360 total security loading time. Antivirus functions, connection of additional engines

This review is dedicated to the free antivirus 360 Total Security. The purpose of this article is to show its functionality and demonstrate how it behaves in real life. But first, let's look at what he can do.

Difference between 360 Total Security and 360 Total Security Essential

There are two software products - 360 Total Security and 360 Total Security Essential. The difference between them lies in the set of auxiliary modules. So, 360 Total Security Essential lacks an optimization module, cleaning temporary files, Wi-Fi security checks, as well as a vulnerability fix module (Patch Up).

The rest of the functions of these antiviruses are the same, namely, both software products include several antivirus engines - Cloud Scanner 360 (360 Cloud), Avira AntiVir, Bitdefender AntiVir, 360 QVMII AI, sandbox, safe online shopping module, anti-malware module (malware), webcam protection and keylogger protection, system protection module. The last module includes checking USB drives on connection, firewall, behavioral blocking, registry protection, checking files on opening and saving, and some other types of runtime protection.

Comparison with competitors

Let's see how 360 Total Security compares to the competition. Since the product is free, competitors will also be free. However, there are a lot of antiviruses, and it would be problematic to compare the product in question with all existing antiviruses, so Avira Free Antivirus and Avast Free Antivirus were chosen as competitors for 360 Total Security.

The choice of competitors is determined by several factors. Firstly, Avira Free Antivirus is considered the best free antivirus of 2015, at least according to their website, where the corresponding infographic is provided. Secondly, 360 Total Security uses the Avira Antivir engine (although, in fact, this is only one of the engines, and there are three different antivirus engines that can work together), so it was interesting to compare 360 ​​Total Security with this particular antivir. As for Avast, it showed very good performance (which is important for an antivirus - it should provide a good level of protection, but at the same time not consume a lot of system resources), which was shown in one of the reviews in Hacker. The table below allows you to evaluate the functions of the compared antiviruses. The table does not show the main functionality (monitor + scanner) - it is clear that any modern antivirus will have it, with the exception of completely stripped-down scanner products like CureIt from Dr. Web. The main functions also include protection against malware - malware. The fact is that some antivirus manufacturers single out malware protection as a separate function (for example, 360 Total Security), others consider it to be part of the scanner (Avira and Avast), others do not mention it at all, but this does not mean that the antivirus cannot deal with this kind of software.

Comparison of the functionality of some free antiviruses

Function	360 Total Security	Avira Free Antivirus	Avast Free AntiVirus
Cloud protection	+	+	-
System fix	+	-	-
Sandbox	+	+	-
Safe online shopping	+	-	-
Webcam protection	+	-	-
Keylogger Protection	+	+ (**)	+ (**)
Password manager	-	-	+
Removable media protection	+	+	+
Firewall	+	-	-
Registry protection	+	-	-
behavioral blocking	+	-	-
Fixing vulnerabilities	+	-	-
Wi-Fi security check	+	-	-
Cleaning up temporary files	+	-	-
System optimization	+	-	-
Browser protection	+	+ (*)	+
Browser tracking blocking	-	+ (*)
Secure browsing	-	+ (*)	-
Price comparison	-	+ (*)	-

(*) These functions are implemented as an extension for the Avira Browser Safety browser (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, IE are supported).
(**) This function is not highlighted, but all modern antiviruses detect keyloggers as malware

Let's see what happens. The first thing that catches your eye is the fact that modern antiviruses are equipped with functionality that has nothing to do with the antivirus scan itself and system protection. For example, Avira has a price comparison feature that allows you to save money when shopping online. Antivirus 360 Total Security is equipped with a powerful set of features for optimizing and cleaning the system. And Avast has a built-in password manager.

The most "empty" option is Avast Free Antivirus. Its “kit” includes only the antivirus itself (scanner and monitor), browser protection function and password manager. Yes, there is an Avast Internet Security product. There is also phishing protection, a firewall, spam protection, but only a 30-day version is available for free, and a one-year license will cost 900 rubles for 1 PC or 2350 rubles for 3 years. The same can be said about Avira - if you need additional features, then you need to buy either Antivirus Pro (23.95 euros) or Internet Security Suite (30.95 euros). The most complete version is Internet Security Suite, which combines all the features of Antivirus Pro plus system optimization and file encryption features. Separately, the "additive" will cost 16.95 euros (product System Speedup). Note that 360 Total Security has all these features available for free.

