Panda Cloud Anti-Virus 3.0

From http://blog.cloudantivirus.com/

The new version includes important improvements in both its FREE & Pro Edition versions:

• Entirely new look and feel. More modern, more intuitive. Easier than ever before.
• Scheduled scans. One of the most demanded features from our Community. And now it’s available in the FREE & Pro versions!
• Rescue Kit. Extremely useful in emergency situations caused by malware infections.
• Automatic USB vaccination. This feature, which was only available to Pro users in previous versions, is now available for free!
• New Wi-Fi Monitor(only available in the Pro Edition). Find out if someone is stealing your Wi-Fi. The new Panda Cloud Antivirus 3.0 incorporates a Wi-Fi monitor that shows a list of all the devices currently connected to your network, helping you find out if there is an intruder on your Wi-Fi network.
• New Panda Account. An exclusive area where you’ll be able to download your products, manage your services, obtain documentation, get technical support through the new Technical Support Forum and, only for Pro users, receive personal VIP support via an online form. Additionally, you will be able to manage all of your Panda Consumer products from this area, as well as your Android devices if they are protected with Panda Mobile Security.
• Performance improvements to make Panda Cloud Antivirus lighter than ever.

Additionally, this new version improves protection capabilities. We are continuously evolving our detection technologies to protect you against the latest threats while reducing false positives. Thanks to this effort, we have just received a new Advanced + award from AV-comparatives in its latest File Detection Tests.

And there is more…. More information in the Process Monitor (which now shows the URL each process has been downloaded from), ability to shut down the PC after the scan is over, etc. Discover all of them!

If you are reading this post after seeing a “Panda Cloud Antivirus has upgraded automatically!” message in your system tray, then you already have the latest version installed and running, and you don’t have to do anything else. If your version of Panda Cloud Antivirus hasn’t upgraded to version 3.0 yet, don’t worry: your copy of Panda Cloud Antivirus will upgrade itself automatically in the next few days.

We’d like to thank all of our users once again for helping us develop this great Panda Cloud Antivirus.

Enjoy the new version 3.0!

I think somebody jumped the gun with this announcement.

As I use Panda Cloud Free AV v.2.3, I was eager to upgrade to 3.0. Your links took me to Download.com, where I downloaded the "latest" version. (There is no internal updater).

Bundled software that now comes pre-checked with Panda, that you might want to UNcheck during the installation:

"Set Yahoo as my default search provider in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome."
"Set MyStart as my default home page in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome with web search powered by Yahoo."

A restart of my system was required. I had to suffer through numerous ads for the paid version of Panda, which I weathered, but finally it installed. Only to find I had re-installed the same version - 2.3.0. Not 3.0! This happened on both my XP and Win 7 systems. Frankly, I think this announcement was little more than a way to install foistware on the unwary.


 

I'm just gonna wait a while to see when it automatically updates... and what the "Entirely new look and feel" will bring with it.

I'm just gonna wait a while to see when it automatically updates... and what the "Entirely new look and feel" will bring with it.

A wise decision.

If Panda 3.0 (non-beta) exists, I have yet to find any way to install it.

Just to let you know, 3.0 *IS* now available for download.   I've done so on one system --- manually --- but have not done any actual analysis of the program/changes.   I will wait for a while to see when/if the automatic update is pushed through on my other systems.

Regardless of which version of Panda I have ( it still says 2.3.0) things have certainly changed!

1) Ad-Aware Security Toolbar has been added, under the guise of a Panda icon, next to the Yahoo search toolbar in IE. (Who wants Ad-Aware these days?)
2) There is a "Safe" icon on a blue background, which I think is the URL filter. I suppose it duplicates WOT.
3) There is a "Clear Browsing Data" toolbar.
4) There ia a "Toolbar Cleaner" toolbar. (I wonder if it would clean itself out of existense?)
5) There is an "Active Scan 2.0" toolbar, which I think is an online Panda AV scanner.
6) There is a Weather toolbar for my city.
7) There is another Panda icon labelled "For Business", which is an ad.

This is all just rubbish, IMHO, cluttering up my toolbars in IE. Panda has to go, I'm afraid. Pity.

And I'm just getting started. More to come on how Panda trashed my Win 7.

The update to Panda from Download.com killed my internet connectivity on my Win 7 system. I have absolutely no doubt it was responsible, as I had not used this system on the net, nor downloaded anything else recently. Even worse, System Restore did not work. It said the probable cause was my AV running in the background.

It was not a modem or router problem, as my XP had no problems connecting.

But even after disabling/uninstalling Panda in Win 7, I could not get System Restore to work. Many reboots later, I decided to restore a native backup image of my system from an external hard drive. This worked, taking only about 20 minutes, and I was back online with a 3 week old image.  I had to spend another half hour to update all my programs.

My restored system image includes Panda Cloud AV 2.3.0. I'm not sure where to go from here. Panda has caused me a lot of grief, and it is toast on my systems.

Joe,

really sorry to hear about all the grief you had.   Hard to believe all that happened.

