VIPRE Internet Security 2014 Beta available for download - Windows 8/7/Vista/XP
VIPRE Internet Security 2014, adds exciting new features and improvements on existing functionality. Here is a summary of what to look for during your beta testing:
Social Watch
- VIPRE Social Watch looks at your Facebook news feed for suspicious posts that contain links to harmful websites. Even good web sites can get hijacked and VIPRE web site filtering technology actively looks for links to known bad web sites. When Social Watch scans your Facebook news feed and messages, it’s hunting for links to bad websites. When one is found Social Watch send you a Facebook app notification that you’ll see on Facebook from any connected device so you can act immediately to hide post. In addition, it’ll post a comment to the item to warn others of the danger.
Search Guard
- Another feature that leverages VIPRE’s near-real time web site filtering is Search Guard. This add-on for Internet Explorer includes a toolbar that gives you the status of the website you are currently visiting. When you use the major search engines, such as Google or Bing, VIPRE checks each and every result and puts a badge next to it. The red badge with an “x” inside tells you when that particular web site is known to be malicious. Another badge is used for the other results to indicate that they were checked as well. If you try to go to a known bad site, VIPRE Search Guard will warn you, giving an added layer of protection when you’re surfing the web. Search Guard automatically installs add-ons for Internet Explorer (version 7 and newer). Add-ons for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome will be made available after the release of VIPRE 2014.
Improved Installation Experience
The VIPRE Setup program is what fetches, installs, and configures VIPRE for your particular computer. Last year we added conflicting software detection and removal. Based on customer feedback, we made a number of improvements:
Auto Updating Setup
- VIPRE Setup will check to see if it – the installation program itself – is up-to-date, and if not, download the latest version and use it. In addition, if run from media or a network location, VIPRE Setup will copy itself to the local computer and run from there.
Product Key Validation
- VIPRE Setup will now check for a valid product key when installing. This is helpful for when you mis-type the product key. You can still install without a product key, but now you are warned that you’ll be in a trial mode until a key is provided.
More Informative, Less Intimidating
- We removed a lot of the graphics in VIPRE Setup to focus on the text. In addition, VIPRE Setup is more informative as to what it’s doing at that moment. We’ve broken up major stages of installation into individual steps to more clearly show that’s being done, what the progress is, and what else will be happening.
Guided Uninstall Of Suspected Security Software
- Last year, VIPRE Setup introduced Easy Install, which would check for existing antivirus and security products and automatically remove them to prevent conflicts. Even with this technology, there is still software that cannot be removed automatically. In those cases, we search for likely security software and present a list. For 2014, VIPRE Setup unifies the experience, and makes it easier to understand at each step. VIPRE Setup will now open the uninstall program for you to complete the removal of the other security software. We also offer the option of launching a Live Chat session with VIPRE Technical Support.
Known Issues
As this is a pre-release preview of VIPRE 2014, there are areas of incomplete functionality and problems. Here are some known issues with this release:
Search Guard Incompatible with Internet Explorer’s Enhanced Protected Mode
- Internet Explorer version 10 introduced Enhanced Protected Mode to prevent rogue toolbars and add-ons from causing problems on the computer. Unfortunately, this mode prevents many existing add-ons, including VIPRE Search Guard from working. IE10 has Enhanced Protected Mode turned off by default. IE11 in the Windows 8.1 Preview, and the IE11 Preview for Windows 7 has Enhanced Protected Mode turned on by default. You will be warned on installation that VIPRE Search Guard is incompatible with Enhanced Protected Mode. If you receive this warning, turn off Enhanced Protected Mode by going to IE’s Internet Options. From the Advanced tab, deselect Enhanced Protected Mode in the Security group. You will need to fully close Internet Explorer and restart for this to take effect.
International Support
- This release is for North American English.
Windows Requirements
- This release of VIPRE requires Windows XP Service Pack 3 and will no longer install on Windows XP Service Pack 2. We’d also like to remind our customers that Microsoft will end all support for Windows XP in April 2014. This will mean no security updates. The VIPRE product team strongly recommends moving to the latest versions of Windows to help with the security of your digital life. Additionally, VIPRE 2014 requires the .NET Framework version 4.0 or newer. VIPRE Setup will automatically check for, and download if needed, the correct version of the .NET Framework if not already present on the computer.
