Pros & Cons
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- Free.
- Powerful malware, rootkit removal.
- Good malware blocking.
- Spiffy new interface.
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- Longer than average scan times.
avast! Free Antivirus 5.0 beta Specs
| Free: | Yes |
| OS Compatibility: | Windows 7 |
| OS Compatibility: | Windows Vista |
| OS Compatibility: | Windows XP |
| Type: | Personal |
Prague-based ALWIL Software has offered "Free antivirus for everyone" for ages. The company started in 1991, and their core product dates back to 1988. With around 100 million users, ALWIL provides the
The current
The core antivirus/antispyware engine got a rewrite for this edition, and ALWIL added some new components to aid in the fight. A new heuristics engine watches process behavior to detect malware that signatures won't catch. A new code emulator lets avast! evaluate behaviors without letting a process run and also examine programs that are packed to conceal their contents.
This version adds scheduled scanning and detection of less risky "potentially unwanted programs." Avast! uses a new virus database format optimized for incremental updates. And the app's new gaming mode suppresses popups when it detects a program running in full-screen mode. Other notable features include boot-time scanning, wake-up from sleep mode to scan, and automatic scanning of files received via e-mail, IM clients, and P2P clients. And unlike
Two-Stage Malware Removal
Installation on my malware-infested test systems went quickly, for the most part. The installer wouldn't fully load on one system, but, after multiple attempts, it eventually worked. After installation the realtime "shields" found some malware processes over and over, racking up hundreds of notifications faster than I could click them away. I ignored the alerts and launched full scans.
The tool's default action for viruses, potentially unwanted programs, and suspicious files is "No action," which simply means it asks the user what to do. For testing, I set it to take action automatically. Even so, the scans took longer than most. Where the average anti-malware tool scans my standard clean test system in a half-hour, avast! took one and a quarter hours. A repeat scan still took over an hour.
On completing a scan, the program displays a table showing what it did. Had I not chosen automatic actions for the various threat types, I would have made those choices here. I really don't like the way this table behaves. I wanted to widen the first column for a full view of the pathnames of found items. To do so, I had to first make room by shrinking the other four columns. Awkward!
Initially, the results looked pretty bad, because many detected threats weren't cleaned up properly. I checked with ALWIL and learned that the product should have offered a boot-time scan for complete cleanup. That connection was accidentally omitted from the beta version I tested. So, I ran the boot-time scan for each system—about another hour for each.
The lengthy double scan proved its worth in the end, as the boot-time scan did a lot of cleanup. avast! scored 7.1 of 10 points in the malware removal test, better than
The paid programs do score substantially higher on the malware removal test.
In a separate test using commercial keyloggers, avast! scored a below-average 3.6 points.
avast!'s rootkit-removal results were interesting. avast! detected 78 percent of rootkit samples compared to 100 percent for Panda. But avast!'s cleanup was significantly better, so it scored 5.6 points to Panda's 4.9. HouseCall split the difference with 5.2 points. Norton and Spyware Doctor scored much higher, with 7.9 and 7.7 points, respectively.
avast! scored 5.2 points for removal of scareware (rogue security software), the same as AVG. Panda scored 7.0 on this test and
Multilayer Malware Blocking
Like Spyware Doctor and Webroot, avast! uses a multilayered approach to keeping malware out of your system. The File System Shield scans files on access, Web Shield scans Web traffic for threats, Network Shield blocks network-based viruses and known bad Web sites and Behavior Shield alerts you to suspicious programs. Other shields scan all files received through e-mail, IM, and P2P file sharing.
I tried to re-download my collection of malware samples, those whose URLs were still functional. avast! blocked access to a quarter of the URLs and the file shield caught half of the samples on download.
Next I tried launching my already-downloaded samples. Just clicking a sample triggered avast!'s file shield protection, which wiped out 80 percent of the samples right away. When I repeated this test using hand-modified copies of the samples it detected exactly the same ones. My tweaks didn't fool avast! at all.
One shield or another caught almost all the remaining threats at some point during the install process. avast!'s 9.3 points for malware blocking is better than any free product except Panda (Panda and Spyware Doctor share the top spot in this test with 9.7 points).
In a test using commercial keyloggers, avast! scored 3.6 points, well below average. Panda topped all paid and free programs in this test with 9.0 points. Lucky for ALWIL, I don't give the keylogger test as much weight.
Though it boasts a rootkit-blocking module, avast! scored just 5.6 points in the rootkit blocking test. Panda owned this test with a perfect 10; the app completely blocked all the rootkit samples. avast! scored 8.2 points against scareware. Panda and many paid products turned in a perfect 10 of 10 points.
For more information about my testing, read
avast! Free Antivirus 5.0 beta is very good malware protection at no cost. It scored a bit better than Panda Cloud Antivirus in the important malware removal and rootkit removal tests, but Panda beat it (by a little or a lot) in all the other metrics. If you prefer more control over settings and more detail in reporting, you may prefer avast! to the minimalist interface offered by Panda Cloud Antivirus, our Editors' Choice for free antivirus.
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Final Thoughts
avast! Free Antivirus 5.0 beta
avast! Free Antivirus 5.0 beta offers very good malware protection at no cost. It's especially good at malware removal and rootkit removal tests, and it offers fine control over settings and detailed reporting.