This is a relatively unknown AV which originates from India; http://www.k7computing.com/index.asp

Recent thread here over at Wilders; http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=196090

I have been running this the last week or so and observations so far;

CONS; Very stable, lightweight AV with a very small footprint (8MB VM) and a very fast scanner speed. Excellent GUI, good support and cheap to purchase ($16).

AGAINST; has not really been tested at the big testing sites such as av-comparatives, av-test.org. Although it has passed its only test at Virus Bulletin and against my limited test-bed of malware it was on par with the likes of BitDefender, FPAV 6 and Dr Web. Reactivation needed if you change your hardware or reformat.

Well worth a trial run and Bellgamin has already jumped on board.

After only a few days the Updater packed up working both on Bellgamin's computer and mine.

I could only get it working again after a fresh install. So care needed at the present time and may be viewed as a "work in progress".

Surprising, as with 4 million users in Japan I would have thought it was reliable.

Thanks Blackcat

Read that member review @ Wilders; very interesting; this looks like an AV to watch in future. Light on resources and a decent GUI and 'feel' to it...that's user friendly!

Blackcat & I have since discovered that K7's updater was broken by our respective registry cleaners. Blackcat uses RegSupreme Pro. I use Ace Utilities. Both of those registry cleaners deleted the following vital registry entry of K7...

HKLM Software\K7Computing\K7TotalSecurity\CommonInfo\Updates

I have since tested RegSeeker, & also Wise Registry Cleaner. Both of these registry cleaners also deleted K7's vital registry entry.

After I put the above registry item on my registry cleaner's ignore list, K7 began updating perfectly, and has continued to do so ever since. I have reported this matter to K7's support team, & they are studying to see why registry cleaners want to delete that key registry entry.

Therefore, K7 is now a satisfactory antivirus program, but I would class it as "second tier" in protective power. Although K7 is checkmark certified, and has passed testing by VirusBulletin, it only did "average" in tests by AV-test.org.

IMO, K7 is an AV to watch and support (I did buy a license), but it's not quite ready to serve as one's frontline scanner as yet.

Recent tests suggest that it is only a Tier IV scanner in terms of detection; http://www.virusbtn.com/news/2008/03_13a.x...08%2F03_13a.xml

Which confirms the fact that new AVs need a long time to build up a good database.