Panda Global Security 2011 builds on the advancements made in the companies cloud technology. In fact, the cloud technology has become so good that in PC magazine’s latest testing, cloud antivirus achieved an unrivaled 100% detection rate on the newest viruses. Panda Global Security 2011 not only includes the cloud based technology but also firewall, antivirus, identity protection, vulnerability protection, anti spam, parental controls, and optimization features.
Installation:
One of the most surprising features of Panda Global Security is that the whole executable with all of the above listed features is only 57 megabytes. This should convey to the user that the antivirus software is very efficiently designed. I presume that since definitions etc. are located on the cloud, this really cuts down on the programs overhead. The installation was easy and gave 3 options the complete, minimal, and custom installation. I choose custom and was given the option to turn on or off individual components such as the firewall etc. Surprisingly there is a remote access option which I presume is for support purposes. The installation also allows the user to opt to use the Panda firewall or the Windows Firewall with an option to also allow common programs to access the internet.
Usage:
Upon starting a virus scan, Panda immediately contacts their servers to start the virus scan via the cloud. Therefore, it appears that an internet connection is required to get the full protection out of the software. The scanning process was very fast compared to competitors and completed in about 1 hour. The virus scanner used about 12 to 14% CPU power and about 25 megabytes of memory. This brings the total footprint of the software to consistently under 50 megabytes of memory. This is fantastic for an internet security software let alone a beta product. The scanner detected one infection and automatically deleted it. This infection (a semi false positive) had been flagged by other antivirus as suspicious. IN Conclusion, memory usage and scanning speed have really improved in the 2011 version and I haven’t seen a competing antivirus rival this combination of that Panda Global Security 2011 offers.
Interface:
I think the interface of Panda Global Security 2011 leaves more to desire. The menus while nice looking aren’t 3d and don’t snap. The menus kind of dissolve onto the screen like a jpeg being downloaded off the internet. I personally think this is a little unacceptable on a core i7 machine. However, this is a beta release so I can’t draw a complete conclusion. Another issue is that the child menus are the same color as the foreground menus making them hard to distinguish. Also the icons are small and don’t really convey the message to the user.
Additional Features:
One nice thing that I noticed was the inclusion of the Virtual Keyboard. This presumably was derived from the Kaspersky products. I concluded that these virtual keyboards are actually safe by installing a keylogger a while back. In terms of the Firewall and Identity Protection. Again, an interface redo would be helpful in understanding their features as its hard to discern what they actually do. I personally think that the default Windows 7 firewall is more helpful and user friendly. There is also an included gaming mode that is accessible via the task icon. However, to Panda Global Security 2011’s credit it appears to utilize background protections without telling the user so configuration isn’t really necessary.
