Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2014

Pros Very good score for malware-blocking. Accurate spam and phishing detection. Firewall Booster aids Windows Firewall. Checks social media privacy settings, links. Online Guardian offers wide-ranging parental control. Password management, form filling. Encrypted file storage can be sealed remotely. Impressive full-featured online backup and file-sharing.

Cons Hard to install on malware-infested systems. Too-rigid behavior-based detection blocked valid programs. Limited parental control. More performance impact than many. Parental control system seriously flawed. Password management is awkward; form-filler not accurate. Bottom Line On top of the features in Trend Micro's entry-level suite, Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2014 adds advanced parental control, password management, and online backup and file-sharing. However, only the backup system really shines.

By Neil J. Rubenking

There are two main reasons you'd choose to purchase a security suite rather than assemble a collection of individual security tools. First, it's generally a lot less expensive. Second, having all of your security components integrated into one product tends to reduce the overall impact on performance. Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2014 ($89.95 per year direct, for three licenses) is definitely cost-effective, but it's not nearly as well-integrated as some of its competition.

This product is closer to a security bundle than an integrated suite. With a few exceptions, the main suite portion is identical to Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2014 ($79.95). For $10 more, the mega-suite adds Trend Micro DirectPass for password management ($14.95), Trend Micro SafeSync for online backup and file sharing ($39.95), and parental control from Trend Micro Online Guardian for Families ($49.95). Those components would cost over $100 if purchased separately.

On the other hand, DirectPass, SafeSync, and Online Guardian each require a full, separate installation process. Getting the whole suite installed took significantly longer than most. In addition, the four installations ate up an impressive amount of disk space—over a gigabyte!

Good at Blocking Malware Attack
The antivirus protection in this suite is precisely the same as what's offered by Trend Micro Titanium Antivirus+ 2014, so you'd do well to read that review first. For this review, I'll simply summarize my findings.

Trend Micro earned an impressive 9.2 out of 10 points in my malware blocking test. Of all products tested using my current collection of malware samples, only AVG Internet Security 2014 and Ad-Aware Pro Security 10.5 scored higher, both with 9.4 points. For more on how I perform and score this test, see How We Test Malware Blocking.

Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2014 malware blocking chart

Trend Micro was also especially effective at blocking access to dangerous websites; it blocked 95 percent of those I tried. It didn't do as well when challenged to clean up a dozen malware-infested systems. Just getting it installed took a lot of back and forth with tech support. It scored 5.8 points overall, just so-so. Best scores in this test went to Bitdefender Total Security (2014), AVG, and Norton 360 (2014)with 6.6, 6.4, and 6.3 points respectively. The article How We Test Malware Removal explains how my malware removal test works.

Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2014 malware removal chart

Trend Micro skips traditional antivirus lab tests, but participates with the more innovative tests performed by AV-Test and AV-Comparatives. It gets good marks, especially in the whole-product real-world test by AV-Comparatives. The chart below summarizes recent test results; for more information about the tests, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2014 lab tests chart

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