The award winning Kaspersky antivirus 2010 is now available with a free subscription from MSN via a special promotion. Please see the bottom of this post for in depth download instructions.
Kaspersky’s free antivirus has some of the highest and most accurate detection rates in the antivirus industry. We will now take a closer look at the feature set in the 2010 version. I first used Kaspersky Antivirus 5 years ago when AOL release Active Shield and also found the software to be perform excellent at detecting many undiscovered viruses.
Installation:
The program download was kind of large at about 66 megabytes presumably because the software includes 32bit and 64bit installer together. Windows also prompted for a firewall rule update which is interesting because Kaspersky Antivirus shouldn’t need firewall access. Kaspersky also tried to start a scan immediately after install. However, there is no option to stop the scan on the main page and Kaspersky didn’t initially update the virus definitions before starting the scan. Therefore, the antivirus was performing an initial scan with obsolete definitions. The virus updates were also extremely slow taking at least 15 minutes to completely download.
Free Kaspersky Antivirus 2010 features:
Secure Virtual Keyboard. I have seen this featured included in previous installations. Essentially what the virtual keyboard does is display an on screen keyboard. The goal is that the software prevents keyloggers and other malicious software from recording a user’s keystrokes. This is because the user isn’t typing directly on the keyboard just clicking the keys on the screen. However, I have reservations about this feature as a product selling point. Windows also includes its own On-Screen in Accessibility Options.
UPDATE: I was originally skeptical if the Kaspersky Virtual Keyboard prevented software and hardware keyloggers from functioning. So, I put the claim to the test. I downloaded a free keylogger and installed it. The Windows On-Screen keyboard keystrokes were picked up by the keylogger while Kaspersky Virtual Keyboard was undetectable by the keylogger. Kaspersky worked as advertised. There is also an included firefox extension which makes opening the keyboard very convenient in the web browser.
File Protection. Kaspersky puts extra emphasis on important files. The free antivirus protects important files such as word documents, emails, and spreadsheets etc. The supported list is extremely comprehensive and basically assures that new important files won’t be infected and ruined by viruses.
Vulnerability Scanner. Kaspersky includes a dedicated vulnerability scanner which is very similar to Norton 2010’s protection. However, Kaspersky takes this technology one step further and even offers a separate reporting window for the vulnerability scan. In the window, the software will tell you specifically what applications have problems and steps to remedy the vulnerabilities.
Network Protection - Traffic Monitor. Kaspersky Antivirus 2010 also offers advanced network protection. In fact, I was prompted about too many active connections and the ability to block them. This feature is excellent if a computer gets infected with a SPAM virus or DoS equivalent.
Reporting. Kaspersky has some of the most in depth virus scan reports in the industry. The program is extremely specific on what files were scanned and what could not be opened.
Interface. While I can appreciate the new antivirus interface, I found it to bit too clunky. There aren’t large buttons to start or stop scans. When clicking on menus, I found that sometimes I was unsure of what I can or cannot click on. If this is happening during tests, there has to be a significant amount of users that will also encounter problems. Finally, the interface seemed relatively unresponsive at times.
One thing that I didn’t like about Kaspersky is the Protection Components menu. Even though the antivirus is a full version, Kaspersky Labs still tries to up sell you to the internet security version. The Protection Components outlines what protection antivirus 2010 has and doesn’t have. This is essentially a useless feature and only has commercial use.
Virus Detection and Scanning:
When I downloaded a virus through Firefox Kaspersky started to freak out. The software wouldn’t process the program. Technically the auto protection worked but failed to alert the user about the incoming viruses. My computer also most crashed in the process.
The quick virus scan completed extremely quickly in less than 2 minutes. I also like how the virus scan tells a user how much time is actually remaining on the scan rather than the elapsed scanning time. Other free antivirus programs use elapsed time which essentially wastes the user’s time.
During idle operation, Kaspersky uses a respectable 5.5 megabytes of ram. Unfortunately, during a scan Kaspersky goes memory hog wild consuming anywhere between 50 megabytes and 100 megabytes which is significantly higher than other free antivirus software’s memory usage. The system processor usage also goes crazy between 50 and 80% processor utilization. Computer functionality is severely hindered during a full virus scan.
Download and Conclusion:
Kaspersky may provide excellent virus protection but is still lacking the polished feel of Norton or other free antivirus such as AVG etc. The free Kaspersky Antivirus is available through the MSN site. The link below is a link to google translator. You’ll want to click the green button or click to login.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fkaba.msn.com.cn%2F
You’ll be sent an activation code and then that will be to be used on the Kaspersky Download.
