Free antivirus "Kaspersky Free": reviews, installation

Probably, it is not necessary to say that Kaspersky Lab is one of the leaders in the modern anti-virus software market. Until recently, almost all software products of the company were paid (except for some portable applications). But at the end of 2016 a free antivirus package "Kaspersky Free" appeared. The responses of specialists and users were divided in the most drastic way. To understand who is right, you should first analyze the program and only then draw conclusions.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus free-version: first look

The first thing that immediately catches your eye, although many users do not pay attention to this, is that the package itself is made in the form of a so-called beta version, that is, it is still in the development and testing stage, so it is not immune from the appearance of failures And "glitches" (on this we will stop separately).

Since "Kaspersky Free Antivirus" is a free version, it lacks most of the features that are available in full modification, for which you need to pay. In addition, the application will not work and independently update the anti-virus database without a special activation key. But even if the "free" version of Kaspersky's activation code is there, it does not relieve users of some problems.

As for the main modules, there is only real-time anti-virus protection here (albeit using suspicious files sent to the "cloud"), anti-phishing system, protection from IM threats, mail and web antivirus. All the rest is missing, including such necessary tools as Internet payment protection, parental control, firewall and antispyware. There is not even a technical support!

Questions about system requirements and package installation

A separate issue can be identified minimum system requirements, presented by the program "Kaspersky Free". Customer feedback, despite the developers' claims that this product is one of the lightest, indicate that the requirements are somewhat overstated.

For normal installation and operation, you need 920 GB !!! Free space on the hard disk, a processor with a clock speed of at least 1 GHz, for Windows XP - about 512 MB of RAM, and for modifications above - 1 and 2 GB for systems with a 32 and 64 bit width respectively. It's minimum! In addition, the .NET Framework must have at least version 4 and Windows Installer 3.0 or higher.

Limitations in the free version

If you look at the product description presented on the company's official website, a free Kaspersky Anti-Virus Free also has a number of limitations related to the lack of support for some program elements of the operating systems themselves.

In particular, the built-in VPN client for securing Internet connections has a traffic limit of 200 MB, which causes serious problems when downloading a large number of files or components that exceed this limit.

In addition, only partially supported by the browser Edge, which in the tenth version of Windows replaced Internet Explorer (although it also exists on the system, but is not used by default), and the categorization of Metro applications.

Kaspersky® activation code and its use

At first glance, there is nothing unusual in using the activation code. It is like a natural protection of the software product from unauthorized use. But! At first the license operated only 91 days, now the key is valid for 1 year.

Now the most interesting and unusual. Kaspersky Anti-Virus free-modification is designed for installation, activation and use exclusively on the territory of Russia and Ukraine. Why such a restriction was established is still unclear. However, specialists from Belarus still found a way out of the situation, using proxy servers to change their external IP addresses to Russian and Ukrainian.

To extend the protection (this possibility is in the program) to the capabilities of a full-fledged Internet Security package, you will need to download additional modules in the form of a patch and ... again register them with a new key.

Side effects

And it is completely unclear why the package uses the Program Data Updater module to limit the work and update certain installed user applications just from the side of the Kaspersky Free package. User feedback on the forums indicate that some programs "fly out" and even stop running at all.

In particular, a lot of criticism concerns the popular web browser Mozilla Firefox, at the start of which a message is displayed about the inability to download the XPCOM component. But the application Thunderbird does not want to install under any pretext, but after the complete removal of the antivirus, all problems disappear.

Finally, one of the most important problems is that sometimes for some unknown reason the Kaspersky Anti-Virus antivirus is not installed to the system, despite all the conditions for the computer's configuration and the user's location. According to some experts, this may be due to the presence or incomplete uninstallation of the previous antivirus, as well as to the operating system itself (but the cause is unknown for certain). You can try to restore in online mode by entering the dism / online / cleanup-image / restorehealth line in the command console, but there is little hope of that.

What we have in practice: user feedback

This is inherently anti-virus "Kaspersky Free". Feedback from users on the network, not to mention side effects, reveals one more side of the package. As already mentioned, the developers position the program as a lightweight application. But according to users, executable at the time of the start of the system, the procedures for checking the loadable system components cause such a load that many people are simply annoyed. The check itself takes quite a long time, even in comparison with such programs as Eset Smart Security.

Finally, one of the global problems users in some cases call the inability to automatically update the anti-virus database when you have to use a manual update. In this case, both the search and the update procedure take too long. And often after the update, the system testing spontaneously switches on again. It seems that it's okay, but when you work with an important document or go through a complex level of modern game, the system hangs up completely.

Is it worth it to install this product

So is it worth it to install this antivirus? It is believed that to provide the simplest protection package can be used even if the key-activator is entered. In the case where more powerful protection is required, this remedy is unsuitable. However, the developers themselves point out that this free version is intended only for home use, and not for corporate networks in offices and enterprises. So think for yourself, although it is quite obvious that the package has more disadvantages than pluses.