So, completely free of charge, 360 Total Security offers cloud protection, a firewall, vulnerability fixes (patch-up), a system optimization and cleaning function, as well as a number of minor pleasant “gadgets”.

Overview of the installation process

The installation process is so simple that any housewife can handle it. You need to download and run the installer (which, by the way, takes only 29.4 MB - this is a complete set, for standalone installation), then you can either immediately click the button Installation, or press the button Settings to select a folder to install the antivirus. No other settings (except for the choice of language) are offered.

Rice. 1. 360 Total Security Installer

The antivirus includes several antivirus engines, as noted earlier:

• Avira engine- a powerful engine developed by a German company. Disabled by default.
• Bitdefender Engine- another supported engine developed by Romanian programmers. Disabled by default.
• 360 Cloud Scanner- own cloud-based anti-virus engine that uses information about file checksums. It is always on, it cannot be turned off separately.
• QVM AI- own proactive protection system using cloud technologies. Allows you to protect your system from threats unknown to the antivirus. Always on and cannot be disabled separately.

Individual engines can be turned on and off in the program settings, but first these engines must be downloaded and installed. Fortunately, this process is fully automated. The user only needs to go to the section Antivirus and press the button corresponding to the desired engine. The process of downloading and installing the Avira AntiVir engine is shown below. You can turn off a temporarily unnecessary engine either in the program settings or using the slider that appears when you hover the mouse pointer over the engine button.

Rice. 2. Installing the Avira AntiVir engine

Rice. 3. Slider to enable / disable the anti-virus engine

In practice, this is very convenient. In one "bottle" the user receives several antiviruses that can be turned on / off at any convenient time.

Full system scan

On fig. 4 shows the result of a full system scan. The program found two problems - 4 threats related to system optimization, and a lot of temporary files (1.4 GB). The user can then click the button To correct to fix threats, and then click Recheck for re-checking. As you can see, the program interface is quite simple and informative.

Rice. 4. The result of a full system check

A full system scan includes searching for problems related to system optimization, searching for "garbage", as well as searching for viruses and other malware. The Wi-Fi security check module could not be checked, because for some reason the router model I use is not supported by the program.

Antivirus check

If desired, you can conduct all these checks separately. Yes, in the section Antivirus(see fig. 2 and 3) you can perform a quick, full and selective (for example, check files on a flash drive) system check. Later in this review, we will show anti-virus protection in action. As the saying goes, don't switch.

System optimization and cleaning

The system optimization module found as many as 22 points for optimization in the test freshly installed Windows 10 (Fig. 5). The module offers to disable some scheduled tasks (usually unnecessary ones like the Customer Experience Improvement Program), some unnecessary services (who needs a font buffering service?), and also optimize the network connection. To fix all found problems, click the button Optimize.

Rice. 5. Optimization module

Rice. 6. System optimization done

The system cleanup module allows you to remove various garbage like temporary files, browser cache files, system garbage, etc. (Fig. 7).

Rice. 7. System cleaning module

When cleaning is complete, the program will offer to free up additional disk space using System Backup Cleaner (Fig. 8). If automatic updating of your system is not turned off, this tool can be quite useful, as it allows you to remove unused system update backup files that take up quite a lot of space (Figure 9).

Rice. 8. Cleaning completed

Rice. 9. Clean up system backups

Additional tools

360 Total Security includes the following additional tools:

• 360 Connect- if you need to remotely configure your grandmother's computer, then this tool will help you. It is not considered in detail in this review, but everyone can familiarize themselves with.
• Instant installation- allows you to install various popular programs (ICQ, Skype, etc.) with one click
• Browser protection- allows you to protect the browser from unauthorized changes to the search engine and / or start page (Fig. 12). Unlike competitors, the functions of safe browsing and blocking "surveillance" of the user are not provided.
• Firewall- The stock Windows firewall is pretty good and will suit the needs of most users. If it turns out to be not enough, then 360 Total Security offers to install (absolutely free) GlassWire Firewall. Actually, after running the tool Firewall you will see a window with a button Install. After installing the firewall, this button will launch it.
• Sandbox- allows you to run dangerous programs, all changes to the system configuration made in the sandbox will not affect the real system in any way. A very useful feature if you are unsure about the application.
• Vulnerabilities- A useful system vulnerability scanner that allows you to check for security updates and various patches. It is also possible to install / remove a particular security update (patch).
• Cleaning up system backups- this tool has already been demonstrated earlier.
• Disk compression- allows you to free up disk space by compressing system files. On the test machine, the tool offered to free up 4.7 GB by compressing. Keep in mind that compressing system files will likely lead to performance degradation, so you should only resort to this measure as a last resort (when free space is more important than performance).

