We can't say what the true security impact of all this might be, but software which tries to tie together so many executables from different sources gives malware many more ways to attack it, as well as increasing the possibility of bugs. (Future updates cover changes only, and are much faster.)Ĭhecking the program's files and folders revealed something of a mess, with more than 150 executables from multiple providers, including Bitdefender, eScan, open source tools, Windows components (is that really an ancient copy of sc.exe?), and some files so old they seem to be left over from Windows NT. This proved very, very slow, taking around 8 minutes on even our 75Mbps test system, but eventually the package was ready to go. Once the pop-up alert is dismissed, you'll only notice the issue at all if you read the virus signature date.īizarrely, although eScan seemed completely unable to update itself automatically, we were able to launch a manual update in a couple of clicks. We would have expected an issue like months-old signatures to be highlighted in the interface with a big red cross, an 'INSECURE!' warning or some other alert, but no. A pop-up dialog complained about this and seemed to say it couldn't update itself, suggesting it might be due to a problem with our internet connection, even though this was working just fine for every other application on our system. On first launch the program displays the 'Date of virus signatures' which was more than three months earlier, presumably because it hadn't been updated yet. Setup is simple, but a little unpolished.

Close the pop-up window and you can choose to download the package as normal. There are trial builds available for all the main eScan products, and although the download page asks for your email address, you don't have to provide it. The system requirements on the website (opens in new tab) also gave the product a dusty, dated feel, with talk of how e-Scan needs at least Windows 2000 Professional SP4 with Internet Explorer 7.0 or a display with a resolution of 640x480, and no mention of Windows 10 at all.

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