VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware
Despite still being relatively new in the competitive field of antivirus software, VIPRE AntiVirus + AntiSpyware comes out swinging this year with what our team of reviewers
found to be the best, lightest-running antivirus software for 2010.
The balancing act with antivirus and anti-spyware is managing to be light-running while still providing PC protection.
This is one place where VIPRE delivers on its promise better than any of its competitors.
Our testing consistently showed VIPRE to be among the best performing software in every test we ran.
In fact, some of the older better known antivirus programs like McAfee and Norton didn't do nearly as well as VIPRE this year.
TOP FEATURES
Solid real-time protection
Great resource usage
Good email protection
In comparison, VIPRE's light resource usage, strong antivirus and antispyware protection, and excellent customer service consistently pushed it to the front of the pack.
We really were impressed from start to finish.
Installation is a snap. The user interface is clean and easy-to-use. Email protection is reliable and solid.
Overall virus, spyware, and malware protection is equal to or better than we've seen in most any antivirus software--especially from software that's a relative newcomer compared to the household names like McAfee, Norton, and Kaspersky.
We're glad to see such a strong competitor like VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware enter the field with such solid antivirus software.
VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware Features
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- Real-time Antivirus Protection
Keeps your computer safe from viruses, spyware, and other malware 24/7. Stops malicious software from accessing your computer before they can do any harm.
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- Virus Removal
Easily removes even nasty viruses, worms, trojans, and other malware from PCs.
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- Spyware Removal
Protects your computer from dangerous spyware and annoying adware. Scans, finds, and destroys spyware already infecting your PC.
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- Email Protection
Stops dangerous email viruses and malware from infecting your computer. Thoroughly scans incoming and outgoing email for suspected threats.
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- Instant Messaging Protection
Scans and blocks viruses and malicious files that attempt to transfer through your IM conversations. Helps keep you safe from Instant Messaging threats.
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- Free Malware Removal
If a virus, trojan, worm, or other malware somehow gets through your defenses while you're a VIPRE or VIPRE Premium antivirus subscriber, Sunbelt's dedicated in-house team of malware removal specialists will remove the infection free.
VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware Assessment
Here are the categories we tested VIPRE Antivirus Software in. Each category was given a percentage rating based on those tests.
Antivirus Installation: 100%
VIPRE Antivirus installation is easy and straight forward. Just download and run the initial installer which sets up the files you need for installation.
You'll need to reboot your PC at this point.
After the installation, a wizard runs to configure your initial options. These are for things like:
- definition update frequency
- Internet access settings
- registration options
At the end of this wizard you'll find a link that launches a video which describes the software and some basic usage (nice touch!)
Even if you're a seasoned computer professional, you'll be well-served watching the video. It's well done and may introduce you to some features in VIPRE you're unaware of.
Installation only took about 1 minute, and total time from download through reboot was about 6 minutes.
VIPRE Antivirus Installation Screenshots
Un-installation: 100%
If for some reason you need to uninstall VIPRE, you can do so quite easily. In fact, VIPRE antivirus makes it easy to re-install in the future if you change your mind.
They do this, by giving you the option to leave behind some data files that will make things easier. Another nice touch.
From the Windows ADD/REMOVE Programs menu, just uninstall VIPRE, select if you want to keep or remove the re-install data files, then reboot.
After reboot, we found no registry traces and no left-over files that could interfere with other programs or system performance. The easy un-install and that no files were
left behind are what made us comfortable giving a 100% score to VIPRE for their uninstall.
Simply put: It delivers on the promise we as consumers expect manufacturers to make to us when we remove a program from our PC. Then it goes a step further by offering to
leave data files behind if you want.
User Interface: 98%
The user interface (UI) is very good looking with easy-to-use navigation. The background color is muted, and alerts are color-coded green or red when they need attentionm making it easy to see what's important.
We're glad to see VIPRE got it right with a simple, single screen management page that lets you access all other categories. This makes easy to quickly find what
you need without having to open, close, search, and dig through multiple windows and pop-ups as some competitors do.
Once in each category, there are clearly labeled tabs from which you access each of the features or settings you'd like to.
VIPRE marks the appropriate settings by default for the novice user, but more advanced users can click an "Advanced" link that allows you to adjust more detailed settings.
In our opinion, the default settings should be adequate for most users.
Each tab has a help button that opens to the appropriate page in the help file where you'll also find a complete, indexed help section.
A nice touch is the added links
within each help section that allow you to further explore any topic. Plus, perhaps best of all, is a link to VIPRE antivirus
support at the bottom of every page in the help section.
This easily accessible support link is one of the many ways Sunbelt Software, makers of VIPRE, show they're serious about standing behind their software and helping users.
