Panda Free Antivirus

For a program that finds viruses and threats on your computer without taking up a lot of hard drive space, few can compare to Panda Antivirus.

A good antivirus suite, internet browser protection and scanning software will go a long way towards keeping your computer secure. Most browsers today come with basic tools that will help you identify potentially dangerous websites. Chrome, Firefox, and others will notify you of issues found on certain sites and keep you from loading those sites. An antivirus suite will add to the protection that you have. You'll also need scanning software like Panda Antivirus to locate and identify threats on your computer.

Most of the programs that you find today will work great but also require a lot of hard drive space. Panda Antivirus places only a small amount of files on your computer and sends the rest of its necessary files to the cloud. While this does save on storage space and will keep your computer from running slowly, it also means that you need an internet connection when performing a scan.

Its scans come in two different types. The optimized scan is the best because it will check all folders and look at hidden files on your computer. Programs and games that you download off the web can contain hidden files that scour your computer for private information and viruses that limit what you can do. It also comes with an other scan feature that lets you select the exact files and folders you want to check.

Once the scan completes, Panda Antivirus will show you a full list of what it discovered and all the files that it blocked from running on your computer. It also comes with a USB vaccine tool that lets you search your flash drives for potentially dangerous files. As with the full scan, Panda Antivirus will identify and block those files.

While it does a great job of checking computer files, Panda Antivirus lacks features that identify email threats and online threats. Other programs come with features that keep you from accessing dangerous sites or opening harmful email links. You also cannot set up times or schedule automatic scanning of files with this program like you can with others. Panda Antivirus offers some great benefits for those who need a simple antivirus scanning program.

Pros:

• Takes up less hard drive space because of cloud storage
• Scans all visible and hidden files and folder for threats
• Includes a tool for scanning USB drives
• Gives you a list and detailed information about all threats identified
• Blocks dangerous apps, files, and programs from running

Cons:

• Cannot schedule scans ahead of time
• Must have a connection to the internet before scanning
• Does not identify dangerous sites or links found online
• Lacks features for scanning your email
• Is only a free trial version of the full program