Review
This Antivirus comes in two flavors, Professional Edition and Home Edition. The Home Edition is FREE for non-commercial home use. This program protects you from viruses and spyware and includes several modules like Instant Messaging, Internet Mail, Network Shield, Outlook Exchange, P2P Shield, Standard Shield and Web Shield.
This means that when you try to run an infected file, immediately Avast detects it and prevents its execution. When you download files from a P2P software like Emule or Ares, they are scanned by resident protection and when a virus is detected, the program asks you to stop downloading and erase the infected file. While you’re browsing using Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer, Avast protects you from viruses, malware and other threats online. Files received by MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger are also scanned. It scans all your attachments, even when you send or receive emails.
One of the main advantages of using Avast instead of other antivirus is the FREE Update. This means that from time to time your antivirus is updated with a new database of viruses and Internet threats to bring you the most current protection available.
This antivirus lets you configure Resident Protection to fit your needs. For example, you’re sending massive email and don’t want to scan outgoing emails or you may have a firewall and don’t need the network shield, so you can deactivate these modules, and still have the Resident Protection working in the background.
The interface is simple, intuitive and easy to use. It’s translated into English, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese from Brazil, Portuguese from Portugal, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
Avast works great on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 95/98/Me and also on 64 bit operative systems. It’s faster than any other commercial antivirus and requires less RAM memory. The Professional version has some additional functions: Command-line scanner, defining your own antivirus tasks, working and storing the task results, Push updates and Script Blocker.
If you’re a home user and need a FREE Antivirus this is your best choice. The other option is AVG Antivirus Free Edition, but Avast has more useful features in the FREE version than AVG, like Anti-spyware protection and Anti-rootkit protection. |
