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Thread: Review of Avast! Free Antivirus

  1. #1

    Review of Avast! Free Antivirus

    Review of Avast! Free Antivirus 5.0.594
    (This review does not include virus tests, just the features)

    My PC's config:
    Win XP Home SP 3(fully patched).
    Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.40 GHz
    2 GB RAM and 350gb SATA HDD

    I am currently using Avast! Free Antivirus 5.0.594and Comodo FW 4.1.150349.920 on my PC without any conflicts or slowdowns in boot-time, regular performance or network speed.

    Avast! Free Antivirus comes with a ton of features that are not even available in commercial anti-virus products.

    I am quoting the features of Avast from

    Visit the above link if you want to know more details about each feature.

    Core and Detection
    Antivirus and anti-spyware engine
    Real time anti-rootkit protection
    avast! Community IQ
    Code emulator
    Heuristics engine
    Potentially unwanted programs detection

    Scanning
    Boot-time scanner
    Wake-up for scan
    Scheduled scanning
    avast! Intelligent Scanner

    Shields

    Behavior Shield
    Behavioral Honeypots
    File System Shield
    Mail Shield
    Web Shield
    P2P Shield
    IM Shield
    Network Shield

    Misc
    Smart virus definition updates
    Fast application of updates
    Silent/Gaming Mode
    Multi-threaded scanning optimization
    Green computing
    avast! iTrack
    Graphical user interface
    Automatic processing

    What more could you want from an Antivirus, and trust me all this comes for FREE.

    Visit this link to download Avast! Free Antivirus (English version)

    Avast supports many languages, if you want other languages than English, visit this link

    You can also install additinal languages from Avast interface. Go to Settings>Languages and check the languages you want to install


    System requirements:

    * Processor Pentium 3, 128 MB RAM, 100 MB of free hard disk space
    * Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 (32/64 bit)

    Screenshots of Avast that I took from my PC:

    File system shield:
    This shield scans files that are currently in use (active files)


    Mail Shield:
    I use ThunderBird and Avast gave me a warning to disable SSL/TLS security in Thunderbird. After I disabled this in ThunderBird, Avast was able to scan all my mails for infections.

    Whenever a new mail is received, Avast Mail shield will automatically check it for infections


    Webshield:

    This shield protects your PC from infections/scripts from the webpages you visit. (Does not slow your browsing speed)


    Network Shield:
    This shield protects your PC from potentially dangerous websites. It will automatically block your browser from loading such websites. An automated voice message alert will be played after a malicious url/threat has been blocked.




    I tried accessing a proxy website, Avast blocked it automatically and prevented FireFox from loading the site.


    Comparison of Avast free and commercial versions
    , surely the free version is outstanding and provides perfectly good security even for a new user.



    Besides these shields, there is
    1. IM Shield: protects you from threats distributed via Instant Messengers
    2. P2P Shield: Protects your PC while using p2p file sharing programs like Utorrent, bittorrent, etc.

    Updates:
    Updates are regularly available, automatically downloaded and fast. An automated voice message alert will be played after an update is performed.

    Scanning types:
    Quick scan: Scans the memory and system volume

    Full system scan: Scans the entire Harddisk

    Removable media scan: Scans removable media like CD/DVD, USB flash drives (pen drive or memory stick), memory cards.

    Custom folder scan
    : Scans any folder of your choice. Besides this, there is also a Context Menu item which allows you to scan any folder via windows explorer.

    Boot time scan
    : A very useful feature, it scans the PC before Windows is loaded, helps remove stubborn malware.

    License registration:
    Avast! Free Antivirus requires free registration after 30 days of usage.
    Avast can be registered in two ways, 1. From their website and 2. through the Avast interface

    Registration through the interface is easier and faster.
    You need to provide your name, email id, choose your age group and answer an optional question to register for a free 1 year license.

    Summary:
    I find Avast! Free Antivirus to be very light on resources, scans are blazing fast and reliable.
    Besides Avast and Comodo, I also use SuperAntispyware, Malwarebytes antimalware, Winpatrol and Spybot to keep my PC free from infections. (All four have free versions available)

    I recommend you to try Avast! Free Antivirus before buying any commercial AV.

    Comments on this review are welcome.

    Regards
    Ash
    Last edited by Ashwin; 14-07-10 at 07:17 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    New Delhi
    Posts
    2,042
    Thanx a lot ashwin for the review. Hope members will get help in deciding about the Antivirus they can use on their system.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Avinash View Post
    Thanx a lot ashwin for the review. Hope members will get help in deciding about the Antivirus they can use on their system.
    Thanks Avi I hope people find these details useful.

  4. #4
    Sujay informed me about including details about special scans and the tip for improving scan speed of Avast in this review.

    Thanks for the tip Sujay. Ok here comes a small tutorial on how to enable Special scans and Persistent Cache in Avast

    Avast has a couple of special scans available if you enable them in Settings>Basic Settings>Special scans

    Here is a screenshot showing Avast with the scans available by default



    Now to open Avast's Settings



    Enable the Special scans by ticking the checkbox as shown in the screenshot below



    Now the New scans are available as shown below




    Important Tip to make to speed up Avast scans :
    To make the Full System Scan even faster, configure it to actually take advantage of the persistent cache. To do this, open the Full System Scan details, click the Settings button and check the box “Speed up scanning by using the persistent cache” on the Performance page.

    Source:

    To go to full scan details:


    Now click on settings for Full Scan:


    To enable Persistent Cache,

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    New Delhi
    Posts
    2,042
    Thanx Ashwin again. One thing perhaps you missed. You can put a screen showing memory consumption using task manager.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Avinash View Post
    Thanx Ashwin again. One thing perhaps you missed. You can put a screen showing memory consumption using task manager.
    Here you go. I think this is far better than most anti-virus products


  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Kolkata, India
    Posts
    150
    Very nice post and update... looking cool with scrrenshots..

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by sujay View Post
    Very nice post and update... looking cool with scrrenshots..
    Thank you.

    BTW I have mentioned your name in the 2nd update (Persistent cache and special scans)

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Posts
    2,442
    Here are my scan results from Antivirus Pro

    Enabled Persistent Cache

    Run time: 0.37.08
    Tested Files: 150619
    Tested folders: 9453
    Amount of data tested: 56.3Gb


    My PC's config:
    Win XP Professional SP 2
    Intel Core Duo T2500 @2.00 GHz
    1 GB RAM and 60Gb HDD

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Kolkata, India
    Posts
    150
    @ash: Thank you..
    @Grr: Antivirus Pro is a rogue.. Are you talking about Avast Pro Antivirus...
    OT/ why are you still using a dead OS.. XP sp2??????

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