Webroot SecureAnywhere Endpoint Protection review

Webroot’s SecureAnywhere Endpoint Protection is a beefed-up version of the consumer product it launched in 2010, and is a ‘pure’ cloud-based anti-malware system using a lightweight software client on the endpoint with no local threat definition database.

Although Webroot is aiming the product primarily at SMBs with 500-1,000 clients (it can scale to more if needed), it is perfectly suitable for smaller installations, and the minimum license available is five PCs. 

When setting up, the first task is to create an account on the My SecureAnywhere portal, where the management console resides. Multiple users can be given access to this. At first login, a setup wizard runs to create or modify the default client policies.

The client executable is small, at just 640KB in size, and can be deployed in several ways.

There is a download link for the EXE version, or this can be installed using a Group Policy Object in Active Directory on a Windows domain. There is also an MSI installer that can be deployed silently over a LAN using the free remote deployment tool.

Webroot claims the product can be installed alongside any existing anti-malware protection if desired. We ran it concurrently with Microsoft Security Essentials and saw no problems, slowdowns or conflicts once SecureAnywhere’s self-protection settings were adjusted as recommended.