2013 Consumer Security Products Performance
Benchmarks (Edition 1)
Antivirus, Internet Security & Total Security
Windows 7
September 2012

Document: 2013 Consumer Security Products Performance Benchmarks (Edition 1)
Authors:
M. Baquiran, D. Wren
Company: PassMark Software
Date:
31 August 2012
Edition:1
File:
totalprotectionsuites-sept2012.docx

2013 Consumer Security Products

PassMark Software

Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................................................................................................... 2
REVISION HISTORY............................................................................................................................................ 4
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................................... 4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................................... 5
OVERALL SCORE ................................................................................................................................................ 6
PRODUCTS AND VERSIONS ............................................................................................................................... 7
INTERNET SECURITY SOFTWARE .................................................................................................................................. 7
ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE .............................................................................................................................................. 7
TOTAL SECURITY SOFTWARE ...................................................................................................................................... 7
PERFORMANCE METRICS SUMMARY ................................................................................................................ 8
INTERNET SECURITY SOFTWARE – TEST RESULTS ............................................................................................ 11
BENCHMARK 1 – BOOT TIME ................................................................................................................................... 11
BENCHMARK 2 – SCAN TIME ................................................................................................................................... 11
BENCHMARK 3 – USER INTERFACE LAUNCH TIME ........................................................................................................ 12
BENCHMARK 4 – MEMORY USAGE DURING SYSTEM IDLE .............................................................................................. 12
BENCHMARK 5 – BROWSE TIME ............................................................................................................................... 13
BENCHMARK 6 – INTERNET EXPLORER LAUNCH TIME ................................................................................................... 13
BENCHMARK 7 – INSTALLATION TIME ........................................................................................................................ 14
BENCHMARK 8 – INSTALLATION SIZE ......................................................................................................................... 14
BENCHMARK 9 – REGISTRY KEYS ADDED .................................................................................................................... 15
BENCHMARK 10 – FILE COPY, MOVE AND DELETE ....................................................................................................... 15
BENCHMARK 11 – INSTALLATION OF THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS ................................................................................... 16
BENCHMARK 12 – NETWORK THROUGHPUT ............................................................................................................... 16
BENCHMARK 13 – FILE FORMAT CONVERSION ............................................................................................................ 17
BENCHMARK 14 – FILE COMPRESSION AND DECOMPRESSION ........................................................................................ 17
BENCHMARK 15 – FILE WRITE, OPEN AND CLOSE ........................................................................................................ 18
BENCHMARK 16 – PE SCAN TIME ............................................................................................................................. 18
BENCHMARK 17 – FILE COPY DISK TO DISK ................................................................................................................ 19
ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE – TEST RESULTS .......................................................................................................... 20
BENCHMARK 1 – BOOT TIME ................................................................................................................................... 20
BENCHMARK 2 – SCAN TIME ................................................................................................................................... 20
BENCHMARK 3 – USER INTERFACE LAUNCH TIME ........................................................................................................ 21
BENCHMARK 4 – MEMORY USAGE DURING SYSTEM IDLE .............................................................................................. 21
BENCHMARK 5 – BROWSE TIME ............................................................................................................................... 22
BENCHMARK 6 – INTERNET EXPLORER LAUNCH TIME ................................................................................................... 22
BENCHMARK 7 – INSTALLATION TIME ........................................................................................................................ 23
BENCHMARK 8 – INSTALLATION SIZE ......................................................................................................................... 23
BENCHMARK 9 – REGISTRY KEYS ADDED .................................................................................................................... 24
BENCHMARK 10 – FILE COPY, MOVE AND DELETE ....................................................................................................... 24
BENCHMARK 11 – INSTALLATION OF THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS ................................................................................... 25
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BENCHMARK 12 – NETWORK THROUGHPUT ............................................................................................................... 25
BENCHMARK 13 – FILE FORMAT CONVERSION ............................................................................................................ 26
BENCHMARK 14 – FILE COMPRESSION AND DECOMPRESSION ........................................................................................ 26
BENCHMARK 15 – FILE WRITE, OPEN AND CLOSE ........................................................................................................ 27
BENCHMARK 16 – PE SCAN TIME ............................................................................................................................. 27
BENCHMARK 17 – FILE COPY DISK TO DISK ................................................................................................................ 28
TOTAL SECURITY SOFTWARE – TEST RESULTS ................................................................................................. 29
BENCHMARK 1 – BOOT TIME ................................................................................................................................... 29
BENCHMARK 2 – SCAN TIME ................................................................................................................................... 29
BENCHMARK 3 – USER INTERFACE LAUNCH TIME ........................................................................................................ 30
BENCHMARK 4 – MEMORY USAGE DURING SYSTEM IDLE .............................................................................................. 30
BENCHMARK 5 – BROWSE TIME ............................................................................................................................... 31
BENCHMARK 6 – INTERNET EXPLORER LAUNCH TIME ................................................................................................... 31
BENCHMARK 7 – INSTALLATION TIME ........................................................................................................................ 32
BENCHMARK 8 – INSTALLATION SIZE ......................................................................................................................... 32
BENCHMARK 9 – REGISTRY KEYS ADDED .................................................................................................................... 33
BENCHMARK 10 – FILE COPY, MOVE AND DELETE ....................................................................................................... 33
BENCHMARK 11 – INSTALLATION OF THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS ................................................................................... 34
BENCHMARK 12 – NETWORK THROUGHPUT ............................................................................................................... 34
BENCHMARK 13 – FILE FORMAT CONVERSION ............................................................................................................ 35
BENCHMARK 14 – FILE COMPRESSION AND DECOMPRESSION ........................................................................................ 35
BENCHMARK 15 – FILE WRITE, OPEN AND CLOSE ........................................................................................................ 36
BENCHMARK 16 – PE SCAN TIME ............................................................................................................................. 36
BENCHMARK 17 – FILE COPY DISK TO DISK ................................................................................................................ 37
DISCLAIMER AND DISCLOSURE ....................................................................................................................... 38
CONTACT DETAILS .......................................................................................................................................... 38
APPENDIX 1 – TEST ENVIRONMENT ................................................................................................................ 39
APPENDIX 2 – METHODOLOGY DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................. 40

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Revision History
Rev
Edition 1

Revision History

Date

Initial version of this report.