Rice. 10. Additional tools

Rice. 11. Instant software installation

Rice. 12. Browser protection

Rice. 13. Sandbox

Rice. 14. Security updates

Rice. 15. Compress system files. You can free 4.7 GB.

About antivirus performance

Three processes “hang” in the memory, which very modestly consume both processor time and RAM. Screenshot 16 was taken on a test machine, and on a working laptop on which these lines are written, the Firefox browser takes up 530 MB of “RAM”, so against its background the total memory consumption of up to 50 MB seems like a drop in the ocean.

Rice. 16. System resources

The test machine is rather weak - 3 GB of RAM and a dual-core mobile Intel 1000M about 1.8 GHz. The OS is 64-bit Windows 10, as it is planned to upgrade the memory to 8 GB. But even in this configuration, the presence of an antivirus does not affect the performance of the system. Special brakes are not felt, and if they are, they are invisible to the user.

Noticeable slowdown is possible only when the antivirus is running in scanner mode and a computer scan is running. But it is unlikely that a user who suspects that his PC is infected (why even then run a full scan?) Will calmly continue working at this moment - he will wait for the system to be checked, and close all applications for the duration of the check itself. Even if such a user wants to work, then after the start of the scan, you need to wait a bit - the consumption of system resources is significantly reduced (Fig. 18).

Rice. 17. System resource consumption when scanning a PC at the time the scan is launched

Rice. 18. Check in full swing. Only 35.1% of CPU time is used, the hard drive is also not overloaded

In some reviews, the 360 ​​Total Security product is scolded for its rather demanding antivirus update mechanism on system resources. But nothing of the sort was seen on the test machine. On fig. 19 shows that the process of updating the antivirus took only 5.5% of the processor time.

Rice. 19. Antivirus update process

Real test

It's time for the most interesting part of this review - the real test. I have a good selection of infected files (both exe and Word documents) at my disposal. Each file from this collection is infected, there are 142 files in the collection. Let's see how many viruses 360 Total Security finds. All viruses are detected by other antiviruses like Dr. Web, Kaspersky, etc. For greater fairness, additional engines will be disabled, only standard protections will be used.

In order not to infect the system, everything was checked as follows: the archive was copied (with a password), then it was unpacked. Immediately after unpacking, the antivirus began to react. The result of his work is shown in Fig. 20 - 92 infected files were found and eliminated. Next, the antivirus recommended running a quick scan, since many malicious programs were found at once (Fig. 21).

Rice. 20. Antivirus results

Rice. 21. Run a quick check?

Let's give the antivirus a second chance. Let's try to check the folder where the infected files were unpacked by the scanner. The anti-virus found just one more file (in total, 93 files out of 142 were recognized as dangerous).

Rice. 22. Another virus found

Now let's turn on both additional engines - Avira and Bitdefender and try to scan the folder with viruses again. Logically, 49 more infected files remained in it. Voila. The antivirus found the remaining 49 viruses (Fig. 23).

Rice. 23. Not a single virus went unnoticed

From this we can conclude that maximum protection is guaranteed when all available engines are enabled. Maybe this will affect performance a little, but security is never enough. What you need - either fast and not very reliable - or a little slower, but safe - it's up to you.

Rice. 24. The "remainder" was successfully liquidated

Overview of program settings

At the end of this review, let's look at some useful program settings. Among the main program settings, the user can enable/disable active protection at system startup, enable/disable self-defense, and enable/disable automatic updates (Fig. 25). For security reasons, it's best to leave all of these options enabled. The only option that you can turn off if you get bored is the display of the system boot time after it reboots.

Rice. 25. Basic program settings

The active protection settings themselves are stored in the section of the same name. For performance reasons, only executable files and documents are checked by default, not all files in a row. Therefore, if you copy an archive with viruses into the system (even without a password), the antivirus will not react to it in any way. As it turned out in the section Antivirus(Fig. 27), by default the program does not respond to compressed files at all. If you want archives to be scanned too, enable the option Scan compressed files during full disk check.

Rice. 26. Only documents and executable files are scanned by default

Rice. 27. Antivirus settings

On the tab Confidentiality you can select the webcam protection mode - in strict mode, the antivirus will inform you of every attempt to access it (Fig. 28).

