Is Bitdefender Fit For Purpose?

I cannot regard BitDefender as fit for purpose. I have reinstalled from a very recent download, kept updated. This evening it again failed to reinstate itself after one of its perpetual updates – a download of 209KB had finished, and it stuck at the installation stage, icon greyed out, and a warning message to reboot. This I see is a well-known problem that the company seem unable to solve. I went offline for 10 minutes to see what happened. Nothing. I then went online briefly in case it had to communicate with bitdefender.com to complete the process. Nothing. I then unplugged my router and went out for 4 hrs. When I arrived back home, the icon was still greyed out. Windows Task Manager showed that vsserve.exe was not running: i.e. it was NOT simply a glitch in the status display (SEE ATTACHED SCREENSHOT).

I dare not leave the computer now without going offline. It’s like being back on dialup. If I hadn’t spotted this greying out I could have been unprotected on a fast internet connection for 4 hours and my computer would be riddled with malware, needing me to wipe the C drive and reinstall from backups!!!

I have already done this once, thinking that I had an infection that persisted through rebooting, by one of those viruses that disable security software, but the only evidence for this was that BitDefender was greyed out and I am more and more convinced that my system was in fact clean. At that time I had not known that this was a common problem with BitDefender.

You will see from my other posts that I try to take a constructive line and often offer solutions to problems (see yesterday: “Bitdefender Not Responding / Grey Icon - Solutions! where I suggest three design strategies to solve this problem. Any comment from BitDefender staff? No).

ANOTHER PROBLEM: Keeps telling me I have never scanned my system. I last scanned it 2 days ago!

I see from a recent post by Alex Stanciu that there is a new update planned within the next fortnight. I might just wait till then, but if it doesn’t solve the problem I’m off. No more BitDefender for me. After many years as a loyal customer, I’ve had enough. I'm at my wits end.

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Alex Stanciu

Hello John K,

We have released a major update that should solve the update issue that you encountered. In case you still receive the message that you have not ran a scan, please go to the next location from your system: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BitDefender\Desktop\Profiles (Windows XP) or C:\ProgramData\BitDefender\Desktop\Profiles (Windows Vista or Windows 7), look after the file "tasks_system.xml", upload it on http://www.sendspace.com/ then post here the download link.

Thank you.

John Kemp

Thankyou, Alex - All solved, but NOT smoothly! I did an update via the BD icon - didn't solve the problem. One of your colleagues said go to START > All Programs > BitDefender and choose REPAIR. No such options - all I could do from there was to open the program! I had encountered the Unistall Tool elsewhere on the forums. so I did the following NOTE THE SEQUENCE, THE ADVICE TO GO OFFLINE SHOULD BE IN YOUR INSTRUCTIONS! I downloaded the Uninstall Tool, and bitdefender_isecurity.exe from the website. KNOWING HOW LONG THESE INSTALLATIONS TAKE, I THEN WENT OFFLINE!!! The tool didn't seem to work well, so I renamed bdagent.exe and vsserv.exe and ran bitdefender_isecurity.exe and only went online when the program required me to do so, towards the end of the installation. All seems OK now, but it's early days yet. But when I ran BD it came up with two critical problems: (1) I have never updated (2) I have never scanned my system. I accepted these options, and it scanned but then said update failed! I then tried accessing the UPDATE via the BD icon, and got a more helpful message that update cannot be done as a scan is in progresss. I aborted the scan and then updated ok. The scan is still in progress but the BD screen says that there are no issues. THIS IS POOR PROGRAMMING AND POOR DOCUMENTATION. AND THIS IS THE UPDATE THAT'S SUPPOSED TO FIX EVERYTHING! When it identifies these two issues together it should do the update FIRST and then the scan - no problems then!

