The 2010 "model year" for security suites got an early start, with a couple of products already out in June of 2009. The February 2010 releases of McAfee Total Protection 2010 and Norton 360 Version 4.0 complete the collection, at least as far as major security vendors are concerned. We've reviewed sixteen security suites for 2010; read on to see which will keep you safe and which to avoid.

Of the early-birds Panda Internet Security 2010 made a decent showing, but eScan Internet Security Suite for Home Users Version 10 isn't ready to provide serious competition for any of the better-known contenders in the U.S. market. Much the same is true of K7 TotalSecurity Version 10.0: It's popular in Japan, but doesn't live up to the standards set by other major products here-at least it didn't bog down my test systems. Through the summer the suites kept rolling in, keeping me busy with all-out evaluations.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 and BitDefender Total Security 2010 arrived almost simultaneously in August (although Kaspersky released its European version quite a bit earlier). Both offer powerful protection, but BitDefender has the edge in most areas, particularly antispam and parental control. But both suites did have a measurable impact on system performance in testing, possibly due to being crammed to the gills with bonus features that actually improve security.