31 August 2012

References
Ref #

1

Document

What Really Slows Windows Down (URL)

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

AuthorO. Warner,
The PC Spy

Date

2001-2009

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Executive Summary
PassMark Software® conducted objective performance testing on four (4) Internet Security software products,
three (3) Antivirus software products, and three (3) Total Security software products on Windows 7 Ultimate
Edition (64-bit) SP1 between July 2012 and August 2012. This report presents our results and findings as a resultof performance benchmark testing conducted for these consumer security products.
Subsequent editions of this report will include new products released for 2013 as they are made available. For
more details on which versions were tested, please see the section “Products and Versions”.
Testing was performed on all products using seventeen (17) performance metrics. These performance metrics
are as follows: Boot Time; Scan Time; User Interface Launch Time; Memory Usage during System Idle;
 Browse Time; Internet Explorer Launch Time; Installation Time; Installation Size; Registry Keys Added; File Copy, Move and Delete; Installation of Third Party Applications; Network Throughput (previously named “Binary Download Test”)
 File Format Conversion;
 File Compression and Decompression;
 File Write, Open and Close; PE Scan Time and;
 File Copy Disk to Disk.

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Overall Score
PassMark Software assigned every product a score depending on its ranking in each metric compared to otherproducts in the same category.

Internet Security Software
In the following table the highest possible score attainable is 85; in a hypothetical situation where a product has
attained first place all 17 metrics. Internet Security products have been ranked by their overall scores:

Product Name

Overall Score

Norton Internet Security 2013

62

Avast! Internet Security 7

39

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

37

BitDefender Internet Security 201332

Antivirus Software
In the following table the highest possible score attainable is 51; in a hypothetical situation where a product has
attained first place in all 17 metrics. Antivirus products have been ranked by their overall scores:

Product Name

Overall Score

Norton AntiVirus 2013

40

Avast! Antivirus 7

31

G Data AntiVirus 201331

Total Security Software
In the following table the highest possible score attainable is 51; in a hypothetical situation where a product has
attained first place in all 17 metrics. Total Security products have been ranked by their overall scores:

Product Name

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

Overall Score

Norton 360

44

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

31

BitDefender Total Security 201327

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Products and Versions
Unless otherwise specified, we have tested the full, retail release of the newest generation (2013 versions) ofsecurity products. The names and versions of products which were tested can be found below from eachcategory table:

Internet Security Software
Manufacturer

Product Name

Release Year

Product Version

Date Tested

Symantec Corporation

Norton Internet Security 20132012

20.1.0.10 (Beta)

Aug 2012

G Data Software AG

G Data InternetSecurity 20132012

23.0.0.19

Jul 2012

Avast Software a.s.

Avast! Internet Security 72012

7.0.1456

Aug 2012

Bitdefender Internet Security 20132012

16.16.0.1349

Aug 2012

Release Year

Product Version

Date Tested

SOFTWIN

Antivirus Software
Manufacturer

Product Name

Symantec Corporation

Norton AntiVirus 20132012

20.1.0.10 (Beta)

Aug 2012

G Data Software AG

G Data Antivirus 20132012

22.0.2.25

Aug 2012

Avast Software a.s.

Avast! Pro Antivirus 72012

7.0.1456

Aug 2012

Product Name

Release Year

Product Version

Date Tested

Norton 360

2012

20.1.0.10 (Beta)

Aug 2012

Bitdefender Total Security 2013201216.18.0.1406

Aug 2012

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

2012

12.0.1.288

Aug 2012

Total Security Software
Manufacturer
Symantec Corporation
SOFTWIN
Kaspersky Lab

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Performance Metrics Summary
We have selected a set of objective metrics which provide a comprehensive and realistic indication of the areasin which an antivirus may impact system performance for end users. Our metrics test the impact of the antivirus
software on common tasks that end-users would perform on a daily basis.
All of PassMark Software’s test methods can be replicated by third parties using the same environment to obtain
similar benchmark results. Detailed descriptions of the methodologies used in our tests are available as“Appendix 2 – Methodology Description” of this report.

Benchmark 1 – Boot Time
This metric measures the amount of time taken for the machine to boot into the operating system. Security
software is generally launched at Windows startup, adding an additional amount of time and delaying thestartup of the operating system. Shorter boot times indicate that the application has had less impact on thenormal operation of the machine.

Benchmark 2 – Scan TimeAll antivirus solutions have functionality designed to detect viruses and various other forms of malware byscanning files on the system. This metric measured the amount of time required to scan a set of clean files. Our
sample file set comprised a total file size of 982 MB and was made up of files that would typically be found on
end-user machines, such as media files, system files and Microsoft Office documents.

Benchmark 3 – User Interface Launch Time
This metric provides an objective indication as to how responsive a security product appears to the user, bymeasuring the amount of time it takes for the user interface of the antivirus software to launch from Windows.
To allow for caching effects by the operating system, both the initial launch time and the subsequent launchtimes were measured. Our final result is an average of these two measurements.

Benchmark 4 – Memory Usage during System Idle
This metric measures the amount of memory (RAM) used by the product while the machine and antivirus
software are in an idle state. The total memory usage was calculated by identifying all antivirus software
processes and the amount of memory used by each process.
The amount of memory used while the machine is idle provides a good indication of the amount of system
resources being consumed by the antivirus software on a permanent basis. Better performing products occupy
less memory while the machine is idle.

Benchmark 5 – Browse Time
It is common behavior for security products to scan data for malware as it is downloaded from the internet or
intranet. This behavior may negatively impact browsing speed as products scan web content for malware. This
metric measures the time taken to browse a set of popular internet sites to consecutively load from a local
server in a user’s browser window.

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Benchmark 6 – Internet Explorer Launch Time
This metric is one of many methods to objectively measure how much a security product impacts on the
responsiveness of the system. This metric measures the amount of time it takes to launch the user interface ofInternet Explorer 8. To allow for caching effects by the operating system, both the initial launch time and thesubsequent launch times were measured. Our final result is an average of these two measurements.

Benchmark 7 – Installation Time
The speed and ease of the installation process will strongly influence the user’s first impression of the antivirus
software. This test measures the minimum installation time required by the antivirus software to be fully
functional and ready for use by the end user. Lower installation times represent antivirus products which arequicker for a user to install.

Benchmark 8 – Installation Size
In offering new features and functionality to users, antivirus software products tend to increase in size with eachnew release. Although new technologies push the size limits of hard drives each year, the growing disk spacerequirements of common applications and the increasing popularity of large media files (such as movies, photos
and music) ensure that a product's installation size will remain of interest to home users.
This metric aims to measure a product’s total installation size. This metric is defined as the total disk spaceconsumed by all new files added during a product's installation.

Benchmark 9 – Registry Keys Added
A large registry increases a machine’s use of resources. This may negatively impact system performance,
especially on much older machines. This test measures the amount of keys and values added to registry, after
rebooting the test machines, following a successful product installation. Lower numbers mean that a product has
added fewer keys during installation and had less impact on the registry.

