Kaspersky Pure, the new all-in-one package reviewed

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Kaspersky Pure is a new all-in-one package from the anti-malware veterans, combining security with backup, parental control and tune-up modules. At first glance it looks like an attempt to hop on the Norton 360 bandwagon, but as the seemingly clean front-end opens up into a rabbit's warren of subpanes showing statistics and configuration options, you realise it's a more complex beast.

The practical emphasis is different too. There's no online storage for the backup module, but Kaspersky has placed a greater focus on privacy: as well as the expected password manager, you get a virtual keyboard designed to defeat keyloggers, a file shredder and 128-bit AES encryption as well.

Kaspersky's idea of "tune-up" isn't the usual Registry-cleaning trick. Rather, it's a security and privacy audit, which suggests changes such as wiping system logs, showing file extensions in Windows Explorer (to prevent file-type spoofing), and setting your browser to empty its cache when closed. It's a one-off diagnostic, but more worthwhile than the wizards bundled with Norton 360.

Parental controls allow you to prevent specified users from accessing certain categories of website, and ban or time-restrict specific applications (or, indeed, the entire computer). There's little here that Windows 7 can't do, however.

The malware detection and firewall modules are the same as Kaspersky's Internet Security 2010 suite, and retain useful features such as the "Safe Run" sandbox for unknown applications, and the highly technical Digital Identity browser that lets you browse and clean up data in your Registry.

In this month's malware tests, Pure's performance failed to quite match the Nortons and Aviras of this world, but kept up a credible 90% detection rate.

Creditably, Kaspersky Pure's RAM footprint of 73MB was the lowest of this month's three packages. When it comes to security, though, it remains a silver-medallist, and the price is high.