Rice. 28. Webcam access control

findings

360 Total Security is not bad :), and most importantly, a completely free antivirus that provides many additional useful tools. Maximum protection is provided by connecting additional anti-virus engines Avira and Bitdefender.

Thank you for your attention, your opinion in the comments is interesting.

Often, if the computer is new or simply not connected to the Internet by any of the interfaces, users are limited to only periodic checks for viruses. For such cases, special mini-programs are provided - exe-files that run a system check only in real time.

The second option is to check your computer for viruses online without installing an antivirus. This service is offered by popular services, including ESET, Dr. Web, Virus Total, etc. The only negative is that by the time you get to the site with the scanner, it is quite possible that you will pick up even more viruses.

360 Total Security guards your security

Protecting your computer without antivirus is impossible. More often than not, it's just a patch on another hole in your security. When they accumulate, the whole system will collapse with such important data for you. To play it safe, most users install a full-fledged antivirus. Even if their computers are completely isolated and not connected to either the local or global network.

Just compare the possibilities. On the one hand, you get a one-time virus scan, and in a couple of seconds you risk getting a full set of malware on your hard drives. With another - 5 significant benefits at once:

1. Round-the-clock check of all processes and connections. Automatic scanning and identification of potential threats, their destruction and sending to quarantine.
2. Free upgrade to all subsequent versions, free virus database updates.
3. A set of additional functions - cleaning the system of file garbage and inactive, but demanding applications.
4. Background work and minimal load on operational resources through the use of Cloud 360 cloud technologies. The ability to run a potentially dangerous file using the Sandbox sandbox.
5. Quick file system check in one click thanks to a thoughtful interface.

I first learned about the free antivirus Qihoo 360 Total Security (then called Internet Security) a little over a year ago. During this time, this product has managed to go from a Chinese antivirus unfamiliar to the user to one of the best antivirus products with a lot of positive reviews and surpassing many commercial counterparts in test results (see). I’ll tell you right away that 360 Total Security antivirus is available in Russian and works with Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, as well as Windows 10.

When finished, the main window of the antivirus will automatically launch with a suggestion to run a full system scan, consisting of optimizing the system, scanning for viruses, cleaning temporary files and checking Wi-Fi security and automatically fixing problems when they are detected.

Personally, I prefer to perform each of these items separately (and not only in this antivirus), but if you do not want to delve into it, you can rely on automatic work: in most cases, this will not cause any problems.

If you need detailed information on the problems found and the choice of action for each of them, after scanning, you can click on “Add. Inform.» and, after analyzing the information, choose what needs to be corrected and what does not.

Note: in the "Optimize the system" item, when finding opportunities to speed up Windows, 360 Total Security writes that "threats" are found. In fact, these are not threats at all, but only programs and startup tasks that can be disabled.

Antivirus functions, connection of additional engines

By selecting the Antivirus item in the 360 ​​Total Security menu, you can perform a quick, full or selective scan of your computer or individual locations for viruses, view quarantined files, add files, folders and sites to the White List. The scanning process itself is not much different from what you might see in other antiviruses.

One of the most interesting features: you can connect two additional antivirus engines (virus signature databases and scanning algorithms) - Bitdefender and Avira (both are also included in the list of the best antiviruses).

To connect, click on the icons of these antiviruses (with the letter B and an umbrella) and turn them on using the switch (after that, the automatic background download of the necessary components will begin). With this enabled, these antivirus engines are used during on-demand scanning. In case you need them to be used for active protection as well, click on "Protection on" in the upper left, then select the "Custom" tab and enable them in the "System protection" section (note: active work of several engines can lead to increased consumption of computer resources).

You can also check a specific file for viruses at any time by right-clicking and calling "Scan with 360 Total Security" from the context menu.

Almost all the necessary antivirus features, such as active protection and integration into the Explorer menu, are enabled by default right after installation.

The exception is browser protection, which can be enabled additionally: to do this, go to the settings and in the "Active Protection" item on the "Internet" tab, set "Web Threat Protection 360" for your browser (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Yandex browser).

You can find the 360 ​​Total Security log (a full report on the actions performed, threats, errors found) by clicking on the menu button and selecting the “Log” item. There are no functions for exporting the log to text files, but you can copy entries from it to the clipboard.

Additional features and tools

In addition to antivirus features, 360 Total Security has a set of tools for additional protection, as well as speeding up and optimizing your Windows computer.

Security

I'll start with the security features that can be found in the menu under "Tools" - these are "Vulnerabilities" and "Sandbox".