Benchmark 10 – File Copy, Move and Delete
This metric measures the amount of time taken to move, copy and delete a sample set of files. The sample file
set contains several types of file formats that a Windows user would encounter in daily use. These formats
include documents (e.g. Microsoft Office documents, Adobe PDF, Zip files, etc), media formats (e.g. images,
movies and music) and system files (e.g. executables, libraries, etc).

Benchmark 11 – Installing Third Party Applications
This metric measures the amount of time taken to install and uninstall third party programs. The installation
speed of third party applications may be impacted by antivirus behavior such as heuristics or real time malware
scanning.

Benchmark 12 – Network Throughput
The metric measures the amount of time taken to download a variety of files from a local server using theHyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is the main protocol used on the web for browsing, linking and datatransfer. Files used in this test include file formats that users would typically download from the web, such asimages, archives, music files and movie files.
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Benchmark 13 – File Format Conversion
This test measures the amount of time taken to convert an MP3 file to a WAV and subsequently, convert thesame MP3 file to a WMA format.

Benchmark 14 – File Compression and Decompression
This metric measures the amount of time taken to compress and decompress different types of files. Files
formats used in this test included documents, movies and images.

Benchmark 15 – File Write, Open and Close
This benchmark was derived from Oli Warner’s File I/O test at http://www.thepcspy.com (please see Reference#1: What Really Slows Windows Down). This metric measures the amount of time taken to write a file, thenopen and close that file.

Benchmark 16 – PE Scan TimeAll antivirus solutions have functionality designed to detect viruses and various other forms of malware byscanning files on the system. This metric measured the amount of time required to scan a set of PE (Portable
Executable) files. Our sample file set comprised a total file size of 2.03GB and consisted of .exe (329MB), .dll
(920MB) and .sys files (827MB).

Benchmark 17 – File Copy Disk To Disk
This test measures the amount of time taken to copy files between two local drives. The data set comprised a
total file size of 5.44GB, and the formats used included documents, movies, images and executables.

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Internet Security Software – Test Results
In the following charts, we have highlighted the results we obtained for Norton Internet Security in yellow. The
average has also been highlighted in blue for ease of comparison.

Benchmark 1 – Boot TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken for the system to boot (from a sample of five boots) for
each Internet Security product tested. Products with lower boot times are considered better performing
products in this category.

Norton Internet Security

28.3

Avast! Internet Security 7

34.7

Average

37.0

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

41.5

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

43.4

0s

5s

10 s

15 s

20 s

25 s

30 s

35 s

40 s

45 s

50 s

Benchmark 2 – Scan TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6159 files (totaling 982 MB) for each
Internet Security product tested. This time is calculated by averaging the initial (Run 1) and subsequent (Runs 25) scan times. Products with lower scan times are considered better performing products in this category.

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

22.5

Norton Internet Security

27.8

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

35.4

Average

36.1

Avast! Internet Security 7

58.8

0s

Performance Benchmark
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10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

70 s

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Benchmark 3 – User Interface Launch TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken to launch a product’s user interface. Products with lower
launch times are considered better performing products in this category.

Norton Internet Security

164

Avast! Internet Security 7

300

Average364

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

483

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

0 ms

508

100 ms200 ms

300 ms

400 ms

500 ms

600 msBenchmark 4 – Memory Usage during System Idle
The following chart compares the average amount of RAM in use by an Internet Security product during a periodof system idle. This average is taken from a sample of ten memory snapshots taken at roughly 60 seconds apartafter reboot. Products with lower idle RAM usage are considered better performing products in this category.

Avast! Internet Security 7

Norton Internet Security

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

Average

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

16.4

25.3

37.3

40.4

82.5

0 MB 10 MB 20 MB 30 MB 40 MB 50 MB 60 MB 70 MB 80 MB 90 MB

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Benchmark 5 – Browse TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken for Internet Explorer to successively load a set of popular
websites through the local area network from a local server machine. Products with lower browse times are
considered better performing products in this category.

Norton Internet Security

42.0

Avast! Internet Security 7

44.8

Average

53.8

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

55.4

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

73.0

0s

10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

70 s

80 s

Benchmark 6 – Internet Explorer Launch TimeThe following chart compares the average launch times of Internet Explorer after rebooting the machine foreach Internet Security product we tested. Products with lower launch times are considered better performing
products in this category.

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

1527

Average

2157

Norton Internet Security

2236

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

2319

Avast! Internet Security 7

0 ms

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

2547

500 ms1,000 ms

1,500 ms

2,000 ms

2,500 ms

3,000 ms

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Benchmark 7 – Installation TimeThe following chart compares the minimum installation time it takes for Internet Security products to be fully
functional and ready for use by the end user. Products with lower installation times are considered better
performing products in this category.

Norton Internet Security

54

Average296

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

301

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

364

Avast! Internet Security 7

464

0s

50 s

100 s 150 s 200 s 250 s 300 s 350 s 400 s 450 s 500 s

Benchmark 8 – Installation Size
The following chart compares the total size of files added during the installation of Internet Security products.
Products with lower installation sizes are considered better performing products in this category.

Norton Internet Security

332

Average725

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

726

Avast! Internet Security 7

746

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

0 MB

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

1096

200 MB

400 MB

600 MB

800 MB

1,000 MB1,200 MB

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Benchmark 9 – Registry Keys Added
The following chart compares the amount of Registry Keys created during product installation for each Internet
Security product tested. Products with lower key counts are considered better performing products in thiscategory.

Norton Internet Security

4676

Avast! Internet Security 7

5357

Average

6474

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

6695

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

9166

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

Benchmark 10 – File Copy, Move and Delete
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy, move and delete several sets of sample files foreach Internet Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products inthis category.

Norton Internet Security

23.34

Average

26.31

Avast! Internet Security 7

26.32

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

26.83

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

28.74

0s

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5s

10 s

15 s

20 s

25 s

30 s

35 s

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Benchmark 11 – Installation of Third Party Applications
The following chart compares the average time taken to install 3 different third party applications for each
Internet Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in thiscategory.

Norton Internet Security

104.70Avast! Internet Security 7

110.89Average

126.47

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

140.96

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

149.35

0s

20 s

40 s

60 s

80 s

100 s

120 s

140 s

160 s

Benchmark 12 – Network Throughput
The following chart compares the average time to download a sample set of common file types for each Internet
Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.

Avast! Internet Security 7

13

Norton Internet Security

14

BitDefender Internet Security 201317

Average

31

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

79

0s

Performance Benchmark
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10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

70 s

80 s

90 s

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Benchmark 13 – File Format Conversion
The following chart compares the average time it takes for five sample files to be converted from one file format
to another (MP3  WMA, MP3  WAV) for each Internet Security product tested. Products with lower times are
considered better performing products in this category.

