Panda Cloud Antivirus Review

This Panda Cloud Antivirus review explores the latest advancements in the most current version, v1.1.

The antivirus industry is struggling under the ever-growing database-style virus checking paradigm. The quantity of viruses continues to grow at a substantial rate. It's impractical to expect antivirus software to continue with the current signature-based technology.

Enter cloud computing. Cloud computing abandons the concept that all information is accessed from one's local computer. Rather, processing becomes location-independent and, in Panda's case, utilizes the Internet to gather database information and performs scans from a remote server. In the event a network connection is not available, Panda contains its own database with signatures for common viruses.

Panda Cloud Antivirus is a free download, although a Pro version is also offered at $29.95. The Pro version provides 24/7 support, behavioral analysis of processes that are running, and USB vaccination that protects from autorun malware. One feature that's welcome between both versions is there is no advertising.

For v1.1, Panda's developers maintained its minimalistic graphical user interface (GUI) and added additional options that includes an advanced configuration section. This portion of the GUI enables a user to set behavioral detection settings and set other aspects of the application's functionality. User's should tread with caution in this area and, on the outset, just use the program defaults.

The scan process has also been enhanced. Rather than initially only scan the most logical areas where potential viruses or malware may reside, Panda can be set to do a full-system scan through a predefined, user-selected set of folders. Predefined scans are configured with the assistance of a window that enables the user to select folders Panda will scan.

In addition to the Scan function on the GUI, Panda also provides a Report button that launches a window that displays a pie chart showing scan results. The chart displays eight possible result elements: viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, dialers, jokes, and Others. Quantities are displayed beside each label.

The final icon on the main program GUI is the Recycle Bin. This icon does exactly what its name implies; it displays all items Panda located and trashed. Items can be restored or permanently deleted. The Recycle Bin also displays what Panda calls Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs). The presence of PUPs gives reason why items are placed in the Recycle Bin and not permanently deleted. Panda gives the user the power to delete or restore items in the Recycle Bin.

The benefits of Panda's cloud computing can be seen when a potentially dangerous executable is located. Panda blocks the potential offending program from executing until the Collective Intelligence Servers (CIS) are contacted. The CIS provide validation of the program before it runs and possibly causes damage. The default span of time allowed to wait for the CIS to respond is 30 seconds, although this time period can be configured to any duration between 10 and 60 seconds.

The new version of Panda Cloud Antivirus uses a little more resources than prior versions with CPU usage and RAM being a little more heavily utilized. Regardless of this increase in system usage, it doesn't place too heavy a demand on system resources.

This Panda Cloud Antivirus review focused primarily on the functional aspects of the program. The positive aspect of this program—the database—is located on Panda servers. This enables the most up-to-date information being used while still supporting a database on the local computer. The negative aspect of the program is the limited configuration options for paying users. For those using the Freeware version of the program, they have a lot to look forward to and enjoy.