14 DAY TRIAL // Security vendor Kaspersky has just announced a free antivirus that’s intuitively called… Kaspersky Free and which comes with the essential feature package to block malware and keep your computer protected.
Kaspersky Free has already been tested in a number of markets, like Russia, Ukraine, China, and Sweden, without an official announcement, and the Russian parent company says the feedback was incredibly positive, proving that a worldwide launch is needed.
Staged release
The debut of the new freeware antivirus, however, will take place in stages, and while in July the biggest global markets, US, Canada, and Kazakhstan are projected to get it, countries like the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain would only receive the security software in October.
“With practically zero promo activity Kaspersky Free was installed several million times, in doing so cranking up our market share considerably. Not that increasing market share is our aim; our aim is to raise the overall level of protection on the Internet,” founder Eugene Kaspersky explains.
The majority of users can already download the English version of Kaspersky Free today and look in the last paragraph for the download link.
Lighter and faster
As far as features are concerned, you get the essential modules, including the award-winning antivirus engine to scan local files, web anti-virus for keeping an eye on web traffic, scripts, and other online threats, IM anti-virus to block malicious IM messages and phishing attempts, and mail anti-virus that helps block threats typically spreading via email.
All the other tools like a firewall, private browsing, and application control are only available as part of Kaspersky Internet Security, so you’ll have to purchase a license for this one.
Kaspersky says its free antivirus is lighter on system resources and quicker than its other security products because it doesn’t come with so many modules built in. There are no ads, though you are prompted to purchase the full Kaspersky Internet Security should you want to enable some premium features.
Without a doubt, Kaspersky Free will land as a strong rival to popular free antivirus products like Avast, but the biggest target for the Russian company appears to be Windows Defender.
Kaspersky, which has recently accused Microsoft of violating antitrust rules in Europe, explains that Kaspersky Free is primarily aimed at users who don’t have the money to purchase a paid antivirus solution and rely on “traditional freebies (which have more holes than Swiss cheese for malware to slip through) or they even rely on Windows Defender (ye gods!).”
As mentioned, the new antivirus is already up for grabs for English-speaking users, so go ahead and download Kaspersky Free right now to see what it’s capable of. Kaspersky Free works on every Windows version out there, including Windows 10 and even Windows XP, though for the latter OS version FAT32 is not supported.
