Labs

Panda has had a rough ride in our tests since we started reviewing its anti-virus software. It has a poor record for detecting Trojans, although it has always been able to detect more common viruses we've exposed it to. This time, Panda surprised us by being worse at detecting Trojans.

With the exception of avast! Antivirus, Panda Titanium 2006 was the worst on test at detecting Trojans. It doesn't even have the excuse that it's free. In fact, it is more expensive than our two winners, which detected all the malicious files,

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and its renewal price is above average.

With an anti-virus program so inappropriately priced it's almost not worth commenting on its interface or other features, but to its credit the program is easy to use, with a simple interface. It also has a rescue disk option for creating floppy disks or a CD/DVD that you can use to boot up an infected system.

Script protection involves indiscriminately blocking script files, so if you work with VBScripts or JScript files you'll need to disable this setting. Titanium monitors Internet Explorer settings and will prompt you if something attempts to change them. You can opt to lock the settings down and prevent anything making changes.

The main screen gives reassuring status reports, telling you the system is protected against spyware and unknown threats. It uses Panda's TruPrevent Technologies system to detect virus-like behaviour - but it has trouble detecting known viruses let alone unknown ones.

We are not confident a PC relying on Panda's anti-virus software is safe from harm. The high price and renewal costs merely compound the program's faults