Review by Matt Morgan

I have been running Kaspersky Pure since version 1.0. I bought a pack of 3-year licenses which led me through upgrades to 2.0 and recently to 3.0. My overall experience with Kaspersky has been favorable; that said, it has presented some challenges along the way. My experience probably would be different had I installed fresh every time, rather than upgrade.

When Pure 3.0 was released I received an upgrade notice and I immediately downloaded the new version. Then, I kicked off the install without reading the instructions which ended up being a very bad mistake. The instructions state that other security suites, including previous versions of Pure, must be uninstalled first, a step I skipped. So, about 75% into the install the installer quit due to open files, leaving the install in an incomplete state. Worse, it corrupted the older version to a point that it could not be uninstalled, nor could 3.0 ever finish proper installation. The result was a system with a completely broken security install that could not be repaired. I am going to reimage that system shortly.

On a different system, I followed the install directions completely and the install was as smooth as could be. The lesson learned from this was to follow the directions, even if common sense says that it should uninstall older versions of itself. I could understand if it clashed with a competing product, but it should at least be smart enough to handle older versions of itself in such a way that the system is not left in a broken state.

Once Pure was properly installed, I have seen no issues. Other reviewers have stated that the product has a bad tendency to turn itself off, but I have not seen this with version 3.0 (though it was definitely an issue with 2.0). I am running Pure 3.0 on a Windows 7 64-bit system. There are enough others complaining of this issue to make it a concern and I have been watching for it but so far the product has remained stable and has not failed me. It’s definitely something to keep in mind, though.

Pure 3.0 looks very much like version 2.0 and has pretty much the same feature set with a few additions. The application’s main interface is a dashboard-style window with access to key features of the suite - backup, computer protection and parental control.

I have not used the backup functionality so I really cannot adequately talk to this feature, though I am glad to know it’s there and may use it down the road. It allows for backing up important personal files such as movies, pictures and documents as well as defining a custom backup filter too. This is not a complete backup solution and is meant to be a way to back up critical data.

The computer protection section of the application provides access to the meat of Pure, including the scanning functions, firewall, anti-spam, anti-banner and more. All of these work together to provide a cleaner and safer computing experience. The two most critical functions, the scanner and the firewall, provide solid protection and so far have never let me down. I especially like the firewall which has passed every test I have been able to throw at it - port scans, file system access attempts and more.

The parental controls module is an important feature to me and so far I have been satisfied. I like that it allows for blocking out times when the network is accessible and it allows for category blocking which makes blocking whole classes of websites very easy. It errs on the side of caution and sometimes prevents access to websites that I regard as acceptable, and I would rather have that issue than have it allow access to objectional content online.

With the exception of the really bad installation issues I saw (which one could argue were my fault for not following directions), my experience with Pure 3.0 has been positive. It has been very stable and it has protected my system nicely. Going on my experience alone I would not hesitate to recommend Pure. Still, there are a number of others who have seen issues with the application turning itself off, enough so that it merits some consideration.