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

76.2

Norton Internet Security

76.3

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

76.5

Average

76.8

Avast! Internet Security 7

78.0

0s

10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

70 s

80 s

90 s

Benchmark 14 – File Compression and Decompression
The following chart compares the average time it takes for sample files to be compressed and decompressed foreach Internet Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products inthis category.

Norton Internet Security

80.5

Average

83.9

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

84.4

Avast! Internet Security 7

84.6

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

86.1

0s

Performance Benchmark
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10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

70 s

80 s

90 s

100 s

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Benchmark 15 – File Write, Open and Close
The following chart compares the average time it takes for a file to be written to the hard drive then opened andclosed 180,000 times, for each Internet Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better
performing products in this category.

Norton Internet Security

28.9

Avast! Internet Security 7

40.6

Average375.7

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

405.3

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

1027.9

0s

200 s

400 s

600 s

800 s

1,000 s1,200 sBenchmark 16 – PE Scan TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6351 portable executable files (totaling
2076 MB) for each Internet Security product tested. This time is calculated by averaging the initial (Run 1) andsubsequent (Runs 2-5) scan times. Products with lower scan times are considered better performing products inthis category.

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

68

Average

93

Norton Internet Security

94

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

97

Avast! Internet Security 7

114

0s

Performance Benchmark
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20 s

40 s

60 s

80 s

100 s

120 s

140 s

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Benchmark 17 – File Copy Disk to Disk
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy a total of 8,501 files, with a total file size of 5.44GB
files, from one local drive to another local drive for each Internet Security product tested. The test was
performed 5 times, and the average of all 5 runs was taken as the result. Products with lower times are
considered better performing products in this category.

Norton Internet Security

121.9

BitDefender Internet Security 2013

122.7

Average

124.0

G Data InternetSecurity 2013

125.4

Avast! Internet Security 7

125.8

0s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

20 s

40 s

60 s

80 s

100 s

120 s

140 s

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Antivirus Software – Test Results
In the following charts, we have highlighted the results we obtained for Norton AntiVirus in yellow. The average
has also been highlighted in blue for ease of comparison.

Benchmark 1 – Boot TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken for the system to boot (from a sample of five boots) for
each Antivirus product tested. Products with lower boot times are considered better performing products in thiscategory.

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

30.8

Norton AntiVirus

32.3

Average

37.0

G Data AntiVirus 2013

47.8

0s

10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

Benchmark 2 – Scan TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6159 files (totaling 982 MB) for each
Antivirus product tested. This time is calculated by averaging the initial (Run 1) and subsequent (Runs 2-5) scantimes. Products with lower scan times are considered better performing products in this category.

G Data AntiVirus 201321

Norton AntiVirus

30

Average

37

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

600s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

70 s

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Benchmark 3 – User Interface Launch TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken to launch a product’s user interface. Products with lower
launch times are considered better performing products in this category.

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

326

Norton AntiVirus

343

Average598

G Data AntiVirus 2013

0 ms

1126

200 ms

400 ms

600 ms

800 ms1,000 ms

1,200 ms

Benchmark 4 – Memory Usage during System Idle
The following chart compares the average amount of RAM in use by an Antivirus product during a period ofsystem idle. This average is taken from a sample of ten memory snapshots taken at roughly 60 seconds apartafter reboot. Products with lower idle RAM usage are considered better performing products in this category.

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

13.1

Average

42.4

G Data AntiVirus 2013

55.2

Norton AntiVirus

0 MB

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

59.0

10 MB

20 MB

30 MB

40 MB

50 MB

60 MB

70 MB

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Benchmark 5 – Browse TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken for Internet Explorer to successively load a set of popular
websites through the local area network from a local server machine. Products with lower browse times are
considered better performing products in this category.

Norton AntiVirus

38.93

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

44.42

Average

45.17

G Data AntiVirus 2013

52.16

0s

10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

Benchmark 6 – Internet Explorer Launch TimeThe following chart compares the average launch times of Internet Explorer after rebooting the machine foreach Antivirus product we tested. Products with lower launch times are considered better performing productsin this category.

G Data AntiVirus 2013

2291

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

2291

Average

2602

Norton AntiVirus

0 ms

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

3224

500 ms1,000 ms

1,500 ms

2,000 ms

2,500 ms

3,000 ms

3,500 ms

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Benchmark 7 – Installation TimeThe following chart compares the minimum installation time it takes for Antivirus products to be fully functionaland ready for use by the end user. Products with lower installation times are considered better performing
products in this category.

Norton AntiVirus

74

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

143

Average174

G Data AntiVirus 2013

305

0s

50 s

100 s

150 s

200 s

250 s

300 s

350 s

Benchmark 8 – Installation Size
The following chart compares the total size of files added during the installation of Antivirus products. Productswith lower installation sizes are considered better performing products in this category.

Norton AntiVirus

395.8

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

423.8

Average503.4

G Data AntiVirus 2013

0 MB

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

690.6

100 MB

200 MB

300 MB

400 MB500 MB

600 MB

700 MB

800 MB

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Benchmark 9 – Registry Keys Added
The following chart compares the amount of Registry Keys created during product installation for each Antivirus
product tested. Products with lower key counts are considered better performing products in this category.

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

2719

Average4898

Norton AntiVirus

4903

G Data AntiVirus 2013

7071

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

Benchmark 10 – File Copy, Move and Delete
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy, move and delete several sets of sample files foreach Antivirus product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in thiscategory.

Norton AntiVirus

24.2

G Data AntiVirus 2013

25.6

Average

25.6

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

27.1

23 s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

23 s

24 s

24 s

25 s

25 s

26 s

26 s

27 s

27 s

28 s

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Benchmark 11 – Installation of Third Party Applications
The following chart compares the average time taken to install a third party application for each Antivirus
product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.

G Data AntiVirus 2013

101.4

Norton AntiVirus

103.2

Average

104.3

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

108.4

0s

20 s

40 s

60 s

80 s

100 s

120 s

Benchmark 12 – Network Throughput
The following chart compares the average time to download a sample set of common file types for each
Antivirus product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.

Norton AntiVirus

13.3

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

13.3

Average

57.1

G Data AntiVirus 2013

144.7

0s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

20 s

40 s

60 s

80 s

100 s

120 s

140 s

160 s

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Benchmark 13 – File Format Conversion
The following chart compares the average time it takes for five sample files to be converted from one file format
to another (MP3  WMA, MP3  WAV) for each Antivirus product tested. Products with lower times are
considered better performing products in this category.

Norton AntiVirus

76.2

G Data AntiVirus 2013

76.7

Average

76.9

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

77.8

0s

10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

70 s

80 s

90 s

Benchmark 14 – File Compression and Decompression
The following chart compares the average time it takes for sample files to be compressed and decompressed foreach Antivirus product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in thiscategory.

