I wouldn't come near Trend Micro's products after trying this until they do a complete overhaul of the UI and stop the annoying pop-ups and notifications.
Trend Micro notifications can be minimised in 2 ways:
-Immediately after installation, fill up all questions asked. Trend Micro will display features that ate relevant to you. Do not ignore features such as Folder Shield and the toolbar as fair percentage of Trend Micro protection comes from there. Once they are setup, there are no feature recommendation notifications.
-All other notifications which are rare but can be seen (threat detected, connection blocked) can be minimised by activating Mute Mode. It can be enabled permanently.
I can’t agree that settings are scattered. One click on the “Device” tab or right click on the tray reveal mute mode. Some points that you have mentioned under positives are not valid as well.
Network and firewall are rated 5-star, but Trend Micro has no firewall.