I am reasonably confident that my system is ok, but this should all have been sorted out in beta. I'm also concerned at the length of time that BitDefender has taken to solve the various issues. This is not acceptable with security software, and it encourages customers to run elsewhere, because it is a system-critical utility! I try to be constructive in my criticisms, hopefully suggesting solutions, but at the very least, confining myself to important issues. Best wishes, John

dave r

Thankyou, Alex - All solved, but NOT smoothly! I did an update via the BD icon - didn't solve the problem. One of your colleagues said go to START > All Programs > BitDefender and choose REPAIR. No such options - all I could do from there was to open the program! I had encountered the Unistall Tool elsewhere on the forums. so I did the following NOTE THE SEQUENCE, THE ADVICE TO GO OFFLINE SHOULD BE IN YOUR INSTRUCTIONS! I downloaded the Uninstall Tool, and bitdefender_isecurity.exe from the website. KNOWING HOW LONG THESE INSTALLATIONS TAKE, I THEN WENT OFFLINE!!! The tool didn't seem to work well, so I renamed bdagent.exe and vsserv.exe and ran bitdefender_isecurity.exe and only went online when the program required me to do so, towards the end of the installation. All seems OK now, but it's early days yet. But when I ran BD it came up with two critical problems: (1) I have never updated (2) I have never scanned my system. I accepted these options, and it scanned but then said update failed! I then tried accessing the UPDATE via the BD icon, and got a more helpful message that update cannot be done as a scan is in progresss. I aborted the scan and then updated ok. The scan is still in progress but the BD screen says that there are no issues. THIS IS POOR PROGRAMMING AND POOR DOCUMENTATION. AND THIS IS THE UPDATE THAT'S SUPPOSED TO FIX EVERYTHING! When it identifies these two issues together it should do the update FIRST and then the scan - no problems then!

I am reasonably confident that my system is ok, but this should all have been sorted out in beta. I'm also concerned at the length of time that BitDefender has taken to solve the various issues. This is not acceptable with security software, and it encourages customers to run elsewhere, because it is a system-critical utility! I try to be constructive in my criticisms, hopefully suggesting solutions, but at the very least, confining myself to important issues. Best wishes, John

Any update on this john?

in my opinion this product is not fit for purpose no way

John Kemp

Any update on this john?

Thanks for your interest, Davey. BitDefender seems to be working OK for me now, though I'm disconcerted at the duration of the planned outages for updates. I'm too busy with other matters to take it further, though I do keep an eye on the forums. I've made two posts, which you have probably seen, in which I suggest radical programming philosophies such that one is NEVER unprotected. Alex Stanciu has forwarded these ideas to his colleagues. I am entirely self taught re computers, but sometimes it takes someone outside the field to see the wood for the trees! Best wishes, John

http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?sho...c=16498&hl=

http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?sho...c=16622&hl=

Chesda

Please be patient and wait a few weeks for the BD team to patch up these bugs. The bugs in 08 were fixed weeks later when they were discovered.

Usman

I do believe it is more than fit for purpose,

As with every product when you are trying to support a vast amount of different configurations and various flavours of Operating Systems , you will find obstacles.

With reference to your experiences John , I've had similiar problems with 2009 Product but not with the 2010 Product.

With reference to support John , you have a number of key points of contact , Live Chat / Phone / Email and of course the forums to get a desired response .

Nikilet

Chesda: How can you possibly have the courage to ask paying customers to wait a few weeks for problems like this to be fixed? We are talking about a security program here. John K said it best: "This is a system-critical utility." One can't afford to pay for this program, install it and then have it down for a few weeks while they get it working.

UsmanDefender: You are right in what you said about obstacles and I think everyone on this forum realizes that. But what's been going on ever since the 2010 was released goes far beyond a few obstacles to work through. This is a whole program just plumb full of obstacles that should have been tested and fixed before it was released. And then they put out this major update and I'm still amazed to think that people who are supposed to be computer experts could put something out like this. Have you looked at and read the posts? I have read many, many of them. There is just about no area of a working computer that this program and its subsequent major update haven't totally messed up.

