Trend Micro Maximum Security 2022

Our Observation

Best known for enterprise-grade endpoint security, Trend Micro Maximum Security brings some of that malware detection prowess to home users, delivering great performance. 

Trend Micro Maximum Security is a comfortable and streamlined antivirus suite with a long history in both consumer and enterprise malware protection. It sticks to the core mission of malware defence, but some of its features feel like they haven't been updated in while.

When you install Trend Micro Maximum Security, you're invited to add Trend Micro's password manager to your PC. Trend's Folder Shield ransomware protection is automatically enabled for your Documents, Pictures and OneDrive folders.
You can add or remove folders from Folder Shield protection whenever you like via the Trend client's Data settings. You'll be notified if any unauthorised programs or processes try to make changes to these directories. The Data screen also allows you to configure a password manager and encrypt or securely delete files. The password manager is fine, but lacks features compared to the free tier of Bitwarden.
Maximum Security's home screen isn't as info-packed as those of many rivals, but it lets you know if anything needs attention and it's a lot nicer to look at, thanks to customisable backgrounds, available in the settings menus.

Unfortunately, Trend is consistently among the worst offenders for false positive detections of legitimate software and websites, clocking up 42 misidentifications. For nervous users, or those simply don't wish to spend their time investigating the safety of a suspect file or domain, this seriously impacts the usefulness of Trend as effective malware defence.
Trend Micro is decidedly twitchy about potential threats, racking up 42 false positive identifications of benign websites and programs. This is a problem because it can lead to either an impaired user experience or mistrust of the security software's threat assessment.