Using the "Vulnerabilities" feature, you can check your Windows system for known security issues and automatically install the necessary updates and patches (fixes). Also, in the "List of patches" section, you can, if necessary, remove Windows updates.

Sandbox (disabled by default) allows you to run questionable and potentially dangerous files in an environment isolated from the rest of the system, thereby preventing the installation of unwanted programs or changing system settings.

For a convenient launch of programs in the sandbox, you can first enable the sandbox in the Tools, and then use the right mouse button and select "Run in 360 Sandbox" when starting the program.

Note: I was unable to start the sandbox in pre-release Windows 10.

Cleaning and optimizing the system

And, finally, about the built-in functions for speeding up Windows and cleaning the system of unnecessary files and other elements.

The “Acceleration” item allows you to automatically analyze Windows startup, tasks in the Task Scheduler, services and Internet connection settings. After the analysis, you will be presented with recommendations for disabling and optimizing elements, for which you can simply click the “Optimize” button to automatically apply them. On the “boot time” tab, you can see a graph that shows when and how much time it took to fully boot the system and how much it improved after optimization (you will need to restart the computer).

If you wish, you can click "Manual" and independently disable startup items, tasks and services. By the way, if some necessary service is not enabled, then you will see the recommendation "Need to be enabled", which can also be very useful if some functions of Windows OS do not work as they should.

Using the "Cleanup" item in the 360 ​​Total Security menu, you can quickly clear the cache and log files of browsers and applications, Windows temporary files and free up space on your computer's hard drive (moreover, quite significant compared to many system cleaning utilities).

And finally, with the help of the item Tools - Clean up system backups, you can free up even more space on your hard disk due to unused backup copies of updates and drivers and delete the contents of the folder automatically.

In addition to all of the above, 360 Total Security antivirus performs the following tasks by default:

• Checking files downloaded from the Internet and blocking sites with viruses
• Protection of USB flash drives and external hard drives
• Network Threat Blocking
• Protection against keyloggers (programs that intercept the keys you press, for example, when entering a password, and send them to intruders)

Well, at the same time, this is perhaps the only antivirus known to me that supports themes (skins), which you can see by clicking on the button with a T-shirt at the top.

Outcome

According to tests by independent antivirus labs, 360 Total Security detects almost all possible threats, works quickly without overloading your computer, and is easy to use. The first is also confirmed by user reviews (including reviews in the comments on my site), I confirm the second point, and on the last - there may be different tastes and habits, but, in general, I agree.

My opinion is that if you need a free antivirus, then there is every reason to opt for this option: most likely, you will not regret it, and the security of your computer and system will be at the highest level (how much it generally depends on antivirus, since many aspects of security rest on the user).

And he's worried about the security of his data. Moreover, many families now have several devices on some operating system - a desktop computer, laptop, smartphones and tablets. All of them need anti-virus protection. 360 Total Security is just one of the anti-malware solutions. This is a product of the Chinese company Qihoo 360, but do not think that Chinese means bad. This antivirus is one of the best and most reliable. In addition, it is completely free and has versions for a variety of systems - for Windows, Linux, Android. Users of Apple products are also not deprived of attention.

Installing, configuring and uninstalling 360 Total Security antivirus.

In fact, this program is a whole combine, which contains several independent blocks:

• An antivirus that protects not only against malware on the computer, but also controls the sites visited and all downloaded files.
• Firewall that controls all communication channels and blocks all suspicious traffic.
• Browser extensions for all common browser versions help prevent visiting dangerous sites.
• The sandbox allows the antivirus to run a suspicious program in a special environment and check if it is performing any strange and dangerous actions.
• Optimizer - this block analyzes files and programs and can turn off unnecessary applications or clean up a lot of disk space.

The antivirus block itself consists of four separate engines - Avira, Bitdefender, QVMII, and the 360 ​​Cloud engine. In addition, there is also a System Repair engine that can restore the system after a crushing attack. The first two antivirus engines are disabled by default, but they can be easily enabled and thus greatly enhance protection.

Advantages and disadvantages

Many are skeptical about antivirus programs, which are stuffed with many tools. After all, they, in fact, are not needed, but the program from this becomes much more voluminous and loads the system more heavily. But this does not apply to 360 Total Security - it has a rather modest size, and it consumes system resources much more modestly than most competitors. The presence of all modules makes this product popular among ordinary users - "housewives", because they only need to press one button to clean or speed up their computer. Reliable protection, minimum settings, ease of use and free of charge - it is thanks to this that 360 Total Security is becoming more and more popular, especially on home computers.

