Bitdefender has released the first public beta of Bitdefender Total Security 2014, its high-end security suite.

And while the new edition doesn’t offer any revolutionary changes, there are enough additions and enhancements to make it interesting.

Bitdefender themselves are highlighting the suite’s “adaptive scanning technology”, which apparently “visibly improves speed and performance in a matter of hours by gradually molding to your PC”.

The new Wallet fills a gap in the previous editions by storing your user names and passwords, then automatically filling them in for you.

A weekly Security Report sums up what’s happened in the past seven days, highlights anything you need to do, tells you about unused modules, and more.

The spam filter is now fully cloud-based, cutting system impact and improving detection rates. Or so Bitdefender claim; the filter didn’t appear to be working at all on our system, although whether that’s a genuine bug, a local issue for us, or we’re just missing something, isn’t yet clear.

Parental controls are significantly enhanced (you get full HTTPS as well as HTTP coverage, for instance), while the Safepay online banking environment stores your logons even more securely via the new wallet.

And of course you also get all the features from previous editions: the antivirus engine, smart firewall, browsing protection, privacy tools, online backup system, anti-theft service, and more.

Total Security's interface is virtually unchanged in this new release

The beta comes in the form of a very small download, which insists that you remove any other antivirus packages you might have installed, and then scans your PC, while simultaneously downloading and scanning the rest of the package. This took a very long time for us, but be patient, it does complete eventually.

Once the program fires up you’re prompted to register. Just select “I don’t have a key, I want to try the product for free” and Click Next.

The “Configure Behaviour” dialog gives you a chance to turn the program’s “Auto Pilot” and “Automatic Game mode” off. Essentially this just means you’ll get more prompts, though, so for now we’d accept the defaults and click Next.

Next, you’re prompted to activate the installation via your Bitdefender account. If you have one, enter your details as usual and click “Login to MyBitdefender”. If you don’t, either click “Create a new account” and follow the instructions, or sign in via your Facebook, Google or Microsoft accounts.

With that done, click Explore on the beta dialog box and you’ll be able to set up the new Bitdefender Wallet feature. Which isn’t exactly difficult: all you have to do is set up a new database, and enter a password.

And, finally, that’s it. If you tried Bitdefender 2013 then you’ll recognise the interface, which hasn’t really changed, so just click the various icons on Bitdefender’s gadget and give the system a try.

Please note, though, this is a beta and there are some significant bugs. As we write, for instance, the Auto Update button gets turned off when the system performs an update. Check the beta home page for more, but just keep in mind that you shouldn’t use the suite as your main security for long – it’s just not reliable enough yet (which is also why the build will expire after 60 days).

Still, if you do stick with Total Security 2014 then Bitdefender are offering a few prizes for the most active beta testers, including an HP Envy dv6 laptop, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Google Nexus 10 tablet. Again, the beta page has more.