Kaspersky Free Antivirus - Pro's & Con's

[jackuars]

With respect to the Free Antivirus of the Year 2017 competition, we've a thread series where users of the various products will be joining together to state the Pro's and Con's of each antivirus software and why they think it was a contender or not for the Free Antivirus of the Year 2017.

In this thread we'll talk about the Pro's and Con's you have found about Kaspersky Free Antivirus. It achieved the Second Spot in the Poll conducted recently.

The first post will be updated by me [or the mods] with what user's think is good and bad about the product, so an informed decision can be made for newcomers.

Related Threads:
Avast Free Antivirus - Pro's & Con's

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THE PRO'S
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THE CON'S
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[Tibro]

Hello,

I'm really like kaspersky products, but sometimes get me angry
So what you ask:

Pro:
- Light on system (yes in fact it is)
- Good signatures
- Really good Cloud
- Good virus removal ability
- Good web protect

Cons:
- No behavior block (but has heuristic)
- Ads sometimes
- Good alternative of Windows Defender but not paid or other free AV.
- Protection is good enough just for advanced users only i think.

 

[Sunshine-boy]

All Pano said plus clean GUI, some bonus security and useful features like port scanning and the last one is Disinfection Technology(dr.web also have but others don't) your av is useless against some malware like NESHTA.A while Kaspersky can get back your files

 

[Syafiq]

CONS: No System Watcher(Because It's a free version)
PROS: Great Signatures(Not Delayed), Great Cloud detection system, Beautiful UI look, No ADS, It has an Advanced Disinfection Technology, Light on decent systems
That's all, I think

 

[omidomi]

the only cons is "no system watcher" , btw its great

 

[Andy Ful]

PROS: 0-hour protection = Kaspersky Security Network (KSN).
If one computer is infected (when using KSN) then in most cases after some minutes all the rest are protected.
This feature is not turned on in default settings and requires the user consent (additional telemetry).

 

[shmu26]

I found that Kaspersky free had compatibility issues with certain software, just like KIS did.
For instance, Dropbox desktop. With Dropbox, the issue is solvable by making exclusions, but not all compatibility issues are so simple.

 

[bribon77]

I think it's great.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

I think Pano almost said everything I wanted to say
I just add

Pros:
- although it's free but it's still very customizable for a little bit better protection or better performance depend on our taste.
- The exclusion settings are extremely good that we can exclude something from a specific module or all modules, which is lacking in many other top AVs
- the reports are really detail and clear which make diagnosis for threats or bugs much easier especially for more advanced users

Cons:
- extremely slow scanning speed ~ more thorough but more waiting time -> with the same amount of time, we can finish the scans of ZAM, HMP & NPE
- impacts copying speed more than other AVs (still better than Windows Defender)
- some certificate problems with some browsers (firefox) -> can be fixed

 

[dinosaur07]

No CONS for me only PRO as this is the free version and you won`t pay a penny.

 

[Ink]

First time experience with Kaspersky Free Antivirus on Windows 10. The Pro's have been mentioned above such as "it's great" without a reason, so you'll have to take their word on it.

However, I found it to be a slight disappointment that Kaspersky would think it is OK to silently install another free Kaspersky product, without clear user consent.

• Kaspersky Secure Connection is provided by Hotspot Shield - a VPN service.
  
• Limited to 200 MB for the free user
• Works with KSN
  
• Past controversy around AnchorFree's Hotspot Shield
  • Aug, 2017 - Hotspot Shield VPN Reported to FTC For Alleged Privacy Breaches - TorrentFreak

It's not all bad news as it can be uninstalled without affecting Kaskersky Free Antivirus.

 

[jackuars]

Summing up the points above:

THE PRO'S:

• Light on system
• Clean GUI
• Good signatures
• Really good cloud feature
• Strong virus removal abillity
• Web protection
• Port scaninng
• Disinfection technology
• 0 hour protection (KSN) - requires user consent
• Customizable for better protection/performance
• Very good exclusion settings to exclude from specific module/all modules
• Clear & detailed reports making diagnosis easier for threats & bugs

THE CONS:

• No behavioural blocking- system watcher (but has heuristics)
• Extremely slow scanning speed (but thorough)
• Impacts copying speed more than other antiviruses (better than WD)
• Certificate problems with Firefox (can be fixed)
• Compatibility issues (eg.Dropbox desktop) - can be solved by exclusion
  
• Installs Kaspersky Secure Connection without clear user consent
• Ads sometimes
• Good alternative to WD but not some free ones
• Protection mostly good for advanced users

 

[Allena]

Pros:
Defends against viruses, ransomware & more
Lets your PC perform… as it’s meant to
Simplifies security – with online control
As part of its safe banking tools, Kaspersky Anti-Virus has an on-screen keyboard.

Cons: In some third-party tests, this program taxed computer resources, which created lag

 

[Richard Bell]

With respect to the Free Antivirus of the Year 2017 competition, we've a thread series where users of the various products will be joining together to state the Pro's and Con's of each antivirus software and why they think it was a contender or not for the Free Antivirus of the Year 2017.

In this thread we'll talk about the Pro's and Con's you have found about Kaspersky Free Antivirus. It achieved the Second Spot in the Poll conducted recently.

The first post will be updated by me [or the mods] with what user's think is good and bad about the product, so an informed decision can be made for newcomers.

Related Threads:
Avast Free Antivirus - Pro's & Con's

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THE PRO'S
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE CON'S
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First BitDefender now Kaspersky....And both are adware free.

Pretty interesting

A quick look at the product, it just looks like the paid version with certain components disabled, unlike BitDefender Free which is a totally different product and pretty lightweight.

Sadly the resource usage might be the same, the web shield consuming the most RAM. There is no Behavioural Blocker (BB) component of the paid version which is the System Watcher.

All this said, it's still a very good freebie and definitely better than Avira & Windows Defender at the moment.

Avast still offer good features compare to Avira

 

[drakester]

There is no Behavioural Blocker (BB) component of the paid version which is the System Watcher.

2019 now includes System Watcher
About Kaspersky Free

 

[DDE_Server]

2019 now includes System Watcher
About Kaspersky Free

oh yeah thats good

 

[Evjl's Rain]

KFA 2019 does have almost all features of KAV (paid) now
however, users are no longer able to configure it. They can only change a few settings in other tabs

System watcher is present in the free version but I'm not sure if it's working or it's the exact same module compared to the paid versions

exploit protection and network attack blocker are also present :X3:
these 2 modules blocked nonpetya's exploit when it came

 

[cruelsister]

It has also improved greatly in the area of detecting and reversing pre-existing infections on a system; so many other products are oblivious to nasties already on a system. One must take this into account...

 

[RejZoR]

I always liked to bump heuristics to High for all modules. Won't be able to do that anymore At least we got System Watcher. Any info on when KFA 19 is going to be released?

 

[harlan4096]

KFA2019 is already out

Index of /homeuser/kfa2019/