Panda Cloud Antivirus

I've recently borrowed back my laptop from my younger sister.  She had fallen victim to some nasty malware on her laptop, so I loaned her mine while I worked on hers. After getting it back I decided to start out with a fresh image of my own. For antivirus this time around, I chose Panda Cloud Antivirus. I've known about Panda for several months now. I would have started using it earlier but the program did not support Windows Vista or Windows 7 until recently. Panda works a little bit differently compared to most antivirus programs that we have become accustomed to. While most antivirus programs download a set of virus definitions and then filter through all the files on your computer comparing them to these definitions, Panda does this in real-time by off loading most of it's processing to servers over the internet. Without getting too technical, this means two things for you. First, your computer will run faster because Panda uses less than typical system resources to run. Secondly, you should be protected from new viruses as they emerge at a faster rate than with a traditional antivirus program. Now this method of malware protection sounds golden in theory, however I am not sure how effective it is yet. It is still a fairly new product, but I think it has a lot of potential. The best part about it, is that right now you can get it for free from http://www.cloudantivirus.com/. Just be sure to uninstall any old antivirus programs first as they may conflict.

What I like:

• Fast download and install of the client (Around 5 min. total for me)


• Easy to understand user interface


• Automatically detects and removes malware


• Automatically updates


• Small footprint on system


• Offloads scanning to the internet


• Reporting tab that displays types of threats detected

What I don't like:

• It hasn't been around long and not sure on it's reliability yet


• Rotten eggs