VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0: Since 2002, consumers have enjoyed the protection of Sunbelt Software from malevolent programs, and they join the world of consumer protection suite vendors with VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4.0, available for $39.95.  This suite is aimed at consumers who are looking for just the essential in security software, combining antimalware capabilities with firewall protection and the ability to filter malicious internet sites.  It lacks the ability to protect users from spam however, and does not provide for parental control, however…

It has a small installer, which does however expand significantly when transferring the first collection of malware signatures.  During testing the installation process took around 15 minutes, with more than half the time spent for the signature download.  The reason signatures are kept separately from the installer is that it avoids the difficulties that ensue when the consumer puts the product into his or her computer a long time after completing the download process.  You will not risk overmuch by completing scanning minus the current definitions available: VIPRE Antivirus Premium 4 assures that the latest updates are in place before each scan begins.

As is sometimes the case, malware interposed with the installation process on some of the test systems: taking the advice of Sunbelt’s technical support the VIPRE Rescue command line scanner was download to a system that was clean and then installed in Safe Mode on the systems that were infested.  This worked; the 2 systems that were having trouble were cleaned to the point where the total installation of the complete product was accomplishable.

The on demand on schedule for malevolent program scanning on VIPRE Premium is identical to the one offered by the VIPRE edition that is not a premium product, as is that of its real time active security.  Although it scored well on security testing, it was beaten by both Norton Internet Security 2010, retailing at $69.99, and PC Tools Internet Security 2010, available for $49.95.

The Premium edition adds a feature that filters internet content by creating an extra protection layer that denies access to sites known to host malware: during testing, this feature was able to block around 40 percent of known malware URLs, although some of these were no longer valid.  In a couple of cases, although the URL managed to slip past the filter, the active protection offered by VIPRE apprehended the malware as soon as it was downloaded.  Despite these results, some malevolent programs did manage to gain access to the computer, whereas the security features McAfee Total Protection 2010 offers, available for $79.99, managed to refuse access to many more of the sites, and did not allow any of the malware to complete downloading.