G Data AntiVirus 2013

78.2

Norton AntiVirus

80.2

Average

81.8

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

86.9

0s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

70 s

80 s

90 s

100 s

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Benchmark 15 – File Write, Open and Close
The following chart compares the average time it takes for a file to be written to the hard drive then opened andclosed 180,000 times, for each Antivirus product tested. Products with lower times are considered better
performing products in this category.

Norton AntiVirus

29.6

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

33.5

Average

156.0

G Data AntiVirus 2013

404.8

0s

50 s

100 s

150 s

200 s

250 s

300 s

350 s

400 s

450 s

Benchmark 16 – PE Scan TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6351 portable executable files (totaling
2076 MB) for each Antivirus product tested. This time is calculated by averaging the initial (Run 1) andsubsequent (Runs 2-5) scan times. Products with lower scan times are considered better performing products inthis category

Norton AntiVirus

34.6

G Data AntiVirus 2013

69.1

Average

73.1

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

115.5

0s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

20 s

40 s

60 s

80 s

100 s

120 s

140 s

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Benchmark 17 – File Copy Disk to Disk
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy a set of files from one local drive to another local
drive for each Antivirus product tested. The test was performed 5 times, and the average of all 5 runs was taken
as the result. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.

G Data AntiVirus 2013

111.2

Average

118.5

Norton AntiVirus

120.2

Avast! Pro Antivirus 7

124.1

0s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

20 s

40 s

60 s

80 s

100 s

120 s

140 s

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Total Security Software – Test Results
In the following charts, we have highlighted the results we obtained for Norton 360 in yellow. The average has
also been highlighted in blue for ease of comparison.

Benchmark 1 – Boot TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken for the system to boot (from a sample of five boots) for
each Total Security product tested. Products with lower boot times are considered better performing products inthis category.

Norton 360

30.0

Average

33.6

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

35.0

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

35.9

0s

5s

10 s

15 s

20 s

25 s

30 s

35 s

40 s

Benchmark 2 – Scan TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6159 files (totaling 982 MB) for each Total
Security product tested. This time is calculated by averaging the initial (Run 1) and subsequent (Runs 2-5) scantimes. Products with lower scan times are considered better performing products in this category

Norton 360

30

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

42

Average

54

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

890s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

70 s

80 s

90 s

100 s

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Benchmark 3 – User Interface Launch TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken to launch a product’s user interface. Products with lower
launch times are considered better performing products in this category.

Norton 360

65

Average

553

Bitdefender Total Security 2013778

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

0 ms

814

100 ms200 ms

300 ms

400 ms

500 ms

600 ms

700 ms

800 ms

900 msBenchmark 4 – Memory Usage during System Idle
The following chart compares the average amount of RAM in use by a Total Security product during a period ofsystem idle. This average is taken from a sample of ten memory snapshots taken at roughly 60 seconds apartafter reboot. Products with lower idle RAM usage are considered better performing products in this category.

Norton 360

23.3

Average

59.7

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

62.9

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

0 MB

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

92.7

10 MB

20 MB

30 MB

40 MB

50 MB

60 MB

70 MB

80 MB

90 MB 100 MB

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Benchmark 5 – Browse TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken for Internet Explorer to successively load a set of popular
websites through the local area network from a local server machine. Products with lower browse times are
considered better performing products in this category.

Norton 360

40.5

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

50.5

Average

54.6

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

72.9

0s

10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

70 s

80 s

Benchmark 6 – Internet Explorer Launch TimeThe following chart compares the average launch times of Internet Explorer after rebooting the machine foreach Total Security product we tested. Products with lower launch times are considered better performing
products in this category.

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

1989

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

2238

Average

2254

Norton 360

0 ms

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

2535

500 ms1,000 ms

1,500 ms

2,000 ms

2,500 ms

3,000 ms

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Benchmark 7 – Installation TimeThe following chart compares the minimum installation time it takes for Total Security products to be fully
functional and ready for use by the end user. Products with lower installation times are considered better
performing products in this category.

Norton 360

57

Average

182

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

194

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

294

0s

50 s

100 s

150 s

200 s

250 s

300 s

350 s

Benchmark 8 – Installation Size
The following chart compares the total size of files added during the installation of Total Security products.
Products with lower installation sizes are considered better performing products in this category.

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

Norton 360

292.3

350.9

Average

596.8

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

0 MB

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

1147.2200 MB

400 MB

600 MB

800 MB

1,000 MB1,200 MB1,400 MB

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Benchmark 9 – Registry Keys Added
The following chart compares the amount of Registry Keys created during product installation for each Total
Security product tested. Products with lower key counts are considered better performing products in thiscategory.

Norton 360

5355

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

6321

Average

6546

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

7961

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

Benchmark 10 – File Copy, Move and Delete
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy, move and delete several sets of sample files foreach Total Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in thiscategory.

Norton 360

23.9

Average

27.1

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

28.4

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

28.8

0s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

5s

10 s

15 s

20 s

25 s

30 s

35 s

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Benchmark 11 – Installation of Third Party Applications
The following chart compares the average time taken to install a third party application for each Total Security
product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.

Norton 360

104.7

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

105.4

Average

106.6

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

109.9

0s

20 s

40 s

60 s

80 s

100 s

120 s

Benchmark 12 – Network Throughput
The following chart compares the average time to download a sample set of common file types for each Total
Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

13.5

Norton 360

14.1

Average

14.3

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

15.2

0s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

2s

4s

6s

8s

10 s

12 s

14 s

16 s

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Benchmark 13 – File Format Conversion
The following chart compares the average time it takes for five sample files to be converted from one file format
to another (MP3  WMA, MP3  WAV) for each Total Security product tested. Products with lower times are
considered better performing products in this category.

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

75.9

Norton 360

76.0

Average

76.1

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

76.5

0s

10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

70 s

80 s

90 s

Benchmark 14 – File Compression and Decompression
The following chart compares the average time it takes for sample files to be compressed and decompressed foreach Total Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in thiscategory.

Norton 360

79.8

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

80.5

Average

81.6

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

84.7

0s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

10 s

20 s

30 s

40 s

50 s

60 s

70 s

80 s

90 s

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Benchmark 15 – File Write, Open and Close
The following chart compares the average time it takes for a file to be written to the hard drive then opened andclosed 180,000 times, for each Total Security product tested. Products with lower times are considered better
performing products in this category.

