Trend Micro Antivirus review

Trend Micro is a widely-known antivirus software. It offers a range of antimalware apps for different platforms, and two of its products support Chrome OS, which is pretty rare for antivirus software. Trend Micro antivirus tool also has a free version and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

The software comes with some great additional features, such as ransomware protection and web monitoring. However, the antivirus programs don’t include identity theft protection, and a VPN is only available in the top-tier plan.

In this Trend Micro antivirus review, we'll take you through all you need to know about the product. From pros and cons to security features and an overview of plans and pricing, we’ll help you decide if Trend Micro is the right choice for your security needs.

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Trend Micro pros and cons

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Is Trend Micro secure?

Trend Micro is safe, as it uses robust AI technologies to identify and blocks any unusual or suspicious activity. This is how it finds and roots out any malware that may be hidden within a seemingly normal or safe file.

Its antivirus bears nearly no impact on system speed or performance while guarding against viruses, spyware, phishing, and ransomware. Pay Guard financial data protection is included in all of its pricing tiers. Meanwhile, Folder Shield protects files stored both on your local hard drive and in cloud-synced folders, like Dropbox and Google Drive.

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Unfortunately, a VPN is only available in the top-tier Premium Security package. Similarly, a password manager is only offered in the top two plans. And none of the pricing plans include application and function-specific features, like a firewall, webcam protection, file encryption, and identity theft monitoring.

Many of these features are available to purchase separately, such as:

• Wi-Fi protection
• VPN (compatible with Android, macOS, Windows, and iOS)
• Password manager
• Cleaner One Pro (to help manage and clear storage space)

Independent testing labs around the world have conducted in-depth research into the effectiveness of antivirus software. This research is generally centered on protection score, usability score, and performance score.

Trend Micro has scored well in all of these tests. This means that it works well at protecting against real-world malware, and it avoids erroneously flagging legitimate websites or programs as malicious. It also has a low impact on system performance, which means it has a high performance score.

Fast malware scanning

Trend Micro schedules a quick scan every week. In testing, the software completes the scan quickly. In fact, a full scan took 44 minutes, which is way below the current average of 67 minutes. It also managed a second full scan in just six minutes, which is also below the average.

Assorted ransomware protection

Trend Micro offers Folder Shield, which prevents unauthorized programs from making changes to your protected files. It protects your documents and pictures by default, and you can add other important folders. It also protects files on USB drives and those in your Dropbox folders, Google Drive, and One Drive.

In testing, Trend Micro blocked malicious software successfully. It also kept a secure backup of all protected files. This means that, if ransomware does manage to encrypt some files before the antivirus kicks in, the Damage Recovery Engine will have the files ready to restore.

Mixed malware protection scores

The test results for malware protection were somewhat mixed. In testing, Trend Micro was faced with a folder of malware samples. Unfortunately, it only wiped out half the samples on sight. Most of its competitors detected over 80% of the suspicious samples in the same test.

Suspicious URL detection

In this test, antivirus products were pitted against a collection of malware-hosting URLs. Trend Micro did pretty much all of its work at the URL level. In most instances, it displayed a Dangerous Page warning in the browser, although sometimes it just showed an error page with a pop-up warning. In a few instances, the download began, but the protection intervened in time.

Trend Micro scored 94% protection. This is good, but it’s not the best out there - McAfee and Sophos managed 100% protection.

Protection against phishing

In testing, antivirus software was faced with a list of fraud sites launched in multiple browser types. Trend Micro scored well in this test, detecting and blocking 96% of the verified phishing frauds. These scores were the same across Windows and Mac.

Trend Micro security features

Trend Micro has a range of security features that are similar to others on the market. Alongside a single Windows-only antivirus product, there is a more powerful internet security suite and a high-end product with extra support and functionality for Mac, Windows, Android and iOS devices.

At a base level, the product offers simple antivirus protection with anti-phishing and malicious URL blocking. Meanwhile, the Pay Guard feature works to keep your financial details safe.

In the next section, we’ll take a closer look at the various security features available to anyone using this antivirus.

Security scans

Trend Micro lets you run quick, full, or custom security scans. In these checks, you can specify particular folders or drives to investigate. You won’t have much control here (while products like Avast let you add other scan types), but it’s easy to use.

It’s also possible to scan files from their right-click Explorer menu. The antivirus software doesn’t support simultaneous scans, which could be an issue sometimes.

Folder Shield

Folder Shield is an anti-ransomware layer that watches your documents, folders, OneDrive, and any connected USB drives. The product will then alert you about any attempts to modify files.

Folder Shield prevents ransomware from maliciously encrypting your files and holding them hostage until you pay the attacker. This is a welcome extra layer of protection that is capable of blocking even the newest, undiscovered ransomware.

Real-world protection

Traditional testing only detects infected files after they have landed on your computer. Obviously, this isn’t good enough. Trend Micro identifies and stops web threats right at the source, blocking access to web pages and URLs before they have the chance to download malware onto your computer.

Trend Micro provides consistent and effective real-world protection.

Spam filter

Trend Micro offers a bonus tool within its spam filter. This feature is usually only available in security suites and can be found within your Settings. It is disabled by default and isn’t highlighted on the main dashboard, but you can activate it by clicking the appropriate check box.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t a system-wide filter. It works only with Outlook - scanning POP3, SMTP, and Exchange messages. The filter is also known for flagging legitimate emails as junk, but you can override this by adding trusted addresses to an Approved Senders whitelist or by reducing your filter strength.

Ransomware protection

Ransomware locks your computer or encrypts your files and holds them ransom until you pay a fee to the cybercriminals who took them hostage. Trend Micro offers protection against ransomware by blocking these threats from possible points of infection.

