Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2014 review: All-in-one suite offers excellent protection

Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2014 ($45 for one year of protection on up to three PCs) stands out for being an all-in-one security suite. It offers the usual antivirus and anti-malware protection, plus a mobile security component, 5GB of free online backup, and password and online-banking security. It also carries the same price as Trend Micro’s Internet Security 2014 suite at the moment, so fans of Trend Micro will find it well worth grabbing for all the extra features.

In AV-Test’s real-world (zero-day) tests, Trend Micro successfully blocked 100 percent of unknown malware attacks, putting it on a par with Eset Smart Security, F-Secure Internet Security 2014, Kaspersky Internet Security 2014, and Norton Internet Security 2014. It also blocked 100 percent of known malware attacks, and it didn’t flag any safe files or websites as threats in our usability tests.

Further good news: That excellent level of vigilance has relatively little impact on performance. In AV-Test’s performance tests, Trend Micro earned a mark of 5, so it will slow your system somewhat but not too excessively.

Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2014 offers outstanding security, but its interface needs to step into the touchscreen era.

Prior to installing the program, Trend Micro will scan your system and ask you to uninstall any other antivirus programs (including trial versions) you may have; you can perform this step directly from Trend Micro’s installer. Though uninstall routines may require a reboot, simply installing Trend Micro won’t. The rest of the process is simple, with just a couple of screens to click through.

Trend Micro’s main screen is relatively easy to read. Along the top of the main console window are five large tabs: Overview, PC/Mobile, Privacy, Data, and Family. The first tab features a large checkmark to indicate that your system is protected, as well as information such as a ‘Security Summary’ (which keeps a running count of how many threats the suite has stopped) and a button for scanning your system. One potential source of confusion is the fact that a selected tab is tinted red; in many other security suites, that hue signals “danger,” but it appears here as Trend Micro’s brand color.

The other tabs offer additional features, including ‘System Tuner’ and ‘Rescue Disk’ in PC/Mobile, ‘Social Networking Protection’ in Privacy, and parental controls in ‘Family’. You can access the suite’s settings from the main tab, just below the large green checkmark, next to the scan button.

Trend Micro’s interface is heavy on check boxes and radio buttons rather than touchscreen-friendly toggles and tiles, and explanations are sparse. The seemingly redundant Other Settings menu within the settings menu offers a hodgepodge of advanced and not-so-advanced settings.

Of the four suites we tested that delivered very strong antimalware performance and that offer coverage of up to three PCs for one year, Trend Micro’s had the lowest price: $45, versus $80 for Norton, $60 for Kaspersky, and $56 for McAfee Internet Security 2014.

If you’re willing to overlook the interface’s shortcomings, Trend Micro Titanium Maximum offers outstanding protection and a lot of features for the money.

Sarah is a freelance writer and editor based in Silicon Valley. She has a love/hate relationship with social media and a bad habit of describing technology as "sexy."
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Review: Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2013: An all-around winner

Sarah is a freelance writer and editor based in Silicon Valley. She has a love/hate relationship with social media and a bad habit of describing technology as "sexy."
More by Sarah Jacobsson Purewal

Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2013 ($50 for one year and three PCs, as of 12/19/12) certainly lives up to its name. This “titanium” security suite doesn’t let anything get through—in our tests, it earned excellent marks in just about every category. It also has a fairly user-friendly interface and a quick installation process, which makes it an all-around great pick.

In our real-world attack tests, which indicate how well an antivirus program will be able to block new malware attacks as it encounters them in the wild, Trend Micro’s suite completely blocked every threat that it faced. Needless to say, this means that the program will likely be able to keep you very secure, even when new malware programs are introduced in the future.

Trend Micro nabbed high marks in most of our other security tests. In our malware-zoo detection test, which exposes the program to a collection of malware that had been introduced in the preceding four months, Trend Micro’s package detected 100 percent of known malware samples. In our false-positive test, which checks to see whether a product mistakenly flags a known safe file as being dangerous, Trend Micro identified just one safe file (out of over 250,000) as malicious.

In addition, the suite did very well in our system cleanup test: It detected and disabled 100 percent of infections, and it managed to fully purge the system of 80 percent of those infections. This result puts it in second place, tied with G Data and Kaspersky, for total cleanup rate.

Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2013 is also a fairly speedy and lightweight program—most of the time. In our performance tests, the program added just 0.3 second to startup time (compared to a system that had no antivirus program installed), and 3 seconds to shutdown time. However, we found that it dragged down file copy operations more than most of its competition did.