Among the shortcomings, users note the following:

• Antivirus may not respond to a threat with default settings. It is solved by turning on the Avira and Bitdefender engines, which are initially turned off.
• The antivirus, on the contrary, is too paranoid behavior. For example, he may dislike the video card driver or some other. This is an infrequent phenomenon, possibly depending on the specific configuration or settings of the program itself.

In general, nothing prevents you from installing this program and personally checking it out. Many people like her for her unpretentiousness and take root for a long time.

Installing an antivirus

Installing 360 Total Security is very simple, and anyone who has ever installed any program can handle it. You just need to download the file from the official site and run it. Further user intervention is minimal - the installer will only offer to select a folder for installation and a language. Before installing 360 Total Security, be sure to completely uninstall another antivirus if it is present on the system. Otherwise, they will begin to conflict and create a large load. System requirements for 360 Total Security are quite modest - the antivirus needs 512 MB of RAM and a 1.6 GHz processor. However, in reality, it is much more modest when it works in the background - it takes up only a few dozen megabytes of memory, and loads the system almost imperceptibly. For Windows, all versions from XP to 10 are supported, both 32-bit and 64-bit. However, when scanning the system, the load increases noticeably, although then it decreases slightly. But a full computer scan is a troublesome business for any antivirus in principle, taking up almost all resources. Although 360 Total Security is not particularly gluttonous here either and can work effectively even on a weak computer.

Security settings

Immediately after installation, the antivirus is ready to work and will offer to perform a full scan and optimization of the system. You can just agree and 360 Total Security will do everything automatically. You can refuse and do all this at a more convenient time. You can go to the "Antivirus" tab and connect more Avira and Bitdefender engines - they are among the best in themselves, and together they provide excellent protection. But keep in mind that the load on the system and resource consumption will increase slightly. Among other settings in the "General" section, you can turn off the display of the system boot time - this information is of little importance to the average user. Also, by default, the program does not react to archives that are simply stored on the disk, even if they contain viruses. Therefore, in the "Antivirus" section, it is useful to enable "Scanning compressed files". In the "Privacy" section, you can turn on a warning when trying to use the webcam - this will protect against unauthorized surveillance through it.

How to temporarily disable 360 ​​Total Security antivirus? To do this, you can simply right-click on the tray icon and drag the slider to the “Off” position in the menu that appears. Disabling 360 Total Security temporarily can be done in another way. Open the interface by clicking on the tray icon, and then click on the icon in the upper left corner that says "Protection: On". On the right side, the "Settings" button will appear - click on it, then at the bottom there will be an inscription "Disable protection". You can turn it on the same way.

Before disabling 360 Total Security antivirus, consider that you are leaving the system unprotected. Any malicious program at this time remains uncontrolled and can do harm. However, if you turn off 360 Total Security for a short time and then turn it back on, it will scan and still detect malware.

How to uninstall 360 Total Security antivirus

Sometimes the question may arise how to remove 360 ​​Total Security from your computer permanently. Although this antivirus provides good protection, the following situations may occur:

• The anti-virus reacts aggressively to some programs, considering them infected. In fact, they may be safe, but use, for example, direct disk access, or keyboard access, which is considered a dangerous sign. Uninstalling 360 Total Security and installing a different antivirus might be your only option.
• You need to install another antivirus. You cannot have several such programs at the same time, otherwise they will start a war against each other, taking a lot of resources.

Antivirus programs are not so easy to remove - they are specially protected from this, otherwise the virus could easily deal with them. Therefore, before uninstalling Total Security 360, go to the settings, on the "General" tab, and uncheck the box "Enable active protection at system startup" and the item "Enable self-defense". After that, it can be removed without problems. If this is not done, the system will display a message that you do not have enough rights to perform this action.

1. Go to the folder where the program is installed and run the uninstall.exe file. This is a 360 Total Security uninstall utility written by the developers themselves, and it will do everything right.
2. Go to the "Control Panel", select the antivirus in the list and click "Uninstall". The system itself will launch the same utility, so this is the same as the first method.
3. Use some third-party uninstaller, for example, iObit Uninstaller, Revo Uninstaller. These utilities, after uninstalling the program, also find and remove many residual files and registry entries that remain on the system.

If you use the first two methods, then after uninstalling, run the CCleaner utility, which will also find and remove residual information from 360 Total Security. All in all, 360 Total Security is a great, free solution that provides good protection against a wide variety of threats. But in order for the antivirus to work as efficiently as possible, do not forget to update it in a timely manner. It updates automatically, so you only need to periodically turn on the Internet on your computer.