VIPRE Antivirus User Interface Screenshots
Real-time Protection: 93%
VIPRE detected 90% of the viruses and other malware during our real-time protection tests - a superb score considering no antivirus software can ever be 100% perfect.
The only files VIPRE didn't initially identify were all quickly captured and removed when the viruses actually tried to run. Thus effectively making the viruses and malware
useless.
Once a virus tries to do something nasty, even if VIPRE didn't initially detect it, VIPRE's real-time engine kicks in and stops the whatever the virus is trying to do.
VIPRE is known for its fast scanning and response time, all while keeping a low resource footprint. When real-time protection was enabled on computers in our test lab,
only about 65MB of memory was used.
Overall, we're very pleased with VIPRE's performance. Most antivirus software has a hard time combining power with efficiency, but VIPRE has managed to do both with
solid, reliable real-time protection.
Manual Scan: 93%
A full-system, manual scan proved to be one of the most effective of any software we tested. VIPRE successfully found, deleted, or quarantined more than 85% of viruses,
spyware, and other malware.
VIPRE relies more heavily on real-time protection which has a far better capture rate than a one-time manual scan. While this may seem counter-intuitive at first glance,
it actually makes sense. Here's why:
Many viruses, especially new ones that haven't been identified yet, do everything they can to hide themselves and avoid detection.
Because of this, an occasional manual scan might not always capture dormant viruses and spyware, and that's why having robust real-time antivirus protection is critical.
Real-time protection looks for, among other things, bad behavior from processes running on your computer, and as such, VIPRE is able to catch many of these types of
viruses, worms, trojans, and other malware as soon as they try doing something to your computer.
That's why it's so important to always keep VIPRE running. Fortunately, since VIPRE antivirus is so light-running and unintrusive, having it running all the time won't
drag your computer down.
The manual antivirus scan only took about 15 minutes on our test computer.
VIPRE Antivirus Manual Scan Screenshots
Resource Usage: 95%
Real-time resource usage was the lowest of all the antivirus software we tested, using only about 0.5% of memory.
A full-system, manual scan peaked occasionally at 50% - 60% CPU usage, then dipped back down as it moved to different parts of the antivirus scan.
Only about 60MB of memory was used during a manual scan.
Very good, especially compared to some of VIPRE's heavier competitors.
VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware
Antivirus Scanning Resource Usage
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| Real-Time Memory |
0.5% |
| Manual Scan Memory |
60MB |
| Manual Scan CPU |
60% |
Note: These are the average results we found during our testing.
Every PC is different, of course, so your results may vary, but we expect these results to be fairly representative.
|
VIPRE used only 0.5% memory during real-time protection.
VIPRE used only 60MB of memory during a manual scan.
VIPRE used only 60% of CPU during a manual scan.
Spyware/Adware Protection: 89%
70% of spyware was successfully captured by VIPRE antivirus. Not as good as we'd like to see, but not bad at all. 70% is still the majority of known spyware.
It's a good idea to run a full, manual scan every once in a while so VIPRE can catch any deeply hidden spyware that may be lurking on your PC.
Our testing came up positive with an 80% success rate for spyware removal after a manual scan.
Virus Removal from a Pre-infected Machine: 92%
We pre-infected our testing PC, then installed VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware to see how well it would respond.
Since VIPRE doesn't initiate a pre-scan during installation, you'll need to run a full-system scan if you suspect your computer is infected.
In our testing VIPRE removed around 90% of infected files after we ran a full-system, manual scan of our pre-infected PC.
Some of the sneakier trojans that weren't detected initially were blocked by the optional firewall or picked up by the real time engine when they attempted to go "active",
so its overall protection was very good.
Email Protection: 95%
The VIPRE email antivirus protection is one of the easiest and best we've tested thus far this year. It's straightforward, and you don't have to do much for it to be fully
effective (that's one less thing you have to worry about.)
IMAP and SMTP are supported for Outlook and Outlook Express, but with other email clients, you'll only be able to use POP3. We're disappointed they don't support IMAP in
Thunderbird and other popular mail clients, but this is not likely to be a big set-back for most users.
Just check a box during installation (or later in the settings panel) telling it which email client you're using, and all incoming and outgoing email will be scanned.
No toolbar. No deciding what to scan or not scan. Just set-it-and-forget-it.
Full email protection is dependent on having real-time protection enabled. All emails and attachments will be scanned just as they would for regular computer usage.
We didn't notice any system slowing during our tests. Overall, nice, easy-to-use email protection.
IM Protection: 93%
Like email, there is nothing the user needs to do to enable IM (Instant Messaging) protection. It works because it's dependent on the VIPRE real-time antivirus engine.
Although there is no setting to configure IM protection, it's turned on by default and any incoming files that try to access your PC via IM will be scanned just like any
other file.
