An independent reference

How security‑software subscriptions are licensed, activated and verified

Antivirus Reference is a small, independent publication that explains the mechanics behind consumer security software: what a product key is, what an account holds, what the software installs, and how a maker’s own pages can be told apart from pages built to resemble them. It describes; it does not assist.

Independent publication
Thirteen makers covered
Describes · does not assist

Covers: Consumer subscriptions from Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, ESET, F-Secure, Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, McAfee, Norton, Sophos, Trend Micro (TrendLife) and Webroot; Microsoft Defender Antivirus; macOS permissions
Form: Three reference articles and thirteen maker references, each dated and checked against the makers’ own documentation
Does not: Sell software or keys, take telephone calls, or offer assistance of any kind

Three references

Licensing
How activation works
Keys, accounts and entitlements: what the string on the card represents, where redemption happens at each maker, and what changes once a subscription is recorded in an account.
Components
What security software installs
The components behind one product name, how Microsoft Defender Antivirus steps aside on Windows, the permissions macOS requires, and why one real-time scanner runs at a time.
Verification
Genuine pages and look-alikes
How a maker’s web address is built, what a genuine activation page asks for, and the structural patterns that identify pages made to be mistaken for it.

Maker references

Thirteen makers, each on a page of its own: the key or code, where it is redeemed, the account that keeps the record, and what the maker says about people who impersonate it.

Vocabulary used on this site

Product key, activation code, license key: Different makers’ names for the same thing: a string of letters and digits that proves a purchase and is exchanged, once, for a subscription record.
Subscription: A paid term of entitlement held in the maker’s records, usually one year, tied to a stated number of devices.
Account: The maker’s portal, on the maker’s own domain, in which subscriptions are recorded, installers are obtained and renewal settings are kept.
Entitlement: What the account holds after activation: the right to run the software on a set number of devices until a date.
Real-time protection: The component that inspects files and connections as they are used. Operating systems register one such engine at a time.
Automatic renewal: A billing arrangement, often set up on the activation screen itself, under which the maker charges the card on file before the term ends.

What this publication does

Describes, in the third person, how licensing and activation work at the major consumer security-software makers.
Quotes and links the makers’ own documentation, and dates every page with the day its facts were checked.
Explains the mechanics of impersonation so that a reader can recognize a page or a message that is not the maker’s.

What it does not do

Sell, resell or distribute software, keys or subscriptions.
Offer assistance with any account, device, purchase or renewal, by any channel.
Publish a telephone number, operate a chat line, or request remote access to a computer.