This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Vipre for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
We’re constantly experimenting with different anti-virus and anti-malware protection software on our various PC computers and decided to give Vipre Internet Security a test as part of recently upgrading one of our PCs from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 Preview. Our results: It’s fast, easy and has some nice features that make it an option you should definitely check out.
After years of neglect, Microsoft has its own security software, notably Windows Defender, but since they aren’t purely a security and antivirus company, I’m never quite sure how much I can trust it as a single solution to the alarming range of malicious software, viruses, spyware, malware, etc that’s roaming the Internet and tagging along undetected on email attachments — or even just malicous scripts that snuck into otherwise innocuous newsletters or corporate updates. It’s a jungle out there and doesn’t take long to find new utilities launching on startup, new toolbars in your favorite Web browser and system performance mysteriously bogging down for no apparently reason.
It’s kinda crazy, really, and the fact that we still have to deal with all this decades after the so-called PC revolution, well, that’s something I’ll let y’all discuss in the comments if you’d like to spin your own personal conspiracy theories. I mean, don’t you ever wonder if the anti-virus companies secretly have a team that pushes out new malware just to stay in business? 🙂
More seriously, though, I’ve fielded a ton of complaints about big antivirus apps like Norton, muchly about how to actually remove the application if you decide you don’t want to have it on your PC. They’re sly having the software automatically installed and enabled on new laptops and PCs because it is rather difficult to remove, and not just Norton, that’s true of a number of different programs. The real problem is you learn to ignore its warnings and the virus definitions get increasingly obsolete, so worse than not protect you, it actually makes you more vulnerable because you don’t replace it with a newer, more nimble app like Vipre.
The reality of modern computing software is also that security holes are typically because you have old versions of common Internet tools like Java, Skype and Adobe that have exploits patched by newer versions of the programs but you just haven’t updated them recently. That’s one of the nice features of Vipre, actually, that it includes software patching capability through what it calls the “Easy Update” feature. In essence, it’ll make sure you always have the latest version of these key applications, as well as any pending Windows updates (though I’d recommend you apply those through the Microsoft Windows Update feature).
Vipre Internet Security also has a number of other features I’m not used to seeing in a malware protection program, including an integrated firewall, a spam filter you can use with your favorite email program and a website blocking capability to help you avoid malware Web sites in the first place. Nice.
Let’s have a look!
Start out by downloading the program here: Download Vipre Internet Security.
As with all Windows downloads, not a huge amount happens once it’s done. You just end up with a small download button on the lower left:
Click on it, though, and a menu pops up:
That’s better. Click on “Open” to launch the Vipre Internet Security installer and it’ll prompt you for a product key (if you have one) or you can just click on “Agree and Continue” to proceed:
Now you should be reading the End User License Agreement, but that’s up to you. The program costs $69.99/year for a subscription to the protection dataset that includes firewall updates, spam filtering updates and, of course, antivirus and malware updates. That’s $1.34/week if you counting, or just about the cost of a venti frappaccino at Starbucks each month. 🙂
The program will start downloading and offer up some handy tips as it proceeds:
Alright, maybe I’m being a bit optimistic with “handy tips”. More like “stream of ads”, but still, you can easily ignore it and since the program’s not that large, the download should go pretty quickly anyway.
When it’s done downloading:
Makes sense, since like all programs of its type, Vipre needs to slip code into your Internet and network drivers, etc.
Restart.
By installing Vipre Internet Security I now rock. How can I not like that? 🙂
You can click on the red “x” on the top right of the window if you’d like, and Vipre will work in the background while you basically ignore it. Since we’re on Windows 8, notice it shows up as a new Start Tile on the lower right:
That’s an easy way to access it, so let’s do so and launch the program. You can do that by either clicking (or tapping) on the VIPRE Internet Security icon on the Start screen or using the Search charm off the Windows 8 charms bar and typing in “VIP” to find it.
Either way, the startup screen is pretty self-explanatory:
Your options are listed along the blue toolbar: Scan, Firewall, Manage and Tools. By default, installing the program enables all of its protections, which is nice. No worries if you forget to turn some feature on through an obscure setting or preference change unlike certainly other applications which we won’t name. 🙂
Scanning’s a breeze too, just click on “Scan” then “Start Scanning” and it’ll zip through common target files and the Windows registry (a perpetual source of problems for Windows users for over the last decade. Amazing, really):
That’s all there is to the program. Install it and stop worrying about malware, exploits in older versions of popular apps, DOS or DDOS attacks, botnets, and much more. Oh, and it’s so fast that even when I’m scanning for potential threats I can run other apps without being aware of any performance, disk or CPU impact on the system.
Insert a USB flash drive though, for example, and you’re reminded that it’s there and keeping an eye out for threats:
Since you never know where the next attack is going to originate, it’s smart to have a modern malware protection system that covers all your bases and so far, I have to say that I’m impressed with Vipre Internet Security. Its combination of broad threat coverage and minimal performance impact makes it a breeze to have on your WIndows 8 or earlier PC. Don’t, as they say in the movies, leave home without it.
Vipre Internet Security, $69.99 for a one year subscription.
Dave I have a Vipre problem also. I installed a new version of Vipre Internet Security 2015 and and somehow it doesn’t load with windows! I downloaded it again, installed it & have the same problem!
I then used Revo uninstaller to uninstall Vipre and ran the file I downloaded ( twice) reinstalled Vipre and Have the same no loading problem!
Whats going on ?