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

25.1

Norton 360

29.1

Average

333.3

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

945.9

0s

100 s

200 s

300 s

400 s

500 s

600 s

700 s

800 s

900 s

1,000 sBenchmark 16 – PE Scan TimeThe following chart compares the average time taken to scan a set of 6351 portable executable files (totaling
2076 MB) for each Total Security product tested. This time is calculated by averaging the initial (Run 1) andsubsequent (Runs 2-5) scan times. Products with lower scan times are considered better performing products inthis category

Norton 360

32.8

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

67.5

Average

71.3

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

113.5

0s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

20 s

40 s

60 s

80 s

100 s

120 s

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Benchmark 17 – File Copy Disk to Disk
The following chart compares the average time taken to copy a set of files from one local drive to another local
drive for each Total Security product tested. The test was performed 5 times, and the average of all 5 runs was
taken as the result. Products with lower times are considered better performing products in this category.

Kaspersky PURE 2.0

115.6

Norton 360

117.3

Average

118.9

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

123.9

0s

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

20 s

40 s

60 s

80 s

100 s

120 s

140 s

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Disclaimer and DisclosureThis report only covers versions of products that were available at the time of testing. The tested versions are as
noted in the “Products and Versions” section of this report. The products we have tested are not an exhaustive
list of all products available in these very competitive product categories.

Disclaimer of Liability
While every effort has been made to ensure that the information presented in this report is accurate, PassMark
Software Pty Ltd assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, or out-of-date information and shall not beliable in any manner whatsoever for direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages resulting
from the availability of, use of, access of, or inability to use this information.

Disclosure
Symantec Corporation funded the production of this report, selected the test metrics and list of products toinclude in this report, and supplied some of the test scripts used for the tests.

Trademarks
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact Details
PassMark Software Pty Ltd
Suite 202, Level 2
35 Buckingham St.
Surry Hills, 2010
Sydney, Australia
Phone + 61 (2) 9690 0444
Fax

+ 61 (2) 9690 0445

Web

www.passmark.com

Download Location
An electronic copy of this report can be found at the following location:
http://www.passmark.com/tpsreport12

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Appendix 1 – Test Environment
For our testing, PassMark Software used a test environment running Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) SP1 with thefollowing hardware specifications:Windows 7 (64-bit) System
CPU:Intel Core i7 920 Quad Core @ 2.67GHz

Video Card:nVidia GeForce 8800 GT

Motherboard:Intel x58 Motherboard

RAM:

6GB DDR3 RAM

HDD :Western Digital 500GB 7200RPM

Network:

Gigabit (1GB/s) switch

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Appendix 2 – Methodology Description
Windows 7 Image Creation
As with testing on Windows Vista, Norton Ghost was used to create a “clean” baseline image prior to testing.
Our aim is to create a baseline image with the smallest possible footprint and reduce the possibility of variation
caused by external operating system factors.
The baseline image was restored prior to testing of each different product. This process ensures that we install
and test all products on the same, “clean” machine.
The steps taken to create the base Windows 7 image are as follows:1.

Installation and activation of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition.

2.

Disabled Automatic Updates.

3.

Changed User Account Control settings to “Never Notify”.

4.

Disable Windows Defender automatic scans to avoid unexpected background activity.

5.

Disable the Windows firewall to avoid interference with security software.

6.

Installed Norton Ghost for imaging purposes.

7.

Disabled Superfetch to ensure consistent results.

8.

Installed HTTP Watch for Browse Time testing.

9.

Installed Windows Performance Toolkit x64 for Boot Time testing.

10.

Installed Active Perl for interpretation of some test scripts.

11.

Install OSForensics for testing (Installation Size and Registry Key Count tests) purposes.

12.

Disabled updates, accelerators and compatibility view updates in Internet Explorer 8.

13.

Update to Windows Service Pack 1

14.

Created a baseline image using Norton Ghost.

Benchmark 1 – Boot Time
PassMark Software uses tools available from the Windows Performance Toolkit version 4.6 (as part of theMicrosoft Windows 7 SDK obtainable from the Microsoft Website) with a view to obtaining more precise andconsistent boot time results on the Windows 7 platform.
The boot process is first optimized with xbootmgr.exe using the command “xbootmgr.exe -trace boot –prepSystem” which prepares the system for the test over six optimization boots. The boot traces obtained fromthe optimization process are discarded.
After boot optimization, the benchmark is conducted using the command "xbootmgr.exe -trace boot -numruns
5”. This command boots the system five times in succession, taking detailed boot traces for each boot cycle.
Finally, a post-processing tool was used to parse the boot traces and obtain the BootTimeViaPostBoot value. Thisvalue reflects the amount of time it takes the system to complete all (and only) boot time processes. Our final
result is an average of five boot traces.

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Benchmark 2 – Scan Time
Scan Time is the time it took for each product to scan a set of sample files. The sample used was identical in allcases and contained a mixture of system files and Office files. In total there were 6159 files whose combined size
was 982 MB. Most of these files come from the Windows system folders. As the file types can influence scanningspeed, the breakdown of the main file types, file numbers and total sizes of the files in the sample set is given
here:

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

File Extension

Number of Files

File Size

.dll
.exe
.sys
.gif
.doc
.wmf
.png
.html
.nls
.jpg
.ini
.ico
.mof
.ax
.xls
.ime
.drv
.txt
.chm
.cpl
.mfl
.inf
.hlp
.imd
.py
.msc
.vbs
.xml
.rtf
.ocx
.tsp
.com
.xsl
.h
.vsd
.scr
.aw
.js
.zip
.lex
.ppt
.acm
.wav
Total

2589
695
332
302
281
185
149
126
80
70
59
58
43
39
38
35
31
31
30
29
29
26
22
20
20
18
18
18
16
16
14
14
14
13
12
12
12
12
11
9
9
9
7
6159

490MB
102MB
23MB
1MB
64MB
2MB
2MB
1MB
6MB
1MB
2MB
<1MB
6MB
4MB
3MB
5MB
1MB
1MB
6MB
4MB
3MB
2MB
3MB
18MB
<1MB
1MB
1MB
1MB
62MB
4MB
1MB
<1MB
<1MB
<1MB
2MB
2MB
2MB
1MB
25MB
10MB
4MB
1MB
5MB
982

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PassMark SoftwareThis scan was run without launching the product’s user interface, by right-clicking the test folder and choosing
the “Scan Now” option. To record the scan time, we have used product’s built-in scan timer or reporting system.
Where this was not possible, scan times were taken manually with a stopwatch.
For each product, five samples were taken with the machine rebooted before each sample to clear any cachingeffects by the operating systems.
In 2009, we noticed many more products showing a substantial difference between the initial scan time (firstscan) and subsequent scan times (scans 2 to 5). We believe this behavior is due to products themselves caching
recently scanned files.
As a result of this mechanism, we have averaged the four subsequent scan times to obtain an averagesubsequent scan time. Our final result for this test is an average of the subsequent scan average and the initialscan time.

