FREE antivirus software with spyware protectionWritten by Bogdan Popa on January 4th, 2012
Avast! Free Antivirus is a reliable antivirus software solution designed to provide computer users with effective protection against viruses and spyware.
Avast comes with well-organized interface that targets beginners and professional users alike, with all features being clearly displayed right in the main window.
Be careful during the installation though, because the setup kit also attempts to drop a separate browser on your computer, although Avast doesn't need this kind of app to work properly.
However, once installed, Avast works simply great, with virus definitions updated even several times a day. The scanning process is very fast and is quite light on hardware resources, but it all depends on the computer and the files you're about to scan. We were pleased with its speed during our tests, even though sometimes we were a bit annoyed by the boot-time scanner.
The boot scanner is actually a very handy function because it attempts to scan the computer before the operating system is fully loaded and thus before any virus is ready to take control of certain system files.
There are four scanning modes, as follows: “Quick Scan”, “Full System Scan”, “Removable Media Scan” and “Select folder to scan”; the latter allows for an in-depth scan of a user definded location. The “Quick Scan” mode takes just a few minutes, while the "Full System" mode can last for more than a half an hour, depending on the size of the drive and the amount of data stored locally.
In addition, Avast comes with dedicated tools to protect multiple apps running on your computer, so it also comprises a “File System Shield”, a “Mail Shield”, a “Web Shield”, a “P2P Shield” to protect peer-to-peer programs, an “IM Shield” for instant messaging clients, a “Network Shield”, a “Script Shield” and a “Behavior Shield”.
All in all, Avast is a must have if you're looking for a reliable antivirus solution and, as far as we're concerned, this application is indeed serious competition for other elite software tools belonging to this particular category.
Avast! Free Antivirus description
Here are some key features of "Avast! Free Antivirus":
Core and detection:
· Antivirus and anti-spyware engine
· State of the art scanning engine provides reliable protection against viruses, spyware and other forms of malicious software.
Real time anti-rootkit protection:
· Unique "on access" technology checks all kernel-mode drivers that the operating system is loading for signs of rootkit behavior. This enables even unknown rootkits to be detected and stopped before they can do any damage.
avast! Community IQ:
· Most samples we process come from sensors deployed throughout the avast! community in the Behavior shield and anti-rootkit modules. This is a unique source of data made possible only thanks to our huge user base. Most of the collected samples are analysed by a number of automated processes and only a small fraction of the samples need to be processed manually by our virus analysts.
Code emulator:
· When a suspicious executable is encountered (during both on-demand and on-access scanning), avast! is able to emulate the program’s code in an isolated environment. The code emulator is used for two purposes. First, it is used for generic unpacking. Secondly, it is used in the heuristics engine. Technically, this is done using dynamic translation, a method much faster than traditional emulation techniques.
Heuristics engine:
· avast! features a new heuristics engine designed to proactively detect malware undetectable with normal definitions. The heuristics engine is able to cover both binary (executable) and script malware.
Potentially unwanted programs detection:
· avast! detects potentially unwanted programs, such as remote admin tools and commercial key loggers. Custom rules can be set for dealing with these types of programs.
Scanning:
· Boot-time scanner
· Allows you to scan your computer for infections before the operating system has started and before a virus can be activated (32-bit operating systems only).
Command-line scanner:
· Enables you to run a scan directly from the command line.
Wake-up for scan:
· Microsoft Windows is woken from sleep or hibernation mode, performs a scheduled scan, then returns back to sleep mode.
Scheduled scanning:
· Allows users to define the scan time and files to be scanned.
avast! Intelligent Scanner:
· Can reduce the number of required file scans by up to 80% through a white list of proven safe applications. Files identified as safe are not rescanned unless they change.
Shields:
· Behavior Shield
· Monitors activity on your computer using a number of sensors (file system, registry and network based) and reports/blocks any suspicious behavior.
· Behavioral Honeypots
· avast! sensors identify and monitor suspicious file activity on selected computers, automatically submitting files to the Virus Lab for additional analysis.
· File System Shield
· Real-time scanning of opened/executed files.
· Mail Shield
· Scans all incoming/outgoing e-mails for malware. For MS Outlook, a special plug-in is used. Other email clients are protected by a generic POP3/IMAP4/SMTP proxy. New in version 5, the proxy also supports scanning of SSL communication (gmail.com, sympatico.ca, ….)
· Web Shield
· Scans all visited web pages and checks all files, pages and java scripts downloaded from the internet. Thanks to the Intelligent Stream Scan feature, the Web shield doesn't slow down your web browsing.
· P2P Shield
· Checks files downloaded using P2P programs. - ABC, Ares, Azureus, BearShare, Bit Torrent, BitComet, BitLord, BitPump, CZDC++, Direct Connect, eDonkey, eMule, iDC++, iMesh, Kazaa, Kceasy, LimeWire, Morpheus, Opera's DC++, Overnet, Qtrax, Shareaza, SoulSeek, StrongDC++, uTorrent, Vuze, WinMX, Winny2, Zultrax.
· IM Shield
· Checks files downloaded while using instant messaging or “chat” programs. - AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), Gadu-Gadu, gaim/Pidgin, Google Talk, ICQ, IM2 Messenger, Infium, Miranda, mIRC, MSN/Windows Messenger, Odigo, PalTalk Messenger, Psi Jabber Client, QIP, QQ, SIM, Skype, Tlen, Trillian, WengoPhone, XFire, Yahoo! Messenger.
· Network Shield
· Provides protection against network-based viruses. The module has two main components: a URL blocker, designed to block malicious URLs (as defined by the Virus Lab), and a lightweight intrusion-detection system.
Updates:
· Smart virus definition updates
· Incremental updating system minimizes the size of regular update files.
· Fast application of updates
· New format for the virus definition file speeds up application of updates into avast! 5.0 and reduces demand on CPU/memory, resulting in uninterrupted computer use.
· New format for the virus definition file means faster updates and reduces demand on CPU/memory, resulting in uninterrupted computer use.
Gaming:
· New Silent/Gaming Mode automatically detects full-screen applications and disables pop-ups and other on-screen notifications without degrading security.
Optimized for latest Intel Core i7 CPUs:
· Critical sections of the avast! scanning engine code have been optimized to deliver unrivaled performance on the latest Intel chips.
CPU optimization:
· Multi-threaded scanning optimization
· avast! runs faster on new multi-core CPUs. A new avast! feature allows the splitting of large individual files between cores, accelerating the scanning process.
Green computing:
· Reduced demands on the disk drive result in lower energy consumption.
Miscellaneous:
· avast! iTrack - Real-time graphic scanning reports.
· Graphical user interface - Easy to navigate graphical interface.
· Automatic processing - Infected files are processed automatically without requiring user instructions.
Requirements:
· Processor Pentium 3
· 128 MB RAM
· 200 MB of free hard disk space
· Fixed issues
· Autosandbox BSODs
· Too much activity of File System Shield
· UI crashes
· Show Installation Completed window just once
· Problem with not running Mail shield
· Incorrect marking emails as a SPAM
· Slowdown of system after fresh installation
· And some security & user improvements