It prevents access to dangerous websites, including harmful links from spam, social networks, and email messages. It also detects and deletes ransomware variants found in your system.

URL filters

Trend Micro offers several levels of browsing protection. The Social Networking Protection uses browser extensions to display a ‘risk rating’ of links on popular social sites. The software also automatically checks URLs before you access them. And even if a page passes the test, its content is still scanned by the core Micro Trend engine.

While other antivirus programs generally just allow you to turn URL blocking on or off, this software has a protection strength slider. This lets you choose when to block sites more aggressively and when to reduce false alarms.

Malware protection

All of Trend Micro’s security programs start by scanning for known malware. It then augments this with heuristic analysis to spot any early signs of attack. At this point, anything suspicious gets uploaded for analysis (though you can opt out of this data collection if you wish).

The software has dedicated defenses against specific threats like fileless malware that lives only in memory, alongside tech-support scams, phishing, and cryptocurrency-mining malware.

Pay Guard

Trend Micro offers Pay Guard, which aims to provide a more secure environment for you to carry out your online shopping, banking, and sensitive transactions. The idea here is that it becomes harder for malware to monitor or log what you are doing.

Many other antivirus products create secure payment environments within a custom hardened browser running on a separate desktop. This one, however, uses your default browser with its most secure settings.

Pay Guard is user-friendly and can be set up to launch automatically whenever you access sensitive sites, like your online banking. It offers useful security benefits, such as opening in a private browser window with no extensions loaded - leaving no trace of your transactions once closed.

Privacy Scanner

You may be sharing more personal information than you realize through your social media profiles. Trend Micro’s Privacy Scanner checks your Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn settings for any privacy risks - and helps to keep your personal information private.

Plans and pricing

Trend Micro lets you protect one PC for $19.95 per year. This is pretty standard for a single license, with other competitors like Kaspersky offering a similar price point. However, unlike most of its counterparts, it doesn’t offer a three-device or five-device antivirus subscription. If you want a volume discount, you’ll need to upgrade to Trend Micro Internet Security - which comes in at $39.95 per year for three licenses.

Most of the antivirus plans come as one-year or two-year subscriptions, but Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security and Antivirus for Mac are only offered as 12-month subscriptions.

The plans are set to auto-renew every year by default. You can switch this off in your account settings. We recommend doing this as then you will have the opportunity to take advantage of any discounts offered by the company for new users.

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To help you decide which plan is best for you, we’ll take you through the various options below. Please bear in mind that prices may vary, depending on where you are based and the offers in place at the time of writing this article.

This is the most basic Trend Micro plan that will protect one PC for $19.95 per year. This comes as a 12-month subscription and includes:

• Folder Shield
• Pay Guard

This plan is great for single users. It doesn’t have tons of features, but it provides essential antivirus and internet security at a low cost.

Trend Micro Maximum Security

The Trend Micro Maximum Security works on more than just Windows devices. It also offers protection for Mac, iOS, Android, and Chromebook devices. The plan is available as a 30-day free trial, starting at $49.95 per year for 5 devices. It offers the same features as Trend Micro Internet Security, alongside:

• Password manager
• Mobile device protection

A more extensive Premium Security Suite starts at $59.95 per year for 10 devices, and additionally includes:

• Dark Web monitoring for personal info protection
• VPN for secure browsing
• 24/7 customer support
• Remote diagnosis and repair tools

These plans include more than just an antivirus tool – they're well-rounded platforms covering several types of personal protection.

Ease of use and set up

Getting started is easy. There’s a free trial available, and the installation process is largely automatic. You don’t even need to enter your email address to enjoy the free trial.

It’s worth noting that the installation uses up a fair amount of system resources. It uses over 1GB of data and executable files, 1GB in an Installer folder, alongside seven background processes. These files sometimes stick around, so it’s worth checking your files if you decide to remove the software.

The program keeps things simple, so you won’t be overwhelmed with menus and buttons. Instead, when you launch the software, you’ll see a large round Scan button at the center of your screen. From here, you can easily select from the Quick, Full, or Custom Scan options by hovering over the button. Your status is clearly displayed underneath, so you will know if real-time protection has been enabled.

Any additional tools you may need are hidden behind the other four buttons on the screen: Device, Privacy, Data, and Family. There is also a submenu that sorts the features and makes everything easy to find.

Installation takes just a few minutes once the download is complete. It’s also simple to set up additional features like parental controls. As a whole, it is pretty easy to set up and use. It’s ideal for beginners as there’s no real need to frequently monitor the software. The software runs smoothly in the background and keeps you protected.

Customer support

Trend Micro has a range of support options available. These include:

• FAQs
• Community support forum
• Email support
• Phone support
• Live chat

There are two phone support options on offer. Standard support is available Monday to Friday during business hours. Premium support, on the other hand, is available around the clock - seven days a week.

Generally, the standard phone support is effective and efficient. There is also live chat support that can be accessed through Facebook Messenger. Support was always readily available in testing.

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Trend Micro review – the final verdict

Trend Micro Antivirus software generally scores well in tests. It is considered to be highly effective in identifying, blocking, and eliminating malware with minimal impact on the overall performance of systems.

It uses cloud-based advanced AI learning technology to identify new and evolving malware infections and attacks to keep your devices protected. Alongside malware detection and protection, it has a Pay Guard feature that protects your financial data when using Windows 10, Chrome, Firefox, and other Internet Explorer browsers.

Compared to other antivirus providers, the software scores well. It even offers a full suite of parental controls that are generally only provided by more expensive counterparts. For this reason, we would recommend it as your choice of antivirus protection.

It is competitively priced, but the plan options can be a little confusing. Other antivirus programs have equally impressive malware protection but also throw in a few useful security tools (like secure VPNs) that Trend Micro doesn’t include as default.

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