Bitdefender 2008 (aka Bitdefender 11) and Vista, problems?

[#1]

I have been using Bitdefender in various forms as my antivirus software of choice for about three years now and always found it to be excellent and less of a PC resource hog than most of the competition who don't appear to pick up many of the threats it does.
I downloaded the version 2008 / 11 Release and have been trying it with Vista. Whenever it is installed I find the boot time is increased by about 3 minutes which is a real pain the bum. Has anyone else come across this?
I have have contacted their support folks an am awaiting a response, but I must admit I am not overly hopeful that they will have a magic bullet to fix it.
I have tried removing all software that I could imagine might be conflicting with it. Indeed, I have even taken my Vista box back to a vanilla install and then added Bitdefender and the problem is there. I just cant believe that it even got through beta like that let alone full release if this is a generalised problem, hardware problem? Seems unlikely. Every time that you think you have learned a bit about computers they kick you in the teeth again don't they?

[#2]

Thanks PJ
I will take a look for educational purposes if nothing else!
But really I need to get Bitdefender working properly; firstly because I have seen it find gallons of stuff on machines supposedly protected by the big boys, so I trust it. Secondly I have the best part of a paid for 2 year licence left to run!
It would be great to have some really good data on how various AV apps perform against each other, rather than the inevitable ‘indie’ review websites that are plainly pushing one product.

[#3]

I've never used Bitdefender, but does it maybe have an option at startup? Or is it at the bootloading process the delay occurs?
Sorry but I haven't used it before, so just guessing here

[#4]

Bitdefender starts services very early in the boot process, like any AV worth its salt it wants to protect itself and become active as quickly as possible. There is no disk thrashing during the delay it looks like a service having trouble starting of stopping or conflicting and the system waits for a time out. Once it is running its is fine. just very annoying.

[#5]

Hi PJ
I loaded Avast and gave it a go but I wasn't that keen on the interface and feedback system. It also failed to flag a utility I use that other scanners often pick up as a potential threat. So I guess its back to the previous version of Bitdefender or AVG for a while!
Thanks for the suggestion, it's always good to see what other folks are using.
Cheers

[#6]

Hi
I've used AVG free for ages, and been very pleased. 
John

[#7]

Pc pr did a test on Av
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/155/antivirus-software/products.html
Some of the results were surprising Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7 came out the top and Norton was rubbish and came near the bottom.