Avast Pro Antivirus 2016

The main window of Avast Pro Antivirus 2016 trades last year's geometric layout for an open look, with some abstract art in the corners. All the same features are present; you just access them differently.

Avast's hardened SafeZone browser is built on Chrome, and includes a number of useful security-related features.

When you visit a known financial website, SafeZone automatically switches to the isolated Pay Mode; you can also invoke Pay Mode with a click. Other programs on the desktop can't interact with the browser, so the desktop is dimmed.

SafeZone includes an ad blocker, powered by AdBlock Plus. By default it allows some non-intrusive ads, but you can set it to block all ads.

You won't see any sign of the video downloader until you play a video. At that point, an orange download arrow appears above the top right corner.

SafeZone's SafePrice feature notices when you select an item on a shopping site and looks for better deals elsewhere. Here it has verified that I already found the best price.

The Sandbox tool lets you run unverified programs without risking permanent damage to your system. By observation, it also kicks in while a program is under analysis by Avast's DeepGuard component.

Sandboxed applications display an identifying tab. You can control whether programs in the Sandbox are allowed to access the Internet. By default, files downloaded by sandboxed browsers are stored outside the Sandbox.

There are eight pages of settings for the Sandbox, and all but a few of them are for experts only. Among the few accessible to ordinary users are this collection of settings that define the appearance of sandboxed applications.

You can't see Secure DNS working; you can only see what happens when it's not present. This screen shows a search redirected using DNS hijacking. All the images changed to cartoon burglars, and all the search result titles changed as well.