14 DAY TRIAL // Kaspersky is currently in the advanced stages of cooking of its next iterations of security products. Designed to succeed Kaspersky 7.0 (dropped in 2007) to the market, the Kaspersky 8.0 line-up of products have slowly made their way through the milestones of the development process and are approaching the final stage. The Russian-based security company has so far failed to reveal when it plans to wrap up with Kaspersky 8.0, but as of April 16, new releases can be grabbed for a test-drive.
However, it seems that Kaspersky has managed to diverge from the natural steps of the building process. After it dropped Kaspersky Anti-Virus Build 8.0.0.310 RC1 and Kaspersky Internet Security Build 8.0.0.310 RC1 at the end of March 2008, Kaspersky moved onward toward Release Candidate 2. In the second week of April, pre-Release Candidate 2 (Build 8.0.0.329) versions of both Kaspersky Anti-Virus 8.0 and Internet Security 8.0 were up for grabs by testers. Mid-April, instead of delivering the full Release Candidate 2 variants of Kaspersky 8.0 security solutions, has apparently turned back in time all the way to the Beta stage.
Testers are now able to download Kaspersky Anti-Virus Build 8.0.0.337 Beta and Internet Security Build 8.0.0.337 Beta. Furthermore, it seems that the latest testing releases of Kaspersky 8.0 are in Russian. But where there's a will there's a way. And there is a way to switching the language to English.
"So I guess everbody knows how to click next next next during the installer, afterwards shift+f12 allows you access the english configuration wizard. After the restart, and answering some annoying popups open the main interface, change it to english (shift+f12), then disable the self defense in settings > Service. Exit KIS and open regedit. navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE KasperskyLab protected AVP8 environment and change the localization from ru to en. Start KIS back up & enable self defense," revealed Kaspersky's Lucian Bara.
Kaspersky Internet Security 8.0.0.337 Beta is available for download here. Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal 8.0.0.337 Beta can be downloaded via this link.
The product keys designed to activate the two products can be found here. Both KIS and KAV 8.0 are free during the development process. This will change once the final product comes out.