As far as tech support, if you have been so lucky as to receive concerned response from either Chat or tech support, then you are a very lucky person and from all the reading I have done on this forum I would say you are definitely in the minority. The only place I've ever found any real help is in this forum and thank the good Lord for this forum! For instance, just before this major update was released I was still working on a major problem just with the program as it was. I went to Chat and then to tech support and I am still waiting to hear back. If you call that an option "to get a desired response" ...

And that example is nothing new in my experience. It's par for the course.

Usman

Chesda: How can you possibly have the courage to ask paying customers to wait a few weeks for problems like this to be fixed? We are talking about a security program here. John K said it best: "This is a system-critical utility." One can't afford to pay for this program, install it and then have it down for a few weeks while they get it working.

UsmanDefender: You are right in what you said about obstacles and I think everyone on this forum realizes that. But what's been going on ever since the 2010 was released goes far beyond a few obstacles to work through. This is a whole program just plumb full of obstacles that should have been tested and fixed before it was released. And then they put out this major update and I'm still amazed to think that people who are supposed to be computer experts could put something out like this. Have you looked at and read the posts? I have read many, many of them. There is just about no area of a working computer that this program and its subsequent major update haven't totally messed up.

As far as tech support, if you have been so lucky as to receive concerned response from either Chat or tech support, then you are a very lucky person and from all the reading I have done on this forum I would say you are definitely in the minority. The only place I've ever found any real help is in this forum and thank the good Lord for this forum! For instance, just before this major update was released I was still working on a major problem just with the program as it was. I went to Chat and then to tech support and I am still waiting to hear back. If you call that an option "to get a desired response" ...

And that example is nothing new in my experience. It's par for the course.

Nikilet

It's people like you that make a real difference as you make the effort to post problems and report bugs. Not to say that we are used as test beds , but what you will find is that 100's of 1000's of users that don't have any problems will not post on the forums and give their postive feedback to reflect the overall majority.

I've been tested since the beta and respectively tried , installed and run bitdefender on 100's of PC's.

Yes I have had issues and my main quarms will be that the effciency of the updates is not consistant.

I believe you've made some key points , valid and very fair and for that I cannot argue , but I can tell you from an outside perspective that the support is avialable and very good when reached.

The whole website will hopefully be improved with respect to how it tackles support and how easy it is avialable to customers.

Currently the support is good but it is not easily accessible / why ? because we have to go through so many 'not so obvious' actions to get the support we need.

What works in other contries does not neccesarily work for us in the UK community.

dave r

Please be patient and wait a few weeks for the BD team to patch up these bugs. The bugs in 08 were fixed weeks later when they were discovered.

I think you must have a short memory, i started by using version 10, as 2008 would not run on xp without locking the pc up all the time,

if my memory serves me correct it actually took around some 6mths before it was usable to a lot of people,but even now it still has the crashing by itself problem,that was never fixed something that exists within this 2010 version too,

like john has said they need to start thinking outside the box so to speak ,maybe then progress will be made at last

after all all the customer wants is for the product to work properly this has not since release ,and how long ago was that?

and there has already been several "major" upgrades to fix issues ,that so far have not resolved them,and also have caused more problems,

so how can anyone have faith in such a product ever working properly?? i've nearly lost all hope, 2 mths(if not longer) and still problems ,

Chesda

I think you must have a short memory, i started by using version 10, as 2008 would not run on xp without locking the pc up all the time,

if my memory serves me correct it actually took around some 6mths before it was usable to a lot of people,but even now it still has the crashing by itself problem,that was never fixed something that exists within this 2010 version too,

The year 2007 was when Vista was released, BD08 came out before vista afaik. BD was not the only AV that was buggy/incompatible with vista at the time, numerous other vendors had problems too, in particular with 64b drivers. At the time XP only had a few minor bugs that were resolved through GUI and driver updates. Yes it did take 6months before BD08 was usuable to a lot of people, but that was only because of the different service packs

Edit: Yes after v10 BD become very buggy, but the scanning did improve