AVAST ANTIVIRUS HOME EDITION - Free and effective!

Many people carry the notion that Free anti-virus softwares can’t match the dexterity of licensed ones. To some extent even I thought the same and therefore decided to test a few of these free guards and pit them against the paid ones. The first of the series, Alwil’s Avast Antivirus Home Edition is here for you.

Prima Facie, you will be struck by its slick looks. The media player like looks is quite refreshing. It comprises of almost every functionality offered by its commercial counterparts and being being free, is a users delight.

PROS

1. Good scanning speed
Waiting hours for a full system scan to complete is something I totally hate. In that respect Avast pleased me with its decent scanning speed while carrying a full system scan which is about 20% faster than one of its commercial counterparts that I’ve previously used.

2. Skin-able Interface
Looks do matter! You don’t have to see the same banal interface every time you turn it on. With an option to start with a random interface in every session and a myriad of skins available online, it treats you with some excellent interfaces.

3. Low Memory Consumption
While running in the background its resident scanner consumes less than 15 MB of memory and thus puts no load on the system performance at all.

4. Offers Boot Time Scanning

CONS

1. Relatively inferior detection
When compared to the AVG Free edition, it failed to detect a few files as malware which were tagged so by AVG.

2. Scheduling not offered
It doesn’t offer scheduling of a normal scan. The feature is available in its professional version though.

Some people might crib about its default skin and find it a bit confusing in case they are not used to media player interfaces but for them the software offers other skins like its Mac style skin or the Vista Skin which are neat and organized by any standards.

Bottom Line
Changed my perspective about free anti-virus. Although a feature or two may be lacking, it is a comprehensive solution to those in need of a free anti-virus.

Software Details
Version: 4.7 Home edition Build Sep2007(4.7.1043)
License: Free
Homepage: www.avast.com
OS Requirements:Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista

Rating

4 Dinos