The people of Panda Security, one of the best known security companies for many years, has just simplified its product offering with the Panda Dome service, a platform that is offered as an annual or monthly subscription in four different plans depending on the needs of the user.
It runs from an essential plan that offers antivirus and personal firewall, Wi-Fi protection and navigation, secure online purchases and protection of USB devices for 2.99 euros per month, up to a premium plan for 9.99 euros per month with full protection and many extras, including a VPN and cloud storage . In Genbeta we have been able to try this last one and we tell you what we thought.
We have been using Panda Dome Premium in Windows 10 , the most complete version, although solutions are offered for macOS (a much more simplified program with fewer options), and also for iOS and Android. This plan lets you use Panda on up to five devices.
The installation process is extremely simple, and does not require an immediate restart. The security center of Windows automatically detects that the antivirus protection will now be controlled by Panda, and at least in the use we have given it, its consumption of resources has been minimal, and that is always a good thing.
Panda Dome Premium is a very complete package that offers many more things besides the expected antivirus protection (one that has excellent numbers according to the latest AV Test ), but offers a series of extra utilities that may end up determining that a user chooses their solutions over others. For them we will review.
Optimization
Panda Dome offers a whole section of tools to tune up your computer. In Optimize your PC you will find four options: one to free space, others to manage the boot, another to schedule cleaning and a defragmenter units as if we were in 1999.
Free space on my PC removes temporary files from the system, empties the recycle bin, deletes files from the Windows registry and unusable keys, also empties the temporary internet files, browsing history and cookies from the browsers that you have installed.
But this is nothing that does not offer the same space liberator of Windows 10, but less at hand we could say. These tools instead would be more useful for users of Windows 7, and 8.1 for example.
The same for the Boot Manager , a utility that allows you to decide which programs start with Windows, again, something that Windows 10 itself already lets you do, but in previous versions is more useful, and is also more hand.
The tool to schedule cleaning is a little more convenient to help users to keep free space on their disks, you can program as many times as you want and as often as you want. And in the case of the unit debugger, it is redundant, it is not something that needs to be done in the current versions of Windows 10.
VPN
The technology used to ensure traffic is provided by the people of the popular Hotspot Shield and it works wonders, it has multiple locations and we even tried it to see other Netflix catalogs and it has not been blocked by the service.
The Panda VPN is offered free of charge with a limit of 150 MB daily, premium users have no limit, and this is where I came across the first problem of this offer and one quite confusing .
If you see on the website of Panda Home you understand that the Premium version includes the Premium VPN , but when using it, having a premium license, the VPN stopped working after 150 MB. We immediately contacted technical support, which at least attends you at any time of the day and very fast (we speak with an operator on Saturday at 3 a.m.).
Support explained that you have to pay Panda’s VPN other than the Panda Dome subscription. And just that appears in the program window, a message to update your plan.
Data Protection
Panda Dome offers you an option to protect specific directories of your disk against ransomware , similar to what Windows Defender has been doing recently. It is configured in a simple way and allows you to block the permissions to unknown applications so that nothing can access your data without your permission.
USB Vaccination
It has two very useful options, the first always active suggests you automatically analyze any pendrive you connect to your computer, and the other makes Panda immediately vaccinate any USB device to prevent infection. It’s like a USB condom .
Process monitor
It gives you a detailed report of all the processes currently running on Windows and classifies them according to risk and tells you which ones have access to the Internet. It also blocks dangerous processes. It’s like the process tab of the Windows task manager, but with threat alerts .
Virtual keyboard
Panda Dome also offers a virtual keyboard so that when typing confidential data you have an additional security layer that prevents a malicious third party from intercepting your data, it is basically a specific protection against keyloggers .
File encryption
Panda also has a fairly easy-to-use file encryption feature. You can protect your local hard drive, an external one or even a USB memory with documents. To do this you must install Password Depot directly from the Panda menu and after that an option will appear in the context menu of the browser to encrypt any document or folder.
Password manager
Password Depot is also a password manager, although the tool is not translated into Spanish at all, and its interface is a little coarser than that of other managers. This manager does not come free with Panda Dome, it only offers a 30-day trial period.
Panda Dome has even more functions than those mentioned here, from locating your devices in case of theft or loss, through WiFi network protection, to secure deletion to eliminate files and that can not be recovered.
They also add extensions to the browser automatically, but since they take control of your browser and demand too many permissions, we choose not to use them.
