App Review [Malware Geek] Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition Review

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Evjl's Rain

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Compare to Windows Defender which is better?

The review below says
  • So-so malware protection
  • Aggressive upsell ads
  • Wants to change home page and search engine
  • Won't let you opt out of data collection
Panda Free Antivirus: Not the Worst

Hmmmm.......not good, right?
IMO, panda has better signatures (cloud is included), so-so web protection and far better performance, behavior blocker is very weak and close to non-existent, web filter slows down the internet speed
WD has better behavior blocker, not so good offline signatures, cloud is good, much more performance impact, noticeable on machines using slow HDDs

therefore, IMO, I give WD an upper hand
 

TairikuOkami

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  • Aggressive upsell ads
  • Wants to change home page and search engine
ADs can be disabled. There is no reason for a slow Panda Advisor. All browsers have built-in malware filtering, not to mention additional by anti-AD extensions .

I would pick Panda over WD any day, actually I did for other PCs (it is light, cloud based and no BSODs).
 

Evjl's Rain

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ADs can be disabled. There is no reason for a slow Panda Advisor. All browsers have built-in malware filtering, not to mention additional by anti-AD extensions .

I would pick Panda over WD any day, actually I did for other PCs (it is light, cloud based and no BSODs).
agree. WD is too heavy for my taste. Almost destroyed my HDD with too many system unresponses during 2 weeks of testing
panda is good but I don't think it's good enough as a standalone AV in the hand of average users. They may end up infecting their PCs, same for WD. For Mt users, not a problem cuz everyone has a secondary protection product
avast is better although the company is creating more bugs in new versions and the default settings are not light. Needs to be tweaked for better performance
 
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HarborFront

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Neither, you have multiple better free options such as 360Qihoo, Kaspersky Free, Avast and Avira.
Tried 360QiHoo TSE but updates only twice a day....no good!
Kaspersky Free's GUI is unresponsive to my finger touch on screen....so off it goes
Avira......heard it install some kind of toolbar.......not acceptable
Avast Free....pretty good....but I'm going for cloud-based AV with no sigs download. Currently, using WD
 
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HarborFront

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IMO, panda has better signatures (cloud is included), so-so web protection and far better performance, behavior blocker is very weak and close to non-existent, web filter slows down the internet speed
WD has better behavior blocker, not so good offline signatures, cloud is good, much more performance impact, noticeable on machines using slow HDDs

therefore, IMO, I give WD an upper hand
For web protection I have HMPA and some extensions to do the job. Does the Panda cloud-based AV FREE installs a web filter? Can remove the web filter or disable it? Yes, would be the best.

Moreover, it comes with a USB detection (not vaccination). Definitely don't like

  • Wants to change home page and search engine - Can prevent this?
  • Won't let you opt out of data collection
 
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Bleak

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Tried 360QiHoo TSE but updates only twice a day....no good!
Kaspersky Free's GUI is unresponsive to my finger touch on screen....so off it goes
Avira......heard it install some kind of toolbar.......not acceptable
Avast Free....pretty good....but I'm going for cloud-based AV with no sigs download. Currently, using WD
360 less updates doesn't make it a bad product imo, I'd say it theoretically could be getting the engines updates as a one package from a full day updates of either BD or Avira. 360 also has their own cloud which usually catches what other engines couldn't. In my own tests I found out that 360 is the lightest also provides the better protection from that list.
 
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Evjl's Rain

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For web protection I have HMPA and some extensions to do the job. Does the Panda cloud-based AV FREE installs a web filter? Can remove the web filter or disable it? Yes, would be the best.

Moreover, it comes with a USB detection (not vaccination). Definitely don't like

  • Wants to change home page and search engine - Can prevent this?
  • Won't let you opt out of data collection
HMPA does not give you much of web protection. It just isolates the browser and prevent some exploits but significantly increases the CPU usage of the browser
panda web filter can be uninstalled via control panel
I don't know about search engine modification. Maybe you can uncheck during installation

if you want a fully cloud AV, I can recommend you to try secureaplus. Much better signatures than panda + an anti-exe
panda is OK as a cloud based AV
 
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HarborFront

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HMPA does not give you much of web protection. It just isolates the browser and prevent some exploits nut significantly increases the CPU usage of the browser
panda web filter can be uninstalled via control panel
I don't know about search engine modification. Maybe you can uncheck during installation

if you want a fully cloud AV, I can recommend you to try secureaplus. Much better signatures than panda + an anti-exe
panda is OK as a cloud based AV
I used SAP before. The problem is the connection with their server. Very slow tested last time and their Windows processes are all whitelisted by default
 

amico81

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i have used panda internet security for a long time. it's light and good signatures with cloud.
But the behavior blocker is crap.
Web protection is agressive.
My combo was Panda IS with Zemana (Realtime+ Pandora)
ok their support forum could be better
 

TairikuOkami

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avast is better although the company is creating more bugs in new versions and the default settings are not light. Needs to be tweaked for better performance
I have tried Avast multiple times, but even with just file shield and no cloud whatsoever, BSODs are pretty much as expected as the rain in the rainforest. :(
 

Emmanuellws

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as much as I love Panda Adaptive Defense 360, their Antivirus alone is not my favorite.IMO "Adaptive Defense" is their master...and Panda Free Av or Cloud AV is their PAWN to help achieve their big data compilation of goodware and malware - this is where the "Collect Data" feature is in the Free AV kicks in and contribute to the Adaptive Defense database. They focus very much in this area which also contributes to their AV signature database. Adaptive Defense itself is a database of files including not just executable but also everything including .dat, .dll, .ocx, .bat, .js, .vbs, .wsf scripts and more and even files without any extension, that will or have been classified as Goodware, malware, hacktools, PUP. It wll not leave any files behind regardless of extension or type. Good news is, Adaptive Defense can be installed without its own AV, but can also be installed along with any of your favorite AV. I always love the idea of install ESET NODE32 with Panda Adaptive Defense to complete my own protection. For the 100% detection and lowest FP in AV-comparatives recently, I am not surprised as I suspect all the malware they tested were already classified earlier by Adaptive Defense Users which gives the Panda Free Av an edge with lowest FP...else...it would have been high FP and requires a lot of user interaction - this is where AV-comparatives seperate AV with highest detection and an AV that has blocked a lot of files and requires user interactions.
 

HarborFront

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I installed free Panda AV and did a complete scan. When the scan was completed it said my drive is vaccinated. Now, what does that means?

It reminds me of its vaccination feature for removable USB devices. If you need to unvaccinate the removable USB drive you'll need to go through a tedious process, short of reformatting it, for it does not come with an unvaccinate feature.

For my laptop does that means if I uninstall the free Panda AV my drives still remain vaccinated?

Anyone knows? Thanks
 
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monkeylove

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Panda slowed down my system, and popup ads appeared with free versions of other software. I think WD still does not do well in ratings, so I am using Bitdefender Free, although a popup ad from it appeared recently.
 
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Pat MacKnife

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Panda slowed down my system, and popup ads appeared with free versions of other software. I think WD still does not do well in ratings, so I am using Bitdefender Free, although a popup ad from it appeared recently.
Did you go in settings BD free, account info -> Disable ads notifications.
 

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