TotalAV Antivirus Pro review: a bit of a mess

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Sometimes there’s a reason why you haven’t heard of a software company or its products. This is exactly the case with Total Security Limited. TotalAV Antivirus Pro 2025 software that functions as an all-in-one security suite focused on protecting and removing viruses and malware, with almost every other utility one can think of included and available as premium add-ons.

TotalAV, which requires Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) or later to install and run, is available as a free trial and sells for a license fee of $99/£99 for one year (currently discounted at $29 in the US, but not in the UK). ), which offers licensing for three Mac, Windows, iOS or Android devices. The software downloads and installs seamlessly and provides full access to my hard drive for scanning with minimal effort. An elegant user interface welcomes the user, and the software itself focuses on control panel, smart scanning, password storage, malware scanning, VPN, privacy protection, complete ad blocking, data leak checking, WebShield, junk mail cleaning, duplicate search, big and old. Modules “Files”, “Disk Usage”, “Browser Cleanup”, “Running Programs” and “Uninstaller”.

To see how TotalAV compares to other antivirus software we’ve reviewed, visit our Review of the best antivirus apps for Mac.

TotalAV offers a good level of configuration and customization, allowing the user to whitelist files to avoid scanning, and the general Smart Scan feature that runs the first time you launch TotalAV has identified issues such as 132 tracking cookies, duplicate files, and storage that could be returned.

To its credit, TotalAV makes it easy to target and scan specific folders as well as external and removable volumes, and the software is capable of identifying, quarantining, and removing large volumes of infected software samples, but that’s where the good times end. Almost everything about TotalAV is a push for you to take the free trial and “get protected now”, and the fact that the trial version of the software only allows you to quarantine virus infections rather than quarantining them and deleting them is what -he says. Until you pull the trigger and shell out $29 for the first year’s subscription, your options are limited, and even the very act of purchasing the software resulted in my bank sending me a message asking if this transaction was valid, which it never has never happened before in years of purchasing utility software. Combined with no less than 64 pages of complaints against Total Security at Better Business Bureau website does not make potential users feel good about what they bought or who they bought it from.

Apart from the few things the program does well, the blows just kept coming. In addition to allowing you to install a large number of malware samples, macOS’s GateKeeper feature offers warnings that you need to bypass, the setup for TotalAV’s purported real-time protection feature was vague, and the software lets you navigate to macOS privacy and security settings, but don’t specifically open the menu you want extensions. It’s unclear what extension they’re talking about or whether you’re installing it correctly, and while TotalAV was able to find and remove 102 examples of malware during its first major test run, it missed OSX.Backdoor.Adwind and OSX. .Loader infections that had to be removed by another utility.

The app found 15 more malware on a subsequent scan and had errors removing some malware, crashing once and constantly popping up asking me to review it, even after purchasing the software. While the ad blocking feature works well, the WebShield feature was virtually useless and allowed me to visit websites from every possible item in my Gmail spam folder without any warning. Other features, such as VPN and privacy protection, appeared to be advertisements for additional services that could be purchased, including the TotalAV cloud storage service.

Other modules such as Junk Cleaner, Duplicate Finder, Large and Old Files, Disk Usage, Browser Cleanup, Launchers and Uninstaller work quite well and look for cache files. language files, cookies, duplicates and the like, but does not offer anything beyond what other utilities of this type typically offer. These features work well, but are hampered by the rest of the package, which is the anchor around the neck of what TotalAV could have been.

Finally, there is the presence of Total Security as a company and its shortcomings. Go to the TotalAV website and there is virtually no way to contact the company other than submit requests for assistance. I have never heard back from the media regarding the questions I have had and the general consensus here is that you should purchase the highest possible level of service from them/give them your account information and walk away. The website, while riddled with typos and grammatical errors, offers little that makes you feel confident using Total Security itself.

Is TotalAV Antivirus Pro worth buying?

There’s a complete mess here with a utility that tries to do everything at once and doesn’t do much well. Yes, the user interface is elegant and performance is strong, but it comes at the expense of functionality, reliability, and the fact that TotalAV seems to be just trying to upsell you on the next feature. Any sane software company would offer a fully functional trial version of their software as well as bug fixes before release, and I feel like this is hardly an option for Total Security.

This is the programming equivalent of visiting your friend’s house and talking to his young children, who tell you about their toy collection, then take 459 toys out of a toy chest and show you each one with half a sentence explaining how to each toy before moving on to the next one. , which doesn’t pass muster if you’re looking for a security utility that will supposedly help protect you on multiple fronts. There are better options out there, and you’d be better off looking for them rather than giving Total Security any time, attention, and money until they fundamentally overhaul TotalAV and make it focused, reliable, and better suited to user needs. .