This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
Main Window
The spacious main window of Kaspersky Anti-Virus (2016) retains the green-and-white color scheme of last year's version, but with a different layout. If the status banner at the top isn't green, you can click the Details link for instructions on restoring full protection.
Full Scan
A full scan of my standard virtual machine test system took longer than the current average, but not as long as its initial estimate ("About 1 day left") would suggest. A second scan went much faster due to optimization by the scanner.
Many Reports
Clicking the Reports button on the main window gives you fast access to the large number of reports maintained by this product.
Informative Popups
Kaspersky displays a wide variety of informative popups while it's working, as seen in this montage. Most, like those on the right, vanish after a short while.
Dangerous URL
When challenged to deal with the download of very new malware, Kaspersky scored well above the average. Almost all of its detections occurred at the URL level, as seen here.
Phishing URL
The same mechanism that prevents access to malicious URLs also blocks fraudulent (phishing) URLs. In testing Kaspersky did better than almost all of its competition.
Heuristic Detection
Phishing URLs are ephemeral, sometimes vanishing the same day they appear. Full protection against phishing requires heuristic detection of frauds too new to be recorded in any database, and Kaspersky definitely uses heuristic analysis.
Additional Tools
Above and beyond its essential antivirus protection, Kaspersky offers a variety of useful tools to enhance your security and privacy. You'll want to create the Kaspersky Rescue Disk right away, before you actually need it.
My Kaspersky
From the My Kaspersky online portal, you can monitor all of your protected devices. You can even turn components on remotely, and launch a full scan, quick scan, or update.
Privacy Cleaner
The privacy cleaner locates traces of your browsing and computer history and offers to erase them. Like the Browser Configuration and Microsoft Windows Troubleshooting scanners, the Privacy Cleaner lets you roll back any changes that prove problematic.