We have been circulating a limited Preview Release of Beta3 which supports Vista 64bit and Windows 7 (32 and 64bit). This Beta3 Preview only has additional platform support. No other functionality which is currently being developed for Beta3 is included yet in this Preview Release.
Basically we’re interested in getting as much feedback from the 64bit and Windows 7 community as possible. If you’re one of these guys or gals, we want to hear from you. Please send all feedback regarding this Preview Release to beta@pandasecurity.com or send your comments to this blog post.
Downloading
The download link is the following:
CloudAntivirus-Beta3-0.08.83-Preview.exe
EDIT: changed link to point to a more reliable server.
Installing
If you have a previous version of Panda Cloud Antivirus, you’ll need to manually uninstall that first, reboot and then install the Beta3 Preview.
Note: The Beta3 Preview can also be installed on XP/Vista 32bits, even though we’ve not tested it in these platoforms.
Workarounds
Remember that under x64 the registry entries for the different workarounds mentioned in this blog are different. They are the following:
Activating advanced logging:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodePanda SecurityPanda Service Host]
"tracePath"="C:Logs_CloudAV"
"traceEnabled"="1"
Disabling BackgroundScan:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodePanda SecurityPanda Service Host]
"BackgroundDisabled"="-"
Enabling Exceptions:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodePanda SecurityPanda Service HostExceptions]
"CreateMiniDump"=dword:00000001
"ToMessageBox"=dword:00000001
Panda Security specializes in the development of endpoint security products and is part of the WatchGuard portfolio of IT security solutions. Initially focused on the development of antivirus software, the company has since expanded its line of business to advanced cyber-security services with technology for preventing cyber-crime.
48 comments
Thanks for this! I’m definitely going to install it both on my desktop and my laptop!
Oh. Cool Lucky I installed windows 7 today 🙂 Yay Going to test it in windows 7!
Can’t say I’ll be trying it out (using winxp32), but I did post on my blog about it: http://betafreak.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/breaking-panda-releases-cloud-antivirus-beta-3-preview/ .
finally! ive been waiting aeons for this! 😀
expect feedback from me! really excited about the AV
see you around!
tom
seems i cant download it…
@xionbunny I changed the download link. Look at the post and try again.
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned these problems, but here’s two occuring on Windows 7 x64:
* The AV window is positioned in between two screens if you have a dual monitor setup. Since I’m using my second monitor for movies only (it’s a TV) this is rather annoying as I must move the window all the time to access the features.
* The file PSANHost.exe used up to 75 % of my CPU (Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600) resulting in a slower PC and making my fan run at max speed. If my fan hadn’t been so loud I’d probably never would’ve noticed it.
A part from these problems Panda Cloud Antivirus seems to run perfectly fine on Windows 7 x64. Keep up the awesome work on the AV and I’m looking forward to beta 3!
@Kenny
Have you tried the backgroundscan workaround? I’m on beta 2 with 32 bit xp, but it was doing that until I disabled it.
Hi I have installed CloudAV Beta3 on WinSeven Prof. 64bit.
Panda works fine but the security center can’t correctly locate the Panda. He said, Panda is active but it is in a not supported format.
So, in security center, the antivirus point is yellow.
best,
kev
@Pedro Bustamante
Thanks 🙂
Hmmm I can’t seem to be able to download it… is the server being flooded?
@someguy
Ah well I fixed it I used powershell to download it instead of I.E or firefox
# $dl = new-object System.Net.WebClient
# $dl.DownloadFile(“http://research.pandasecurity.com/blogs/images/cloudav/CloudAntivirus-Beta3-0.08.83-Preview.exe”, “C:pandacloud.exe”)
@Sam Smoker
I disabled it after the incident and since then I haven’t experienced any problems, but it’s still to soon to say for sure.
@Pedro Bustamante
I’ve noticed three other problems:
* The AV seems to be rather picky about the internet connection. I’ve sometimes gotten a “You lost connection to the internet…” window on both my laptop (wireless network connection) and my desktop (wired network connection).
