Downloads: Download of the day: Panda Free Antivirus

[sincity]

http://cdn.mos.techradar.com/art/DOWNLOADS/Daily%20download/dd-panda-470-75.jpg

Download of the day: Panda Free Antivirus

Security suites are notorious for being bloated programs that slow your PC to a crawl. Panda Free Antivirus is different – it does all its heavy processing in the cloud, so you'll barely notice it's there.

http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/art/DOWNLOADS/roundups/DownloadButtonSmall-266-100.jpgIts virus detection rates are superb as well; in independent tests by virus lab AV-TEST it achieved near-perfect scores against known threats and zero-day attacks.

Best of all, because it's cloud-based, Panda Free Antivirus doesn't require daily database updates, meaning you're never left vulnerable in between downloads.

Why you need it

You might not realise at first, but Panda Free Antivirus begins scanning as soon as it's installed to ensure your PC is protected immediately. You can also perform three types of manual scan:

• Full, which does a thorough analysis of your whole system.
• Critical areas, which checks your PC's memory, currently running processes and cookies to check for any currently active viruses.
• Custom, which lets you choose which directories to scan.

The suite's other tools include a process monitor, which lets you see active processes and whether they are using a secure connection. Processes that don't are blocked, but you can undo this manually if you're confident it's safe.

There's also a handy vaccination tool that checks attached USB drives for malicious software. We recommend changing the settings so it runs automatically to pick up any threats as soon as possible.

If one of your PCs has been locked by a malicious program, Panda Free Antivirus can create an emergency rescue USB drive that you can use to scan the affected machine. This feature uses Panda Cloud Cleaner – a specialist scanner that detects viruses and malware other scanners might miss.

All of of these options are presented in a clear dashboard, with moveable tiles that you can customize to suit your preferences or remove if you never use a particular feature.

Key features

• Cloud-based virus scanning
• Process monitor
• USB device vaccination
• Emergency rescue media

Works on

Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10

Price

• Panda Free Antivirus – Free
• Panda Internet Security – £27.99 (US$34.99, AU$69.99) per PC per year
• Panda Global Protection – £34.99 (US$48.99, AU$87.49) per PC per year
• Panda Gold Protection – £55.99 (US$66.49, AU$125.99) per PC per year

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/software-news/~4/JaAZ2awhjus