Probably, there is no need to say that Kaspersky Lab is one of the leaders in the modern anti-virus software market. Until recently, almost all of the company's software products were paid (with the exception of perhaps some portable applications). But at the end of 2016, a free anti-virus package “Kaspersky Free” appeared. The reviews of experts and users were divided in the most dramatic way. To understand who is right, first you need to analyze the program itself 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 it, is that the package itself is made in the form of the so-called beta version, that is, it is still under development and testing, therefore it is not immune from the appearance of failures and "glitches" (we will dwell on this separately).
Since Kaspersky Free Antivirus is a free version, it lacks most of the features that are available in a full modification for which you have to pay. In addition, the application will not work and independently update anti-virus databases without a special activator key. But even if there is a Kaspersky activation code for a free modification, this does not save users from some problems.
As for the main modules, there is only real-time anti-virus protection (though using the sending of suspicious files to the "cloud"), an anti-phishing system, protection against threats from IM channels, mail and web anti-virus. Everything else is missing, including such necessary tools as protection of Internet payments, parental control, firewall and anti-spyware. There is not even technical support!
System requirements and package installation issues
A separate issue is the minimum system requirements for the Kaspersky Free program. User reviews, despite the developers' claims that this product is one of the most lightweight, indicate that the requirements are somewhat overstated.
For normal installation and operation, 920 GB is required !!! free space on the hard drive, a processor with a clock frequency of at least 1 GHz, for Windows version XP - about 512 MB of RAM, and for versions above - 1 and 2 GB for systems with a capacity of 32 and 64 bits, respectively. It's minimum! In addition, the .NET Framework must be installed at least the fourth modification and the Windows installer version at least 3.0.
Limitations in the free version
If you look at the product description presented on the company's official website, the free “Kaspersky Free Antivirus”, in addition to everything, also has a number of limitations associated with the lack of support for some software elements of the operating systems themselves.
In particular, the built-in VPN client for protecting Internet connections has a traffic limit of 200 MB, which causes quite serious problems when downloading a large number of files or components that exceed this limit in volume.
In addition, the Edge browser is only partially supported, which replaced Internet Explorer in the tenth version of Windows (although it is also on the system, but is not used by default), and the categorization of Metro-applications.
Kaspersky activation code and its use
At first glance, using an activation code is not unusual. This is a natural protection of the software product from unauthorized use. But! At first, the license was valid for only 91 days, now the key is valid for 1 year.
Now the most interesting and unusual. Kaspersky Anti-Virus free modifications are designed for installation, activation and use exclusively in Russia and Ukraine. Why such a restriction has been established is still unclear. However, specialists from Belarus still found a way out of this situation, using proxy servers that change the external IP addresses of computers to Russian and Ukrainian to activate.
To expand the protection (there is such a possibility in the program) to the capabilities of the full Internet Security package, you will need to download additional modules in the form of a patch and ... register them again using a new key.
Side effects
And it is completely incomprehensible why the package uses the Program Data Updater module to limit the operation and update some installed user applications from the side of the Kaspersky Free package. User reviews on the forums indicate that some programs "crash" and even stop running at all.
In particular, quite a few complaints are regarding the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser, at the start of which a message is displayed stating that the XPCOM component cannot be downloaded. But the Thunderbird application does not want to be installed under any pretext, but after the complete removal of the antivirus, all problems disappear.
Finally, one of the main problems can be called the fact that sometimes, for unknown reasons, Kaspersky Free antivirus is not installed in the system, despite the observance of all the conditions for the configuration of the computer 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 damage to the operating system itself (but the reason is not known for certain). You can try to perform online recovery by entering the line dism / online / cleanup-image / restorehealth in the command console, but there is little hope for this.
What we have in practice: user reviews
Such is the essence of Kaspersky Free antivirus. User reviews online, not to mention the side effects, reveal another side of the package. As already mentioned, the developers position the program as a lightweight application. But according to users, the procedures performed at the start of the system for checking the loadable system components cause such a load that it is simply annoying for many. The scan itself takes a lot of time, even in comparison with programs such as Eset Smart Security.
Finally, in some cases, users call inability to automatically update anti-virus databases one of the global problems when they have to use a manual update. At the same time, both the search and the update procedure take too long. And often after an update, system testing spontaneously turns on again. It seems to be okay, but when you work with an important document or go through a difficult level of a modern game, the system freezes completely.
Should I install this product
So is it worth it to install this antivirus? It is believed that to provide the simplest protection, the package can be used even if the activator key is entered. In the case where a more powerful protection is required, this tool is not suitable. However, the developers themselves point out that this free version is intended exclusively for home use, and not for corporate networks in offices and enterprises. So think for yourself, although it is obvious that the package has many more minuses than pluses.