You'll need to make sure your real-time protection is enabled for IM protection to be fully effective, but you should have this turned on no matter what antivirus software
you use.
Antivirus Definition Updates: 92%
Definition updates are available every two hours by default. You can set it to be as often as every hour or as infrequent as 24 hours if you'd like.
We recommended every antivirus software should have current definition updates available for download at least every couple of hours. VIPRE handles this with ease.
Customer Support: 98%
Sunbelt (the makers of VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware) is well known for its dedication to customer service and technical support.
Email, live chat, and phone support are all 100% free. Phone and chat support hours are 9am-9pm EST, and email support is available anytime you need it.
We've been dealing with VIPRE for some time now, and every single customer or tech support issue that we've come across or heard about (and there have only been a few) were
handled within 48 hours (sometimes within minutes). Even with more complicated issues, every customer we've heard from reports that things were handled to their satisfaction.
Sunbelt goes to great lengths to help consumers know there's something different with their support, and we've seen it first-hand. When our testers have contacted them
anonymously for support for our reviews, the Sunbelt support staff always responded knowledgeably and resolved the issues.
The phone numbers, email, and chat are all clearly and easily found on their website or via the help pages. Obviously, they want to help and aren't trying to hide from you
like we've seen with lesser antivirus software.
It's hard to understand why other antivirus software makers seem to have trouble providing free and easy phone support. Time and again we've seen customers having trouble
getting in touch with some antivirus software makers, but not with Sunbelt.
Sooner or later most people may need some tech or customer support. Why should you have to pay for it or go through a hassle getting good support? And, on top of it, we're
very happy Sunbelt's support is all based in the U.S., so the support you get is from someone right in the same offices as the software's developers.
In our opinion Sunbelt understands support, and they make getting support as easy as you can ask for.
VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware
Review Conclusions
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VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware Scores
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Antivirus
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$29.95
|
| Overall Antivirus Protection |
98 |
| Real-time Antivirus Protection |
93 |
| Manual Antivirus Scanning |
93 |
| Antivirus Resource Utlization |
95 |
| Virus Removal (Pre-infected Machine) |
92 |
| Antivirus Definition Updates |
92 |
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Additional Internet Security Features
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| Spyware/Adware Protection |
89 |
| Email Protection |
95 |
| Anti-Spam Protection |
|
| Firewall Software |
* |
| Parental Controls Software |
|
| IM/Instant Message Protection |
93 |
| Anti-Phishing Protection |
|
|
Other Antivirus Software Ratings
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| Installation |
100 |
| Un-installation |
100 |
| User Interface |
98 |
| Customer Technical Support |
98 |
|
* These features are available only in
Sunbelt Personal Firewall.
If you're looking for a solid, stand-alone antivirus software this year, VIPRE is an easy choice. We like its simple, powerful antivirus and antispyware combo.
Real-time antivirus protection performed much better than we expected for a newcomer like VIPRE, and we were equally impressed by its light footprint.
(VIPRE has one of the lightest resource usage profiles we've seen this year).
VIPRE 2010
Quick Summary
- Best combination of antivirus protection & resource usage
- Excellent real-time protection
- Very good spyware protection
- Best customer and tech support
- Easy-to-use email protection
- Best user interface
While spyware protection could have been better, our testing still proved that VIPRE captured the more dangerous and annoying spyware and adware. That counts for a lot.
Email antivirus protection was a snap to use, and just as good or better than any of its competitors.
IM protection isn't a documented feature, but we're glad to see VIPRE taking this seriously by scanning all files that try to come through your Instant Messaging
conversations.
Overall, VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware is an easy choice for consumers or businesses who want a straightforward, solid antivirus software solution. We wish Sunbelt had
combined their strong
Personal Firewall Software with VIPRE, but given that it's an inexpensive $10 upgrade, it's a smart, very affordable add-on.
When combined, VIPRE and the Personal Firewall add up to one of the best antivirus firewall software options, comparable in protection to any
Internet Security Software.
All-in-all it's solid, complete PC protection worthy of our 2010 Editor's Choice.
VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware
System Requirements
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| Software
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- NEW: compatible with Windows 7, (and also compatible with XP mode in W7)
- Windows Vista+ (All flavors) 32 and 64-bit
- Windows Server 2003 (32/64-bit)
- Windows XP SP1, SP2, SP3 (Home, Pro, Media Center, Tablet) 32 and 64-bit
- Windows 2000 SP4 RollUp 1
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| System Memory/RAM
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512 MB
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| Email
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- Outlook 2000+
- Outlook Express 5.0+
- Windows Mail on Vista
- SMTP and POP3 (Thunderbird, IncrediMail, Eudora, etc. SSL supported only in Outlook and Outlook Express.)
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VIPRE vs BitDefender Antivirus