A modern, free anti-virus suite with a high degree of protection, which can use up to five anti-virus engines, and also has a whole arsenal of useful tools to speed up your PC.

In our minds, almost any Chinese developments are strongly associated with the Russian concept of "consumer goods". However, the Chinese themselves have recently begun to radically change the situation, creating for themselves the image of quite competitive players in the international market, producing inexpensive, but fairly high-quality products.

The same trend applies to all kinds of Chinese programs, which are getting better and increasingly occupying solid positions in the ratings. It is worth remembering at least one of the most popular mobile browsers UC Browser or the HaoZIP archiver (a free analogue of WinRAR) and it becomes clear that Chinese developers are quite capable of making excellent software.

Comparison with a paid analogue

Unlike most Western developments, 360 Total Security is completely free and does not have any PRO-versions or additional modules for which you would have to shell out money! The only additional variation in which there is an antivirus - Essential - is just a stripped-down version of the full package, designed for weak PCs (and also free).

But in terms of functionality, 360 Total Security is quite at the level of professional solutions from the category of full-fledged paid anti-virus packages and is quite comparable with the popular Kaspersky Internet Security:

360 Total Security is actively developing, so the absence, for example, of a parental control function is a matter of time (especially since the expediency of adding some features has already been put to a popular vote). In the meantime, in the "Tools" section, you can supplement the protection of the antivirus with a free firewall, a browser security module, etc.

What adds a huge plus to our antivirus program is that it can work simultaneously with several engines, which significantly increases the degree of computer security! But more on that later, but for now I suggest installing 360 Total Security.

Installing 360 Total Security

If you downloaded the program from the official site or from us, then by default the installer interface will be Russian. Otherwise, you will need to select "Russian" from the drop-down list in the upper right corner of the window:

In addition to choosing a language, you will also be prompted to accept the license agreement (leave the checkmark) and join the antivirus customer experience improvement program (you can uncheck this box). In the lower right corner you will see the "Settings" button, which will open a small panel where you can specify the path to install 360 Total Security.

If you wish, you can not touch anything, but simply click the "Install" button and wait until the installation is completed. At the end of it, a small presentation of 360 Total Security will appear, which you can skip or watch to the end and click the "Run" button (by the way, if you have a USB flash drive connected to your PC, the antivirus will scan it for viruses and report on the work done in a small window):

Full computer scan

The main window of the antivirus will open in front of us. The interface of the window is unpretentious: the main functional sections are located on the left, and the workspace containing the necessary tools is on the right. In addition, in the upper right corner there are buttons for entering social networks, changing skins and calling the main menu.

By default, 360 Total Security will open on the first section - "Full scan". It allows you to perform a full scan of your computer for viruses and settings that slow down its work. To start such a scan, which will take about 5 - 10 minutes, just click the "Check" button:

The result of the check will look something like this:

We will be prompted to immediately fix all the errors found by using the button of the same name. However, if you understand your computer, I advise you to double-check the scan results manually by clicking the "More info." up:

All found problems with antivirus recommendations will be displayed here. However, by unchecking the box, you can exclude what you want to keep. Only after that you can click the "Fix" button, and then (on completion of the corrections) "Finish.

Antivirus module

Next on the list is one of the most interesting sections of 360 Total Security - "Antivirus:

We all know that it is undesirable to install several different antiviruses on one PC. However, 360 Total Security managed to combine three of its own anti-virus engines and two alternative ones at the same time, achieving their conflict-free coexistence!

By default, only "native" engines are active: "cloud" anti-virus scanner, system error scanner and QVMII AI resident module. They are visible as colored icons in the lower right part of the workspace and, in principle, they are quite enough for quick work. However, if you need a higher level of protection, then you can additionally activate the engine of the popular German antivirus Avira and the American BitDefender!

In addition to selecting engines in the workspace, there are buttons for selecting the PC scanning mode for viruses (quick, full or selective), as well as quick access to the function of sending suspicious files for analysis, quarantine and white list, which, by the way, is very convenient to configure.

