(The following is a paid post.) I installed a new antivirus/antispyware tool today: VIPRE Antivirus Software from Sunbelt Software Inc. I’ve had compatibility issues with Symantec on Windows Vista at my office, so when I had the chance to review a new antivirus tool it seemed like a nice idea. Below is my step-by-step experience with the VIPRE 15-day free trial.
After installing VIPRE, I was prompted to restart my machine. After rebooting, I ran my first scan (Active Protection was not yet turned on). A relatively quick 4 minutes 19 seconds later and I was alerted to a handful of items that VIPRE recommended I either quarantine or remove. So far things are looking good! The scan is much faster than AdAware, though I can’t tell if looking into my registries or not (I have AdAware set to deep scan my computer).
Selecting all of the items found by VIPRE, I hit “Clean”. I am immediately met by a pop-up saying the software found “a risk while performing a quick scan. A deep scan is recommended for any more traces of this risk.” Aha – an answer to my above question. I hit “Yes” and VIPRE goes back to work.
75 minutes later. . . my deep scan is done. No other risks have been found. This scan took way longer than I had anticipated, though it’s about as time consuming as a deep AdAware scan. Between the two tools, I don’t know if I could say that one does a better job than the other. In any case, I do like the VIPRE interface.
My next task is to try the “Active Protection” feature, which Sunbelt claims is “high-performance security that doesn’t slow your computer down like older, traditional antivirus programs.” Running my computer for a few hours with this turned on didn’t seem to slow it down any, though I haven’t really tried to do anything out of the ordinary.
As for other cool features, I discovered a “Secure File Eraser” feature which claims to completely eliminate all traces of a file deleted from your computer (not recoverable with special data-recovery utilities). I enabled this feature, and began deleting some test files. As far as I can tell this feature works – then again, I’m certainly not a forensic computer scientist so don’t take my word as gospel on this. The files don’t appear in my recycling bin. . . so I’ll just consider them removed permanently.
Overall, I’d give this product a B+.
As for cost, I’d have to say that $29.95 for a single computer (there are also other licensing options) for one year sounds like a fine deal. Other antivirus programs can be several times that cost, and VIPRE seems to do a fine job. Consider this product “recommended”.
About Arthur Kay 