Benchmark 3 – User Interface Launch TimeThe launch time of a product’s user interface was taken using AppTimer (v1.0.1006). For each product tested, we
obtained a total of fifteen samples from five sets of three UI launches, with a reboot before each set to clear
caching effects by the operating system. When compiling the results the first of each set was separated out sothat there was a set of values for the initial launch after reboot and a set for subsequent launches.
We have averaged the subsequent launch times to obtain an average subsequent launch time. Our final result
for this test is an average of the subsequent launch average and the initial launch time.
In some cases, AppTimer did not correctly record the time taken for UI launch. For instance, some applications
would open their window and look like they were ready, but then continued to be unresponsive. Where themeasurement from AppTimer appeared inaccurate, we have taken the time manually with a stop watch.
AppTimer is publically available from the PassMark Website.

Benchmark 4 – Memory Usage during System Idle
The Perflog++ utility was used to record process memory usage on the system at boot, and then every minutefor another fifteen minutes after. This was done only once per product and resulted in a total of 15 samples. The
first sample taken at boot is discarded.
The PerfLog++ utility records memory usage of all processes, not just those of the anti-malware product. As aresult of this, an anti-malware product’s processes needed to be isolated from all other running systemprocesses. To isolate relevant process, we used a program called Process Explorer which was run immediately
upon the completion of memory usage logging by PerfLog++. Process Explorer is a Microsoft Windows
Sysinternals software tool which shows a list of all DLL processes currently loaded on the system.

Benchmark 5 – Browse TimeWe used a script in conjunction with HTTPWatch (Basic Edition, version 6.1) to record the amount of time ittakes for a set of 106 ‘popular’ websites to load consecutively from a local server. This script feeds a list of URLs
into HTTPWatch, which instructs the browser to load pages in sequence and monitors the amount of time ittakes for the browser to load all items on one page.
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For this test, we have used Internet Explorer 9 (Version 9.0.8112.16421) as our browser.
The set of websites used in this test include front pages of high traffic pages. This includes shopping, social,news, finance and reference websites.
The Browse Time test is executed five times and our final result is an average of these five samples. The local
server is restarted between different products and one initial ‘test’ run is conducted prior to testing to install
Adobe Flash Player, an add-on which is used by many popular websites.

Benchmark 6 – Internet Explorer Launch TimeThe average launch time of Internet Explorer interface was taken using AppTimer. This test was practically
identical to the User Interface launch time test. For each product tested, we obtained a total of fifteen samples
from five sets of three Internet Explorer launches, with a reboot before each set to clear caching effects by theoperating system. When compiling the results the first of each set was separated out so that there was a set ofvalues for the initial launch after reboot and a set for subsequent launches.
For this test, we have used Internet Explorer 8 (Version 8.0.6001.18783) as our test browser.
We have averaged the subsequent launch times to obtain an average subsequent launch time. Our final result
for this test is an average of the subsequent launch average and the initial launch time.

Benchmark 7 – Installation Time
This test measures the minimum Installation Time a product requires to be fully functional and ready for use by
the end user. Installation time can usually be divided in three major phases: The Extraction and Setup phase consists of file extraction, the EULA prompt, product activation and user
configurable options for installation.
 The File Copy phase occurs when the product is being installed; usually this phase is indicated by a progressbar.
 The Post-Installation phase is any part of the installation that occurs after the File Copy phase. This phasevaries widely between products; the time recorded in this phase may include a required reboot to finalize theinstallation or include the time the program takes to become idle in the system tray.
To reduce the impact of disk drive variables, each product was copied to the Desktop before initializing
installation. Each step of the installation process was manually timed with a stopwatch and recorded in as muchdetail as possible. Where input was required by the end user, the stopwatch was paused and the input noted in
the raw results in parenthesis after the phase description.
Where possible, all requests by products to pre-scan or post-install scan were declined or skipped. Where it was
not possible to skip a scan, the time to scan was included as part of the installation time. Where an optional
component of the installation formed a reasonable part of the functionality of the software, it was also installed(e.g. website link checking software as part of an Internet Security Product).

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Installation time includes the time taken by the product installer to download components required in the
installation. This may include mandatory updates or the delivery of the application itself from a download
manager. We have noted in our results where a product has downloaded components for product installation.
We have excluded product activation times due to network variability in contacting vendor servers or time takenin account creation.

Benchmark 8 – Installation Size
A product's Installation Size was previously defined as the difference between the initial snapshot of the Disk
Space (C: drive) before installation and the subsequent snapshot taken after the product is installed on thesystem. Although this is a widely used methodology, we noticed that the results it yielded were not always
reproducible in Vista due to random OS operations that may take place between the two snapshots. We
improved the Installation Size methodology by removing as many Operating System and disk space variables as
possible.
Using PassMark’s OSForensics we created initial and post-installation disk signatures for each product. These
disk signatures recorded the amount of files and directories, and complete details of all files on that drive(including file name, file size, checksum, etc) at the time the signature was taken.
The initial disk signature was taken immediately prior to installation of the product. A subsequent disk signature
was taken immediately following a system reboot after product installation. Using OSForensics, we compared
the two signatures and calculated the total disk space consumed by files that were new, modified, and deleted
during product installation. Our result for this metric reflects the total size of all newly added files during
installation.
The scope of this metric includes only an ‘out of the box’ installation size for each product. Our result does notcover the size of files downloaded by the product after its installation (such as engine or signature updates), or
any files created by system restore points, pre-fetch files and other temporary files.

Benchmark 9 – Registry Key Count
This test measures the amount of keys and values added to registry, after rebooting the test machine following a
successful product installation. The test was conducted using PassMark’s OSForensics, to count the number ofkeys, errors and values that were added under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS. The Create Signaturefeature is used to take a before and after signature of these folders, and the signatures are then compared sothat the new keys can be identified.

Benchmarks 10-15 – Real-Time Performance
We used a single script in testing Benchmarks 10-15. The script consecutively executes tests for Benchmarks 1015. The script times each phase in these benchmarks using CommandTimer.exe and appends results to a log file.

