A closer look at Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition

Panda Cloud Antivirus (v.1.1.2) consists of a lightweight antivirus agent that is connected in real-time to PandaLabs’ online Collective Intelligence servers for a faster protection against the newest malware variants and an almost unnoticeable impact on PC performance.

It’s an antivirus, antispyware and anti-rootkit solution, disables Autorun on your PC, blocks new and unknown threats based on their behaviour.

The installation process is a breeze – just choose the language you want and see if you want to install the Panda Security Toolbar with additional security tools and Identity Protection.

The welcome screen:

As you can see, it’s extremely simplistic: Scan, Statistics, Recycle Bin on the top, and a Settings button on the lower right corner.

Choose between these scan options:

Go to the Recycle Bin to restore any file you want (but you’ll be warned of the dangers in doing so).

If you try to download a suspicious unknown file or known malware, Panda is there to protect you and deletes automatically the downloaded file:

Check out the Settings for various options and features:

Some are available only if you have the Pro version – you know which they are immediately, because when you try to activate them, a pop-up screen that entices you upgrade to the Pro version will appear.

Advanced settings:

As a side note: if you chose to install the Panda Security Toolbar, you can access further security features:

With a click on a button, you can: download Panda Identity Protect, clear browser data, perform an online scan, check out the weather forecast for your location and add application shortcut buttons to the toolbar.

Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition is a handy little program, easy enough to use for novices, and ideal for low-resources users. It is possible to use it alongside another AV solution, but Panda Security doesn’t recommend it as the two may clash and slow down or fail.