* When right clicking a file or folder the context entry for the AV reads “Analizar con Panda Cloud Antivirus” even if I choose english during the installation.
* When downloading a file with uTorrent I sometimes get an error stating “This file cannot be accessed as it is being used by another process”. Since this didn’t happen before I installed PcAV the process using it is obviously the AV.
These problems are occuring on Windows 7 x64 and on two different computers.
Thanks for all the reports Kenny. Please keep them coming !
Yes this is a known issue since Beta1 (http://blog.cloudantivirus.com/2009/04/30/known-issues/). Should be fixed in final v1.0 version.
I see the workaround Sam mentioned has worked for you. Another workaround (without having to disable BackgroundScan) is to simply run a manual on-demand scan of the entire PC. Once that initial scan is done and everything is cached, you should be ok.
Yes this is a known issue since we introduced the synchronous cloud-scan in Beta2 (http://blog.cloudantivirus.com/2009/07/21/known-issue-with-beta2-synchronous-background-scan/). The workaround is the same as above (backgroundscan). Will be fixed when Beta3 comes out.
Yes we know about this one as well. It fixes itself after a reboot.
Yes I was able to replicate that same problem. We’ll investigate it asap.
Windows Action center complains that Panda reports in a format that no longer i supported.
Just a question, is cloud antivirus more secure than Panda Global Protection 2010? I mean, has all the features of this paid version?
Thanks
This is VERY serious:
Currently, when you unblock a malicious file there’s no way to block it again, I assume Panda adds it to an exception list. But when scanning again the file, Panda doesn’t report any infections neither, which is worrying. This misleading behaviour should be changed asap.
1. Users should be able to add exceptions though the main program settings easily.
2. Users should be able to block and unblock any infected or suspicious file as many times as they wish just by right-clicking the infected file and selecting Block or Unblock.
3. An on-demand scan of the unblocked files should report the infections as Not neutralized, giving the user the ability to review the results and block them again at any time.
I’ve been testing malware, using Cloud antivirus and Virustotal and sometimes, Cloud antivirus fails to detect something that the Panda engine of Virustotal detects. ?!
So, my question is:
Apart from the cloud technology, does Panda Cloud Antivirus use the same core engine and signatures as the rest of the Panda products? I ask this because the detection rates are not the same apparently, Cloud Antivirus seems to miss some samples.
Or could it be a problem related to the cloud communications?
When checking to see if the AV is working by using the EICAR test virus string at http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm it does not catch any of them. the eicar.com, eicar.com.txt goes through without problems or complaints from the AV. The .zip versions fail to download correctly however. But the AV does not complain about them, and don’t give any indication in the logs either that it has done anything at all.
@Someone Cloud Antivirus is basically a complete AV, but only AV. Our Internet Security & Global Protection Suites include other protection technologies (firewall, anti-spam, identity-theft protection, backup, parental control, etc.) and support services which are not included in the free Panda Cloud Antivirus.
@Kaixi Yes we’re aware of this limitation Kaixi. It’s something we’re fixing for the v1.0 release. Also for v1.1 we’re preparing some advanced configuration settings so that users may configure the behaviour of the program at will.
Regarding the PCA-VT difference, both use our cloud-scanning technology. If there’s a difference it might be because of the settings. Normally on VT we have different settings than on some file-resident products. If you can provide me with an MD5 (it should be in the VT report) I can look into it and tell you the reason why.
@Flemming d. Joergensen This is normal, expected, behaviour. Panda Cloud Antivirus uses a different model of real-time on-access interception. You can read more at http://blog.cloudantivirus.com/2009/04/29/new-protection-model-explained/. But rest assured eicar is detected correctly. Simply right-click, scan and you will see how it is detected.
