Rising Antivirus Free Edition 23.0.24.98

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on November 30, 2011

Never heard of Rising Antivirus? It's China's largest antivirus software company. By some estimates, it's used by half of all Chinese home computer users, who numbered more than 100 million and growing in the last count. Rising is offering a free antivirus package to compete with established freeware options in the global market. Rising Antivirus Free Edition also offers defense against Trojans, worms, and other malware; protection for USB drives; and e-mail, browser, and system monitoring and protection. It requires a Captcha to uninstall.

Rising Antivirus can be installed and set up quickly a reboot, and its initial scan completed very quickly. With a colorful, space-themed background and large icons and controls, the program's interface is easy to use, though the English translations sometimes came up short; for instance, the program version number included "Never update," which could mean "Don't update the program" instead of "Never updated," which was the case. But updating the program to the latest definitions and versions took quite a long time and also required a reboot, so clearly more than an update gets installed in the second pass. When our system rebooted, we received a series of error messages saying that Windows couldn't find some of Rising's files. The program indicated that our system was protected, and all of its other features seemed to be working, including its system tray menu, which accesses the program's settings and functions. But when we tried to scan our system again, the scan made no progress. Windows Task Manager told us that Rising was running, but no scan seemed to be taking place. We had to close and reopen the interface to try a full scan, but that too failed to initiate. We tried updating again, but we already had the latest edition.

The program's InfoCenter feature told us that the free antivirus software had expired and that we needed to buy the full version at 25 percent off, but a visit to Rising's Web site showed it was still available and up-to-date. (We were also puzzled by the PC Doctor tool's icon, a lion in a wizard hat riding a broomstick.) We're sure Rising will find a way to capitalize on its immense user database to make a splash in the global antivirus market, but not with Rising Antivirus Free Edition.

Publisher's Description

From Rising Antivirus:

RISING Antivirus Free Edition protects your computers against all types of viruses, Trojans, Worms, Rootkits and other malicious programs. Easy to use, Active Defense technology, Patented Unknown Virus Scan and Clean technology and Patented Smartupdate technology make RISING Antivirus install and forget product and entitles you to focus on your own jobs with your computer.

Key Features: Zero-Day Computer Security Protection with Rising Cloud Security Rising Cloud Security members communicate with the Rising Cloud Security Data Center to perform a rapid computer security solution response network which can quickly catches Trojans and other malwares in real-time. Computer Security Protection - Based on triple layers security defense structure of Rising Cloud Security 3.0 and, integrated traditional monitor and intelligent active defense functions, Rising Antivirus Free Edition instantly defenses personal computer security. Trojan Defense - Adopting Rising Dynamic Behavior Analysis technique on Windows operating system kernel and, intercepts unknown Trojan, Backdoor, Worm, and other malicious viruses program at real-time. Browser Protection - Taking Rising System Kernel Reinforce into web browser program and, intercept unknown Trojan, Backdoor, Worm and other malicious viruses at real-time. Office Software Protection - Automatically intercept unknown Trojan, Backdoor, Worm and other malicious viruses program and, prevent malicious attacks which exploit office software unknown vulnerability away while launching office software. System Kernel Reinforcement - Providing professional computer users two optional customizable methods as Templates and Custom, to detect, monitor, and intercept all malicious behaviors from viruses program and, reinforce Windows system kernel.