Skip to main content

Private Internet Access Antivirus - Knowledgebase / Technical / Troubleshooting / Installation - PIA Support Portal

Private Internet Access Antivirus

Authors list

Private Internet Access is proud to announce our first offering into the Antivirus market. Below you can find the required system specifications and features. If you have purchased antivirus software via one of our bulk subscriptions, you can find more details here: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/antivirus

Additionally, you can download the application for your Windows device here: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/installer/av/win

Note: PIA AV subscription can only be purchased through a new account bundle. Thus, it is not available as an add-on for existing accounts. 

  1. The PIA Antivirus is available only on the Windows platform.

  2. System requirements - Operating system:
     Windows 7 and above.

Hardware:

 500 MB free drive space

 2 GB RAM

Internet Connection - Required

 A high-speed connection is highly recommended

  1. The PIA Antivirus requires a paid subscription ($5 add-on with a new bundled subscription). In addition, you need to log in with the same credentials as the VPN to access and use the app.

Features

  • Onboarding - during this sequence, you can select their privacy level.

  • Dashboard - Real-Time Protection. Default ON. The name is self-intuitive. Through this feature, you are protected and receive real-time alerts regarding potential threats and actions.

  • Dashboard - Prevention Engine. Default ON. Through this feature, you can protect yourself from Zero-Day threats. More details here.

  • Dashboard - Web Shield. Default Deactivated. Through this feature, users can protect themselves against malicious websites and malicious downloads. Note that this feature behaves more or less as the PIA VPN Mace.  This feature is currently turned off but will be added in the future.

  • Dashboard - Virus Definition Updates. Note that it is mandatory for you  to always be up to date with the latest Virus Definitions. The Virus Definition databases are continuously updated with new virus definitions. This will protect our users even against the newly created malware.

  • Scans - Quick Scan - scans only the important folders, especially the WIN-specific ones.

  • Scans - Complete Scan - scans everything.

  • Scans - Custom Scan - scans whatever the user is selecting

  • Scans - Schedule Scan - schedule a scan for a certain day & hour. Note that by default, the app pre-defines two Scheduled Scans - On Tuesday and Friday.

  • Quarantine - in this menu will be listed the files that were quarantined. You are able to see all the needed details (infected file, virus name, date & path. Also, the users are able to delete the quarantined entries.

  • Security Reports - in this menu you are able to see all the results of their previous scans.

  • Settings - General - Language - you are able to change their language. Note that currently, we don’t have language parity with the VPN app/

  • Settings - General - Notifications -  you are able to activate/deactivate the app’s background notifications.

  • Settings - Security - in this section,  you are able to see the status of the AV main features, to activate or deactivate those, to set specific MB limits for data to be stored on hard drives, and even manipulate the period of time we’re storing the security reports.

  • Settings - Privacy - Cloud Security -  you can deactivate sending data to the Cloud AV. Note that if the Cloud Security is turned off the users are exposed to potential threats as the PIA Antivirus app no longer communicates with the Viruses Databases for virus identification and solutions.

  • Settings - Privacy - Privacy Level (Basic) - the application will communicate directly with the Cloud servers without any further notice.

  • Settings - Privacy - Privacy Level (High) -  you will receive a notification each time the app communicates with the Cloud servers. This will offer full transparency and will empower the customers to fully control what data should be sent or not.

  • Settings - Account - in this tab you will be able to see basic details about their subscriptions. Note that they’ll still need to access the PIA CCP for manipulating their subscription details or changing its status.

  • Settings - About - in this tab you will be able to see the current app version, definition version, and links to PP and EULA.