Thanks for the quick reply! I’ve just rescanned my malware collection and a couple of samples PCA had missed initially are now detected correctly. Anyway, here are the VirusTotal links you requested:
http://www.virustotal.com/reanalisis.html?427b6250c090951c0b9f5379136834b022557b15cfbb164d0e89fbade8fcf2bd-1251665661
http://www.virustotal.com/reanalisis.html?a5ea6c64a5b906563cc58035dc4ece62d532e30b6e3d903e61b07b923d2a5a7a-1251665806
http://www.virustotal.com/reanalisis.html?5ca986d81b08c0fdc04176f24ecb9f0bc4c17c6f35995b3c47ffcdfae41d2b0b-1251665879
http://www.virustotal.com/reanalisis.html?28921ded04bb8d15cd506779980bc02ea4c618da89aff3220db894e3aeafe484-1251665975
http://www.virustotal.com/reanalisis.html?3afc66983c4d0546f621dd1b250f4e0178111f7f9326f9fb74612fde66fd1bc1-1251666097
http://www.virustotal.com/reanalisis.html?4c126ed74572fedee1b0b794bbe3709d8ee27075c3c97d8a14668d2d624d78a4-1251666374
If PCA had detected the ones above, it would have only missed 2-3 samples of my collection and that’d have been a very good result, for my collection is very recent (i.e most of the malware are only 1-2 week old) and includes rogues (I’ve seen how AVs struggle to detect them). I’ve tried a lot of AVs, and only McAfee+Artemis comes that close in terms of detection.
btw, how can I submit a sample to Panda?
@Kaixi thanks we’ll review and post back results. Regarding submissions please email in a password-protected ZIP archive to virus@pandasecurity.com.
@Pedro: uh ,it looks like none of the links I posted above works, my apologies for that.
I’ve reanalysed the 6 files with VT, here are the urls linking directly to the analysis results:
http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/28921ded04bb8d15cd506779980bc02ea4c618da89aff3220db894e3aeafe484-1251734155
http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/4c126ed74572fedee1b0b794bbe3709d8ee27075c3c97d8a14668d2d624d78a4-1251734760
http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/0340d2702c67a4e0774c91a43d5c727be0964493b30ee9b99ba0b192704668c5-1251734819
http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/5ca986d81b08c0fdc04176f24ecb9f0bc4c17c6f35995b3c47ffcdfae41d2b0b-1251734842
http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/a5ea6c64a5b906563cc58035dc4ece62d532e30b6e3d903e61b07b923d2a5a7a-1251735186
http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/3afc66983c4d0546f621dd1b250f4e0178111f7f9326f9fb74612fde66fd1bc1-1251735982
Thank you for 64-bit support!
64 bit support is not the same as 64-bit version, right?
Seems to be working fine on Win7 x64 Ultimate, thanks!
@Evert
No, on my Windows 7 x64 both PSANHost.exe and PSUNMain.exe are running in x32 mode.
I have had fail to install messages on recent Windows XP correction KB 970653 and had to disable Panda Cloud AV to perform this update.
Just a note, the context menu entry with the Spanish text didn’t fix itself after a reboot. I still has the entry in Spanish and not in English.
I am using Panda Antivirus on Windows 7. I have encountered 3 bugs:
1) PAV doesn’t report its status correctly to Windows, so I continue to receive action center prompts in my task bar.
2) The context menu entry in in Spanish text.
3) After opening my laptop from sleep, sometimes I will get a persisting message saying something to the effect of “Due to network problems, your scan will take longer than usual” in the lower right half of my screen. I am unable to close this message and it persists for several minutes.
the download link does not work can you update it to Cnet.com even thought there server are slow 64KB/s is better then an dead link or post it as an torrent (should not need an tracker as most DHT trackerless mode works well now)
it also needs to detect when its running on bat power or not so it does not do back ground tasks when not on power as that can realy be messy on how long the laptop lasts for, very easy for the AV to detect if its on power or not a lot of other AV programs do
the connection problem came up on my system as well it taken 20-30 seconds to open taskmanager first time (panda popups that whent away after 1 second each time then back up after 3-5 seconds did that about 5-7 times before it alowed taskman to launch)
Panda cloud removed three instances of adware that were not detected by Kaspersky, AdAware, Spybot, or Prevx 3.0. After which Panda Cloud prevented me from uploading pictures to eBay. Switching to a different computer without Cloud I had no problem uploading to eBay. I then restored a HD image on the affected computer which completely removed all traces of Panda Cloud. I could then again upload pictures to eBay.
