VIPRE Internet Security 2012 is a lightweight security suite which, the authors say, aims "to give you everything you need to protect your computer — and nothing you don't."

You don't get endless extras, then. There's no parental controls here, no online backup, no sandboxing. This does help to keep things simple, though, and the program has a good core feature set.

So you get a strong antivirus engine, with both fast on-demand scanning and in-depth real-time protection. An email filter keeps you spam-free, while browsing protection checks your downloads for safety, and prevents you from reaching dangerous websites. The program automatically scans removable drive for threats as they're connected, and an intelligent firewall monitors your network traffic for signs of trouble, but is smart enough to deal with most issues itself, so won't drown you in alerts.

There are a few bonus features, too. A web filter can block ads, scripts, particular cookie types and more, depending on your needs. The PC Explorer enables expert users to monitor low-level details like their PC's Layered Service Providers or shell execute hooks. And you get plenty of configuration options to ensure everything works just as you need.

But perhaps the real benefit of the program is that it doesn't weigh down your PC, even when scanning: CPU usage was minimal, and RAM use on our test PC was generally below 50MB.

Service Release 2 brings these changes:

Fixed issues where the firewall or web filter drivers would hang
Resolve issues with Active Protection
Resolve an issue where incompatibilities with other drivers would result in
Windows shutting down with STOP error
Fixed a service crash during product registration on certain machines


An easy-to-use and capable security suite which makes minimal demands on your system's resources