Sunbelt Software is mainly known for its business anti-virus products, but it also continues to offer its Vipre security product for home computers.

The version we’re looking at, Vipre Antivirus Premium, combines anti-virus, anti-spyware, a firewall and email protection to offer a straightforward way to protect against most internet threats, and we were impressed with what it had to offer.

Installation was fast and easy and after we restarted the computer a setup wizard appeared, to guide us through the process of setting up the email protection, choosing a default mode for the firewall to determine how often it interrupts what’s going on (to confirm whether new programs are allowed to access the internet).

Finally it gave us the opportunity to view a demonstration of the software’s main features. During this time it also retrieved the latest updates to ensure we were protected against the most recent threats: by the time you get to the main program display it’s safely up and running.

That interface was extremely clear, showing the status of the various components with a reassuring green tick or red cross for those that need attention. You’ll also see a summary of previous scan results and a ‘worldwide threat level’, which offers a quick summary of whether any major new threats are doing the rounds.

A range of tabs offers more access to main tools and these are presented cleanly to offer the most useful features first, with advanced controls buried deeper for those who need them.

While scans aren’t the fastest (it took longer to scan our test system than most of its rivals) it’s extremely light on resources so we noticed little or no slowing down of our computer during the scanning process. Although support is based in the US it is possible to have a live text conversation online with one of the company’s support staff.

We were impressed by Vipre Antivirus Premium, which was easy to use and went about its job quietly without interrupting or taking up resources. It only works on one computer, so if that’s all you have it’s good value, but those with two or more might look to alternatives that can be installed on multiple PCs.