When you launch Vipre's installer, it starts by asking for the product key. Once you click the button to agree with the license agreement, Vipre handles the rest of the installation. It checks for the latest program version and antivirus definitions automatically, then it runs a quick scan for active malware.

(Credit: Vipre)

This suite contains all the malware-fighting tools found in the standalone Vipre Antivirus Plus, Please read that review for a detailed breakdown of how those features performed. I'll summarize my findings here.

Like Vipre's standalone antivirus, the suite’s main window has three tabs: MyVipre, Account, and Manage. A large panel on the MyVipre page offers a simple report on antivirus scans and update statistics; the suite adds Firewall status. Simple buttons let you launch or schedule scans. The Manage tab holds the settings for the various security components. If you don't like the color scheme, which defaults to green and white on dark gray, you can change it on the Account tab. There are six more color themes to choose from, three with a light background, and three with a dark one.

(Credit: Vipre)

I follow four independent antivirus testing labs; Vipre appears in the current results from just one of them. For several years it has scored high enough with AV-Test Institute to receive the rating Top Product. However, Vipre didn’t participate in this lab’s latest test. Of the participating apps, over 60% reach Top Product status, meaning they score either a perfect 18 points or a half-point less.

Austrian lab AV-Comparatives certifies antivirus apps at the Standard level if they pass a test’s minimum requirements, and at the Advanced or Advanced+ levels if they go beyond merely passing. In the three tests I follow, Vipre receives one Advanced+ certification and two Advanced. That’s good, but Avast, AVG Internet Security, and Bitdefender take Advanced+ in all three of the tests.

My aggregate lab score algorithm requires at least two scores as input. With just one, Vipre doesn’t reach that bar. Bitdefender tops all the rest, with a perfect 10 points based on top scores from all four labs. AVG also holds a 10-point aggregate, but this score is based on just two lab scores.

On a standard clean test system, Vipre took close to three hours to complete a full test scan—quite a bit slower than the current average of two hours. Its RapidScan technology, which optimizes the process by identifying programs that don’t need another look, helped it finish a subsequent scan in 21 minutes. RapidScan is enabled by default for on-demand scans, but not for scheduled scans. I advise turning it on for the scheduled weekly full scan and daily quick scan. Fast or slow, I always advise running a full scan after installing any suite or antivirus.

In my hands-on malware protection testing, Vipre scores 7.5 of 10 possible points, the lowest score with my current collection of malware. Bitdefender Internet Security matches that same low score, but its impressive lab test results overshadow that result. Webroot has the best score of apps tested with my current samples, scoring 9.4 points.

Challenged to prevent malware downloading from a collection of URLs recently discovered by the experts at MRG-Effitas, Vipre scores just 58%, a big drop from its previous score of 97%, and one of the lowest scores I’ve recorded in this test. McAfee, Norton, and several others score 100% in MRG-Effitas' malicious URL defense tests.

Unfortunately, that poor detection of dangerous URLs carried over to the phishing protection test. Vipre missed nearly two-thirds of the verified frauds—among the lowest scores for this test. Chrome, Edge, and Firefox all beat its detection rate by more than 50 percentage points. Avast, Trend Micro Internet Security, and ZoneAlarm detect 100% of phishing frauds in their own most recent tests.

The antivirus includes a handy secure deletion tool. If you use it to erase sensitive files, nobody but a forensic expert can recover them. There’s no option to use multiple overwrite passes before deletion, but unless you’re hiding secrets from the NSA, that shouldn’t be an issue.