ESET Smart Security
The Anti-Theft Audit reported a number of problems with my test systems. One was set to log in automatically, without entering a password. The main account on another didn't even have a password. And neither had ESET's Phantom Account enabled.
The Phantom Account is a special user account created to help ESET track your lost or stolen computer. To the thief, it looks like any user account, but while active it periodically uploads screenshots and webcam photos to the online anti-theft console. It also reports the computer's location using WiFi triangulation.
When you report your computer stolen, ESET reboots into the Phantom Account and hides all other user accounts. From the online console, you can view the uploaded screenshots and webcam photos, or check the device's location. If it seems your computer may be merely lost, not stolen, you can enable a message on the desktop informing the finder how to contact you and arrange for the device's return.
Anti-theft is a common feature in mobile security suites, but rarely integrated into suites aimed at Windows PCs and laptops. It's something I'd like to see more of. Anti-theft is the reason I gave ESET a 4 star rating for privacy protection.
Low Impact on System Resources
ESET manages to do all the work of a full-featured security suite without putting a drain on system performance. Its impact in each of my performance tests was well below the current average.
Averaging the results of booting a test system 100 times with ESET installed and with no suite, I found it took just 7 percent longer to boot. That's hardly noticeable. Repeated runs of a script that times how long it takes to fully load 100 websites didn't take measurably longer under ESET's protection. Webroot and a few others also had no measurable effect on the browsing test.
Another of my test scripts moves and copies a huge collection of huge files between drives, to evaluate a suite's effect on common file-management operations. This script took 9 percent longer with ESET watching; 22 percent is the average. A script that zips and unzips that same collection of files took 11 percent longer. And, as noted earlier, ESET's spam filter hardly slowed email downloading at all.
In a performance test by AV-Comparatives last year, the previous edition of ESET Smart Security was one of a dozen products rated ADVANCED+, the highest rating. You're just not going to see a system slowed by ESET.
Much to Like
ESET Smart Security 6 is a complete security suite, with all the expected features plus a bonus anti-theft component. Its individual components consistently earned good scores in my tests and on independent lab tests. And it won't put a drag on your system performance.