Kaspersky Internet Security (2016)

The uncrowded main window of Kaspersky Internet Security (2016) makes it easy to launch a scan or check for updates. If there's any trouble, the status banner across the top changes color and offers a link for details.

You can turn over a dozen security components on and off from the main settings page, or click any link to dig in for more detailed settings.

Kaspersky assigns a trust level to every application, Trusted, Low Restricted, High Restricted, or Untrusted. As you would expect, the worse the trust level, the more restrictions on what the application can do.

In testing, no exploits managed to compromise the test system's security. Kaspersky actively identified about 40 percent of the attacks, in some cases using the official CVE exploit number.

Kaspersky's spam filter uses a very simple slide control to determine how aggressively it should analyze incoming mail. For testing purposes, we left it at the default level.

The main antispam settings page warns that only expert users should tweak the advanced settings, shown here. The one thing ordinary users might want to do is configure the blocked sender list and allowed sender list.

Kaspersky's parental control system can be configured separately for each Windows user account. It's significantly more comprehensive than what's found in most suites.

Parents can define when computer use is permitted using a simple weekday/weekend scheme (shown here) or a full-week grid. There's also an option to limit total computer time per day, and to enforce period breaks from computer use.

Among the parental control system's many features is an option to limit use of computer games based on their ESRB rating, or on specific ESRB tags such as Nudity or Use of Alcohol.

Clicking Additional Tools on the main window brings up this collection of useful bonus tools, along with real-time charts of firewall activity.

If you wish, you can engage Kaspersky's Private Browsing feature to prevent websites from tracking your online activity.

When it detects that you're about to visit a financial website, Kaspersky's Safe Money feature offers to open it in a browser that's protected against keyloggers, screen scraping, and other forms of outside interference.