The suite’s scan times were on the slow side, too, with an on-demand (manual) scan taking 1 minute, 50 seconds (as compared to the average time of 1 minute, 33 seconds), and an on-access scan requiring 5 minutes, 41 seconds (as compared to the average time of 4 minutes, 50 seconds).

Installing the Trend Micro package is a breeze—you have just three screens to click through and an optional registration screen (which asks only for your email address). Note, however, that the program does try to install three separate Firefox add-ons: a browser exploit prevention add-on, which blocks malicious code from running; a certificate add-on, which checks the safety of websites, links, and wireless network connections; and a toolbar add-on, which also apparently checks the safety of links.

Trend Micro’s user interface is relatively easy to understand, though it’s not as polished or attractive as AVG’s, F-Secure’s, or Norton’s. The main window has five tabs along the top: an Overview tab, and others for PC/Mobile, Privacy, Data, and Family. The Overview tab shows your protection status, along with some additional stats (such as how many threats have been stopped). This screen also has a scan button, a settings button, and a security-report button.

The PC/Mobile tab shows PC- and mobile-related security features, such as the system tuner and the rescue-disk creator, as well as links to get Trend Micro’s apps for your Android devices and Mac systems. The Privacy tab deals with social networking, the Data tab covers data security along with Trend Micro’s secure erase feature, and the Family tab holds parental controls.

The settings pane, which you can access via the first tab, features basic settings for virus and spyware controls, Internet and email controls, and exception lists. You’ll also find a button for other settings, such as system startup, network settings, and the background picture for your main window. Trend Micro’s settings don’t seem to be overly geared toward the advanced user, but the suite could still do a better job of explaining the settings and features within the program.

Overall, Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security is a great choice. This security suite boasts excellent performance, a quick installation process, a user-friendly interface, and speedy scans. Its settings pane is a tad confusing, but that’s a minor issue considering the protection you’ll be getting.

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Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2012 Review: No-Frills PC Protection

If you’re looking for a suite with a ton of features, Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2012 ($70 for one year and three PCs as of January 25, 2012), which finished fifth in our 2012 roundup of security suites, isn’t for you. But if you need a set-and-forget suite that will keep your PC reasonably safe, it may be the right choice.

Trend Micro's suite fully blocked 92.3 percent of malware in our real-world test (which helps determine how well a suite can stop brand-new as-yet unknown malware), and it partially blocked an additional 3.8 percent, landing around the mean for the products we tested. In addition, it detected 97.49 percent of known malware samples. Although that is a decent result historically, Trend Micro lags behind rivals in this regard (most other suites we looked at detected over 99 percent of samples). As for false positives, it identified four safe files out of a pool of 250,000 as potentially malicious. Percentage-wise, that's a negligible false-positive rate, though most other suites managed an even lower number.

Trend Micro’s suite is very effective at cleanup, as it detected and disabled all active infections on our test PC, and removed any and all malware traces for 70 percent of our test samples--a better-than-average result.

In our testing, the cloud-based Trend Micro suite had a generally low impact on system performance. It added 1.5 seconds to system startup, and added only 0.7 seconds to PC shutdown time, as compared to our test PC with no antivirus software installed. On almost every other speed test we ran, it had a smaller-than-average impact on PC performance compared to its rivals.

Unfortunately, its scan speeds were uneven. It finished our on-demand scan of 4.5GB of files in a better-than-average 1 minute, 33 seconds, so when you manually start a scan, you shouldn't have to wait too long for it to finish. On the other hand, it took longer to complete an on-access scan of 4.5GB (5 minutes, 14 seconds) than most other packages did. Trend Micro's poor showing in the on-access scan--which shows how quickly a suite scans files when you open or save them--may be a concern, since it means that you'll probably have to wait longer for files to open.

The fairly basic interface, though well designed, doesn’t offer a lot of settings or options for expert-level users. It's great, therefore, if you're a less-advanced user, or if you just need something that you don't have to mess with for it to work.

Note, too, that this version of Trend Micro's suite is a little light on features; if you like Trend Micro but want more functionality, check out Titanium Maximum Security, the company’s top-of-the-line package.

I suggest giving Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2012 a look, but I can't give it an unequivocal "buy" recommendation based on its acceptable-but-not-outstanding malware detection and blocking rates.

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