For the first time, I suggest running a quick or full scan:

All scan results will be sorted into five categories, which will contain not only the viruses found, but also recommendations for eliminating some potential security holes or incorrect PC settings:

1. System settings.
2. General applications.
3. running processes.
4. Objects in autoload.
5. Critical system files.

As in the case of a general scan, I do not advise you to immediately rush to fix everything that 360 Total Security shows us. It is better to look at the details of the report and decide for yourself what should be deleted and what should not. To do this, again, use the checkboxes. And so that during repeated scans the antivirus does not sound the alarm on trusted files and settings, whitelist them using the button on the right:

Acceleration

The third section of 360 Total Security is "Acceleration":

As the name implies, this section contains tools that allow you to speed up your PC by disabling unnecessary functions and processes. The section consists of four tabs, two of which are functional ("Simple acceleration" and "Manual"), and two are informational ("Load time" and "Journal").

The "Simple acceleration" tab contains a list of processes that you can or would like to disable on your PC. Check the boxes for what you think should be disabled, and click the "Optimize" button. The remaining processes that you do not want to disable, simply add to the "List of exclusions" using the button on the right.

The "Manual" tab contains a list of all files and services that "sit" in autoload. With a simple switch, you can disable or enable any item in the list yourself:

As for the information sections, a graph is drawn in the "Boot Time" tab that displays the time taken to start Windows. In the "Journal" tab, all the changes we made to autoload are logged.

Cleaning and Other Tools

The following section of 360 Total Security - "Cleaning":

It allows you to remove from the system all unnecessary temporary files that take up extra space on your hard drive and unused plugins. In fact, the function is a simplified analogue of other similar PC optimizers and does not need any special consideration.

Much more interesting is the last section of 360 Total Security - "Tools":

There are eight additional features here:

1. Vulnerabilities. This tool allows you to scan for Windows updates, identify the missing ones and install them.
2. Sandbox. Allows you to run suspicious applications in an isolated environment to avoid affecting system settings. It is most convenient to launch using the "Run in Sandbox 360" context menu item of executable files.
3. Cleaning up system backups. Actually, it makes it possible to delete old backups and Windows restore points.
4. Browser protection. Blocks the settings of the search engine and the start page of the browser you have chosen.
5. Firewall. Offers us to supplement the protection of the GlassWire PC.
6. Router Manager. For some router models, it allows you to check its security settings and eliminate potential problems.
7. Disk compression. Can be used to archive rarely accessed data.
8. Vote for the new tool. Gives the opportunity to vote VKontakte for the proposed features that are planned in future versions of the antivirus.

Tray control and settings

Here we practically examined the entire interface of 360 Total Security. It remains to cast a couple of glances at some of the nuances. And the first of these nuances will be antivirus management, which is easiest to do through the tray icons.

There are three icons in total: the main program icon with a menu, an icon for connecting removable media, and an icon for the activity of background processes (for example, downloading and installing updates). We are mainly interested in the icon of the program itself, or rather its context menu. With this menu we can:

• temporarily disable antivirus protection;
• open the main window of the program;
• enter settings, quarantine, event log and sandbox;
• check for updates;
• turn on the "quiet" mode, in which we will not receive any notifications (good for games and full-screen applications).

Finally, I would like to say a couple of laudatory words about the "Settings":

You can get into them from the main menu of 360 Total Security or from the context menu of the program icon in the tray. Here (unlike most even paid antiviruses!) Everything is quite clear and simple. All settings are divided into 5 sections, which are arranged quite logically. So that not even the most knowledgeable user can easily figure out where to look, for example, a blacklist, antivirus settings or language settings.

Advantages and disadvantages

• complete free;
• convenient modern interface;
• support for up to five anti-virus engines;
• PC optimization and cleaning modules;
• the presence of a module for scanning flash drives;
• the ability to work in the "sandbox";
• high degree of virus detection.

• quite a lot of false positives for unknown files;
• significant resource consumption when all available anti-virus engines are activated.

findings

Oddly enough, but during the operation of the 360 ​​Total Security antivirus, I found practically no significant shortcomings in it! The only thing that annoyed (and sometimes continues to bother) - excessive "suspicion" to unfamiliar files. Although, as they said during the Union: "It's better to overdo it than not do it :)".

Otherwise, everything is predictable: the more engines are simultaneously involved, the more resources are consumed. True, to the credit of the Chinese developers, it is worth noting that even with both Avira and BitDefender engines active at the same time, the resource consumption was not much higher than that of another free antivirus that I used before, AVG. And with only the basic engines active, even during the scan it did not exceed 89%!

If you need a good antivirus that would not heavily load the system and provide good protection, then 360 Total Security, I think, is just what you need! With it, your computer can become a real "hard nut" for any viruses. For one engine is good, but three or five are much better :)

P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.