Benchmarks 10 – File Copy, Move and Delete
This test measures the amount of time required for the system to copy, move and delete samples of files invarious file formats. This sample was made up of 812 files over 760,867,636 bytes and can be categorized as
documents [26% of total], media files [54% of total] and PE files (i.e. System Files) [20% of total].
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The breakdown of the main file types, file numbers and total sizes of the files in the sample set is shown in thefollowing table:

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

File format

NumberSize (bytes)

DOC

830,450,176

DOCX

4

13,522,409

PPT

3

5,769,216

PPTX

3

4,146,421

XLS

4

2,660,352

XLSX

4

1,426,054

PDF

73

136,298,049

ZIP

4

6,295,987

7Z

1

92,238JPG

351

31,375,259

GIF

6148,182MOV

7

57,360,371

RM

1

5,658,646

AVI

8

78,703,408

WMV

5

46,126,167

MP3

28

191,580,387

EXE

19

2,952,914

DLL

104

29,261,568

AX

118,432CPL

22,109,440

CPX

2

4,384

DRV

10

154,864

ICO

1

107,620MSC

141,587

NT

1

1,688

ROM

2

36,611SCR

22,250,240

SYS

1

37,528,093

TLB

3

135,580

TSK

1

1,152

UCE

1

22,984EXE

192,952,914

DLL

104

29,261,568

AX

118,432

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CPX

2

4,384

DRV

10

154,864

ICO

1

107,620MSC

141,587

NT

1

1,688

ROM

2

36,611SCR

22,250,240

SYS

1

37,528,093

TLB

3

135,580

TSK

1

1,152

UCE

1

22,984

Total

812

760,867,636

This test was conducted five times to obtain the average time to copy, move and delete the sample files, withthe test machine rebooted between each sample to remove potential caching effects.

Benchmark 11 – Third Party Program Installation
This test measured how much time was required to install and uninstall a third party application. For this test,
CommandTimer.exe timed how long it took to install and uninstall the following applications on the test
machine:Firefox 3.6.3 (11,909 KB) (MSI File)
Microsoft .NET 3.5 (34,121 KB) (MSI File)
Steam (1,551 KB) (MSI File)

This test was conducted five times to obtain the average time to install/uninstall the above third party
programs, with the test machine rebooted between each sample to remove potential caching effects.

Benchmark 12 – Network Throughput
This benchmark measured how much time was required to download a sample set of binary files of various sizes
and types over a 100MB/s network connection. The files were hosted on a server machine running Windows
Server 2008 and IIS 7. CommandTimer.exe was used in conjunction with GNU Wget (version 1.10.1) to time andconduct the download test.
The complete sample set of files was made up of 553,638,694 bytes over 484 files and two file type categories:
media files [74% of total] and documents [26% of total]. The breakdown of the file types, file numbers and total
sizes of the files in the sample set is shown in the following table:

Performance Benchmark
Edition 1

File format

NumberSize (bytes)

JPEG

343

30,668,312

GIF

9360,349PNG

5494,780

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MOV

757,360,371

RM

1

5,658,646

AVI

8

78,703,408

WMV

5

46,126,167

MP3

28

191,580,387

PDF

73

136,298,049

ZIP

4

6,295,987

7Z

1

92,238

Total

484

553,638,694

This test was conducted five times to obtain the average time to download this sample of files, with the test
machine rebooted between each sample to remove potential caching effects.

Benchmark 13 – File Format Conversion (MP3  WAV, MP3  WMA)
This test measured how much time was required to convert five (5) different MP3 files into WAV files andsubsequently, convert the same MP3 samples into a WMA files. The total size of the five (5) MP3s used was
25,870,899 bytes.
To encode the MP3 into another format, we used an application called ffmpeg.exe. The format conversion
process was timed using CommandTimer.exe.
This test was conducted five times to obtain the average conversion speed between these formats, with the test
machine rebooted between each sample to remove potential caching effects.

Benchmark 14 – File Compression and Decompression
This test measured the amount of time required to compress and decompress a sample set of files. For this test,
we used a subset of the media and documents files used in the File Copy, Move and Delete benchmark.
CommandTimer.exe recorded the amount of time required for 7zip.exe to compress the files into a *.zip andsubsequently decompress the created *.zip file.
This subset comprised 1,218 files over 783 MB. The breakdown of the file types, file numbers and total sizes ofthe files in the sample set is shown in the following table:

Performance Benchmark
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File Type

File Number

Total Size

.xls

13

9.23 MB.xlsx

93.51 MB.ppt

97.37 MB.pptx

1117.4 MB.doc

17

35.9 MB.docx

1924.5 MB.gif

177

1.10 MB

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.jpg

737

66.2 MB.png

15948.9 MB.mov7

54.7 MB.rm

1

5.39 MB.avi

46

459 MB.wma

1148.6 MB.avi

46

459 MB.wma

1148.6 MB

Total

1218

783 MB

This test was conducted five times to obtain the average file compression and decompression speed, with thetest machine rebooted between each sample to remove potential caching effects.

Benchmark 15 – File Write, Open and Close
This benchmark was derived from Oli Warner’s File I/O test at http://www.thepcspy.com (please see Reference#1: What Really Slows Windows Down).
For this test, we developed OpenClose.exe, an application that looped writing a small file to disk, then opening
and closing that file. CommandTimer.exe was used to time how long the process took to complete 180,000
cycles.
This test was conducted five times to obtain the average file writing, opening and closing speed, with the test
machine rebooted between each sample to remove potential caching effects.

Benchmark 16 – PE Scan Time
This test measures the on demand scan times of a file set comprised only of executable files (.exe, .dll and .sys
files). We performed five scans of the sample file set, with a machine restart between each scan to remove
possible caching effects. The time taken to scan the files is taken from an antivirus product’s scan logs, or wherelogs are not available, manually with a stopwatch. Scans were launched by right clicking on the folder to bescanned.
A breakdown of the sample file set is as follows:
File Type

NumberFile Sizeof FilesSys Files

2174

329MB

Dll Files

2037

920MB

Exe Files

2140

827MB

Total

6351

2076MBThe final result is calculated as an average of the five samples.

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Benchmark 17 – File Copy Disk to Disk
This test measures the amount of time taken to copy files between two local drives. The data set comprised of
8,501 files with a total file size of 5.44GB, and the formats used included documents, movies, images andexecutables. A breakdown of the sample file set is given below:
File

NumberExtensionof Files

.jpg

2903

588MB

.dll

773

25MB

.exe

730

197MB

.gif

681

63MB

.wav

430

260MB

.sys

501

79MB

.png

451

27MB

.mp3

333

2157MB

.wma

585

925MB

.docx

267

81MB

.avi

247

1079MB

.doc

160

57MB

.xls

329

132MB

.ppt

97

148MB

.zip

14

177MB

Total

8501

5995MB

File Size

A total of five runs of this test were performed, with a machine restart between each run. The time taken to
copy files was measured and recorded by CommandTimer.exe. All the files were copied between a folder on thelocal drive and a 2ndfolder on a different drive. Files were deleted from the 2nddrive once the copy wascomplete. The final result is calculated as an average of the five samples

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