Panda

BestAntivirusGuide Best Antivirus Panda Antivirus Review: Is It Worth It in 2022? Panda Antivirus Review: Is It Worth It in 2022? Octav Fedor (Cybersecurity Editor) Last edit: May 25, 2023 #1 Panda Antivirus Review in 2022 Panda has been on the market for over 20 years and has been well received by many respected publications over the years. But how good is Panda right now compared to other household names such as Bitdefender or Norton?  For this Panda review, I analyzed Panda Dome Premium — the most advanced suite. I scrutinized every feature and tested the Panda antivirus engine thoroughly. This review will help you decide whether to go with Panda or consider another antivirus solution. Interface Personally, I like that the interface has a dark theme user interface. Yet, most of the individual options and settings feature a white background that can’t be changed. This is a pity since it eats up a fair bit of battery power if you use a laptop. Also, the interface resembles that of a smartphone — the icons are the same shape as iOS apps. Clearly, Panda tried to unify its UI to keep the same look across all devices. I think it works. It looks professional and is easy to navigate. You can choose to show/hide module names, too, which makes things easier. The hamburger icon is a common feature in desktop apps and works well with Panda. It hides options and links that are not that critical. That said: I have an issue with the news bar at the bottom of the main window. It shows headlines of the latest news and articles featured on the Panda blog. That’s cool if you’re into security news and such, but truthfully, it was a little annoying. Unfortunately, you can’t hide it. There’s an option to hide it under general settings, but I couldn’t get it to work. Also, Panda is unlike any other antivirus solution I’ve seen. The main window shows a few background images (nature mostly). Although these images change every time you open it, unfortunately, you can’t change the background image yourself. You can only select from eight images. It would have been great if there were more image options (maybe in a future update). Moreover, the support feature is located in three places. If the support links were unified, it would enhance the user experience. Some English translations are incomplete, too. Major Features Panda is full of great features. In this Panda review, I’ve analyzed each of them thoroughly to help you get a better idea about which areas it excels in. Scan As with most antivirus programs, Panda lets you perform a quick scan, full scan, or a custom scan. Before I tested the scanning options, I opened malicious links designed for testing purposes and used a few programs that are used to test a device’s defenses. Panda detected the threats on the spot; however, I also scanned my computer to uncover any potential threats that could have escaped the real-time detection process. Here’s what I found: Quick scan The quick scan is a superficial search feature that detects malware and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) on your device. It scans critical areas, including memory, processes, browser cookies, and other data. During my tests, the quick scan took just shy of four minutes. As expected, it only scanned a few essential files and detected no threats. Custom scan The custom scan feature allows you to analyze a specific folder or file. To test it out, I scanned my documents folder — the scan finished in just a few seconds. This scan is deep but limited to the folder or file you choose. Full scan The full scan option leaves no file or process untouched. It checks if your PC has hidden malware installed, including viruses, spyware, trojans, PUPs, etc. Since it’s an in-depth scan, how long it takes depends on the amount of data on your drive and your PC’s performance. On my test PC, the full scan took over 40 minutes. But, to my surprise, it detected four PUPs that were leftover from a ransomware simulation I had done earlier. Panda quarantined these files and I had the option to recover them. I did so, as I was curious if the antivirus would detect them again during a second scan. This surprised me: After a second full scan, Panda did not detect the PUPs it initially detected (after I recovered the files). This is actually an intended feature — if you recover a quarantined file, the antivirus engine won’t notice it again. Just be careful what you restore! Antivirus The Antivirus module allows you to view quarantined files, schedule a scan, and read over antivirus reports. It’s also where you can access the antivirus settings. The scheduled scan is pretty customizable. You can schedule critical, custom, or full scans every day, week, or month. You can also add exclusions (of files and folders, or file types) and choose which types of files to detect. Ransomware Protection Ransomware is a type of malware that hijacks your data and demands money in exchange for its safe return. It’s one of the most notorious types of malicious software. That’s why ransomware protection is a feature that most antivirus solutions now have. Panda’s ransomware protection (Data Shield) allows you to select which folders you wish to protect from ransomware. For this Panda antivirus review, I used the KnowBe4 Ransomware Simulator. It’s a desktop program that simulates 20 ransomware infections and one cryptomining attack on a test folder containing documents, images, and clips. Essentially, it analyzes a system’s defenses to assess its vulnerability. Test 1.1 I first ran the program without enabling Data Shield. During the test, I manually allowed the infected programs to access my test folder through a desktop notification from Panda. Here’s the result: Panda correctly blocked just one in 20 scenarios! Hold up. That can’t be right… Test 1.2 I reran the ransomware test after enabling Data Shield. Again, I allowed the infected programs to access my test folder to see what will happen. Here’s the result: This time,