreased post-installation from 8.67 to 6.32 MP/s. Overall, there is a very little difference in the performance of the computer.
System performance ratings comparison before and after installing K7 software:
| Component | Before Install | After Install |
| CPU | 7270 | 7080 |
| Memory | 3090 | 2770 |
| Hard Drive | 16.8 | 14.5 |
| Video | 8.67 | 6.01 |
Conclusion of the test: In this test, we checked the performance of the computer before installing the software in comparison to the system load after installing the K7 antivirus software. Since the difference between the system performance pre-installation and post-installation is very little, we concluded that this antivirus/security product does not slow down a computer system too much. K7 Computing Antivirus earns 7 out 10 scores in the speed test!
K7 Antivirus Stealth Test
The main function of an antivirus software is to keep you protected from viruses, spyware and malware. If an antivirus software fails in blocking any of the threats, the antivirus is considered fail in the stealth test. In order to check the stealth capabilities of K7 antivirus software, we installed the software on a computer which was infected with some of the most dangerous viruses, trojans, spyware, worms and malware. Here is a list of all the infections that K7 antivirus picked up on our lab computer:
- Packed.Generic.362
- Trojan.FakeAV!gen91
- Packed.Generic.360
- Trojan.Zeroaccess
- W32.Ircbot.NG!gen6
- W32.Waledac.D
- Trojan.Taidoor
- OSX.Flashback.K
- Trojan.Zatvex
- Trojan.Darkshell
- Spyware.SpyKeyboard
If you research on these infections/threats, you will discover that some of these are high level threat trojans, viruses, worms and keylogger. I was amazed to see that K7 antivirus picked up all of these threats and helped cleaning the computer! It also made sure that none of these infections were anywhere on the computer, either in the temporary internet files or in any of the system files required to run the computer. However, for some reason, the internet connectivity is down on the system. But that's not a part of the stealth test, that's a different issue altogether.
Conclusion of the test: Since K7 antivirus software scanned the whole computer quickly and found all of these infections, we consider that K7 antivirus is equipped with the latest technology and has the best engines to find viruses/malware and remove them completely. K7 antivirus earns a score of 8 out of 10 for the stealth test!
K7 Antivirus Instant Updates Test
Another important aspect of an antivirus software is the silent updates. If your antivirus keeps popping-up and keeps disturbing you for every single thing, it becomes annoying to deal with. An antivirus software should silently download all the updates and do the required tasks automatically rather than disturbing the user every time there is an update. Specially, if you are a gamer and your antivirus software interrupts your gameplay, it is not a good antivirus software. We used the K7 antivirus software and checked if it interrupts a user for updates but we found the software satisfactory as it provides silent updates in the background. If you wish to check whether there were any updates downloaded recently, you can click on the UPDATE tab and then you check when was the last updated downloaded and installed. K7 antivirus earns 9 out of 10 scores for silent uninterrupted updates.
K7 Antivirus Awards
K7 antivirus has won many awards and certifications from some of the best security products testing authority businesses. In December 2011, the software received Advanced+ score for overall performance from AV Comparatives. The software also received Checkmark Platinum Certification for its performance against various threats and viruses. The software has also won VB100 award based on the virus detection rates, scanning speed, false-positives and other measures of effectiveness. K7 Computing has also received awards and certification from AV-test.org, an independent body that ranks antivirus software based on their performance. K7 Computing is also a Microsoft Gold Certified partner.
K7 Antivirus Overall Ratings
| Speed/Performance Test | Scored 7 out of 10 |
| Stealth Test | Scored 8 out of 10 |
| Strength Test | Scored 8 out of 10 |
K7 Antivirus Screenshots