A lot more work needs to be done on this program. Millions of people upload pictures to eBay everyday. Who wants a program that removes necessary files to the extent that the computer no longer functions.
Tested on x64 windows 7 and is working really good! Switched from eset and i noticed a little but noticeable spike in overall system performance, which is great.
One small thing is that on doing a full scan the scanner assumed that the file amount was 300 000 and went on 99% for over remaining 700 000. This is just a little something i experienced.
Also regarding the interface. It feels a bit clumsy. Some elements are too big and its not well balanced. What I would really see as a step forward would be the integration with aero interface and the type of transparency it offers. (with windows transparency turned off it would act like transparency in IE etc.) I know that lots of people use XP but it still would feel more adequate than the present one. Thou despite it flaws, it kind of grows on me.
Thank you for the work you do and for x64/win 7 support. It really IS appreciated (even more b/c cloud is free).
What I think would be a needed improvement is the ability to exclude files on the local computer from Panda’s wrath. We run utilities (IP scanners, etc.) that Panda Cloud thinks are malicious, and deletes them. I was told back in June when I called support that cloud does not have this option. Any plans to include it?
@Kenny & @Ben Mosquera & @Andrew, thanks for the reports. We are hoping to get these fixed for Beta3.
@Roger depending on the browser you’re using, this could be due to a variety of reasons, specially if your PC had malware in it. A lot of malware today hooks itself to the browser. Feel free to send us the log to beta@pandasecurity.com and we can help you get rid of the infection.
@Milosz Thanks for the feedback. The 99% stuck issue is known. Try reproducing it with the instructions at the following URL: http://blog.cloudantivirus.com/2009/08/05/known-issue-on-demand-scan-stuck-at-x/
Regarding the interface, Beta3 will have some changes. I look forward to your feedback from it.
@Mike M. Yes Mike we’ll add this to version 1.1 plus some other advanced configuration settings.
@Mike M. BTW., forgot to mention that in the current Beta2 you can already exclude already-detected files from being detected again. This is done from the Recycle Bin for suspicious and potentially unwanted applications and from the Historic Report (Undo action) for the rest of detections.
panda should check if transparency is an good idea or not as some systems more so lower end old systems or most intel IGPs below 945 makes panda Drag, or an option to turn it off
Thanks, you have to correct those registry entries or provide .REG files for x64 users, if you examine those lines closely, you’ll notice that they have invalid quotations marks that not recognized by the Windows registry: “ â€, you should replace those symbols by ” “, otherwise the entries won’t be saved to the registry.
Update: well, I tried to show the difference between the “” and ” symbols but it seems that this blog automatically changes the quotation marks style, so you should just provide the .REG files to avoid any confusion.
@Strife Thanks for letting me know. I did try to edit it but as you say the blog is changing them. I’ve also tried in the past to point to a REG file but for some reason its content-type is set to media files. I’ll try to fix it when I have some time or simply point to a ZIP file with the REGs inside.
Does it has a updater?
@Shiw liang Panda Cloud AV doesn’t need an updater. It uses real-time cloud queries and the local cache is synchronized transparently.
Hello, I have Panda Cloud 0.08.83 version with Vista Family Edition 32 bits, I almost always have this message showing: There is a problem with the internet conection, analysis will continue in the background and is slowing my conection a lot. Do I have to disable the background scan to improve it ? Do I go with the beta 3 procedure mentioned for 64 bits ? (This procedure it is compatible with 32 bits?).
Many thanks,
Melanie
Euh, hello again, i’have forgot to ask that it is normal that sometimes I see the Panda icon in my task bar above and sometimes not. It is suppose to be there always like others AV are ? When I check in Security center it is mentioned that Panda cloud is active.
Melanie
@Melanie We’re about to release Beta3 which fixes both issues. Please check back in a few days to download the latest version as soon as its released.
The link to download Beta 3 is broken. What is the correct link?