As mentioned, I didn't spend a lot of time on the one system where I updated to (definitely) 3.0... but I'm sure I would have noticed all that garbage had it been present.

When I did the install:

First, it UNinstalled the existing/previous version.   A reboot was required.   Upon reboot, all was basically normal... except that the new/replacement Panda had yet to be installed.   So I went back to download it a second time.   This time, it successfully installed the new version.

If memory serves me, there were some choices (pre-checked??) about installing a Panda URL toolbar, and, as you have noted above, options to:

"Set Yahoo as my default search provider in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome."
"Set MyStart as my default home page in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome with web search powered by Yahoo

I declined all these options.   Not sure if that made the difference.  Regardless, something else was drastically wrong if you wound up with a Weather bar and several other non-related toolbars.

 "I think download.com is to blame..."   It is indeed unfortunate that so many legitimate products opt to use download.com (cnet.com) as the primary source of distribution for their programs, when it is well-known that these sites now offer a "customized" installer that is bundled with junkware.  :emotion-7:

Panda is also mirrored at MajorGeeks http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/panda_cloud_antivirus.html 

as well as at FileHippo http://filehippo.com/download_cloud_antivirus;

but I have no idea if anything is different at these alternative sites (and given all your headaches, I wasn't about to try testing them).

Unfortunately, it is NOT mirrored at  ninite.com , which --- when a product is available there --- would be the best site to use.

================================================================

It is a bit ironic that I had to use XP to find the instructions to facilitate these repairs.  :emotion-3:

Well, after a good night's sleep, I've cooled off a bit regarding Panda.

Thank goodness for system imaging - I was able to restore my XP and Win 7 with backups, and all my security scans are clean. I don't know where all those toolbars came from, or why I lost my internet connection (Win 7) or System Restore capability,  but I think download.com is to blame, and pulled a fast one on me. Like you, I declined the add-ons during the installation process, but perhaps I should have paid more attention to the EULA.

At any rate, I have repaired all the damage. The toolbars are gone, and my Win 7 is connected again. (It is a bit ironic that I had to use XP to find the instructions to facilitate these repairs).

I have decided to give Panda a second chance. Currently I'm back to version 2.3.0 on all my systems, and will wait to see how internal updating goes.

I was aware of the problems with downloading from CNET, and must have been asleep at the wheel when I downloaded Panda from Download.com.

I do blame Panda for redirecting me to this download site. As a general rule, I always try to download from the vendor's site. As I recently posted, "Who can you trust?".

Duplicate post due to the system censor

2nd Attempt To Post  The system doesn't like a word I posted, so if this shows up twice that is the reason.
The word describes a small, flowing, body of water, not as big as a river, but larger than a creek!!

After deleting version 2.3, I apparently downloaded version 3.0.0. I say this because in both Belarc Advisor and Win Patrol it didn't show up that way. Anyway, I ended up with the Windows 8 look alike interface and had no problems installing and running a scan. However, I decided that with MBAM Pro and Avira both providing active protection that Panda was a bit much.

I wanted to see if it uninstalled without hassles and it do so, so right now I don't have it and not sure if I will download it again.

Getting back to downloads....I think that a few weeks back I had some trouble with AdwCleaner and believe that I had gotten it off of a third party site. That, and the malware remnants that I picked up watching some TV programs online that I had missed, have made me decide to only go to the author or company website and/or TV network sites to download software programs or view TV programs. It's sad that you can't trust long time download sites like MajorGeeks and File Hippo anymore to give a "clean" install

"However, I decided that with MBAM Pro and Avira both providing active protection that Panda was a bit much".

Dale:   Both Avira and Panda Cloud are realtime/active anti-VIRUS programs.  You definitely don't want to be running both!   I'm sorry if anything I posted here may have led you to believe otherwise:  I run avast on my home systems... while I use Panda at a "non-profit organization" (where I'm NOT running avast).

The rule:   Use only one realtime anti-virus program.

MBAM is NOT an anti-virus program (despite some reviewers describing it as such), and should be compatible with [and used as a supplement to] the anti-virus program of your choice.

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Yes, the new Panda 3 has what might be described as a "Windows 8" tiled ("Metro") look, so if that's what you saw, then yes, you had it.

Here is a review of Panda 3 by Martin Brinkmann of gHacks http://www.ghacks.net/2014/05/08/panda-cloud-antivirus-3-0-review/

As noted by both Joe and myself, Mr. Brinkmann confirms the installer offers the user [pre-checked] options to 1) install a Panda Security toolbar, 2) Set Yahoo as one's default search provider, and 3) Set MyStart (powered by Yahoo) as one's default home page.   All 3 options are clearly visible, and can be unchecked by the user.

As for the remaining cornucopia of toolbars that plagued Joe, I still have no idea where they came from.   Neither I... nor apparently Mr. Brinkmann... encountered them.   Most perplexing.   I have yet to try to install Panda on any systems, but when I do (unless they auto-update first), I'll be sure to report back here again.