Panda Free Antivirus is a free antivirus with process monitor, USB rescue disk creation. It’s simple, lightweight free antivirus and provides well rounded protection against all kinds of malware. Besides powerful real-time antivirus protection, Panda Free Antivirus also features some additional goodies. It has a built in process monitoring module that constantly tracks the network and system usage of active processes and checks them for any security threat that they might pose to the system security. In addition to that, Panda Free Antivirus also includes the ability to create a USB rescue disk, which can be used to boot up and disinfect a system. Other features include automatic behavioral analysis and blocking, and different types of on-demand scanning (Full, Critical, and Custom).
Panda is a well known name in the field of anti-malware software applications, especially when it comes to cloud antivirus applications. We’ve already covered Panda’s free cloud antivirus. But how just how good is this latest refresh in its current iteration? Let’s head past the break to find out.
Panda Free Antivirus: Installation And User Interface
Before getting started with Panda Free Antivirus, you need to (obviously) install it. Installation is a standard affair. All you need to do is download the stub installer from the homepage, and run it (However, you need to be connected to the Internet during installation, as the installer is an online one). Once installed, Panda Free Antivirus automatically launches.
Here’s how the user interface looks like:
Looks awesome, don’t you think? One look at Panda’s user interface, and you can see instant resemblance to Microsoft’s modern design language, complete with the (live) tiles, and even the Start menu on the top left corner. As illustrated above, the user interface is pretty simple and straightforward, and each of the tiles act as a shortcut to different sub-modules of the anti-virus application. The tiles are constantly updated with information from the sub-modules in real-time. These sub-modules are briefly mentioned below:
- Antivirus: Denoted by the largest tile in the first row, this sub-module displays the current protection status, along with the number of files scanned, threats detected, and the files quarantined. Click it to view the details of the last scan, as well as other details.
- Scan: The on-demand scanning module. You can choose from three different scans: Complete (full in-depth system scan), Critical (only memory and active processes are scanned), and Custom (specify the locations to be scanned manually).
- Process Monitor: Details the processes actively running in the system memory, with their system resource (and network, if available) usage.
- USB Vaccine: Signifies whether USB flash drives are protected or not.
- Rescue Disk: This module lets you create USB rescue disks, which can be used to boot up and disinfect the system.
Apart from that, there’s just the regular support and paid sub-module (Firewall) links, and social sharing icons.
How To Use Panda Free Antivirus With Process Monitor, USB Rescue Disk Creation?
Using Panda Free Antivirus to keep your system clean and secure from any and all kinds of malware is really easy. In fact, just like most antivirus systems, Panda Free Antivirus is also fully automated. This means that essentially, you don’t have to do anything. It just keeps on running in the background, keeping your system free of malware. The following sections detail the working of some of the important sub-modules of Panda Free Antivirus:
1. On Demand Scan
As mentioned above, Panda Free Antivirus’ on demand scanner module lets you choose from three different options: Complete (full in-depth system scan), Critical (only memory and active processes are scanned), and Custom (specify the locations to be scanned manually). Using on demand scan is as simple as selecting the type of scan that you want, and clicking Scan. Panda will take care of the rest
2. Process Monitor
Process Monitor is Panda’s own version of the task manager. It constantly keeps on monitoring the process actively running in the memory, and generates important details about them. You can view a variety of information about the running processes, such as the total number of executed processes, number of processes using the Internet, medium/high threat level processes and blocked processes.
Check out the screenshot below:
3. Rescue Kit
This is one of the most important sub-modules of Panda Free Antivirus. The Rescue Kit allows you to create a bootable USB flash drive having Panda Free Antivirus on it. This USB flash drive can be then used to boot up a computer and disinfect it of any malware in a clean environment. This can come in really handy in situations when you have a system bogged down by malware to such an extent that it won’t even start. Creating a USB Rescue Disk via the Rescue Kit module is extremely easy. Simply plugin a blank USB flash drive, and use the Rescue Disk wizard. Easy-peasy!
Also See: Avast 2014 Free Antivirus
Conclusion
Panda Free Antivirus is a really nifty free antivirus with process monitor, USB rescue disk creation. It’s simple, lightweight, and gets the job done. Features like on-demand scanning, built-in process monitor and behavioral analysis make it a really solid free anti malware application. Add to it the ability to create USB rescue disks, and Panda Free Antivirus becomes even better. Overall, Panda Free Antivirus is just like its earlier cloud based avatar, but only better. Do give it a try, and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.