Avast Free Antivirus Review

Avast Free Antivirus is one of the best free antivirus software programs you can download. I've used it on and off over the years and have liked it for the most part, besides a few cons, covered below.

This is a complete tool that protects against threats from the internet, email, local files, peer-to-peer connections, instant messages, and much more. In fact, it outdoes its competitors to a pretty significant extent.

With all of these features, you might wonder what you'll have to fork over to pay for it. Fortunately, as the name suggests, it's completely free for Windows and Mac!

Avast Description: Important Features

Avast's no-cost AV program includes fully functional antivirus, antispyware, and heuristics engines. There's also real-time protection of files, email, web surfing, and suspicious behavior. It scans browser plugins, too, to find installs that have a poor reputation and may be malicious.

In fact, right after the program is installed, before you can even fully use it, it runs an initial check called a Smart Scan. It doesn't take long, and it checks for browser threats, viruses and malware, and other things like firewall problems and mic/cam privacy concerns. You can trigger this sort of scan to run on a schedule if you'd like.

The Behavior Shield feature keeps a constant eye on your applications to make sure they don't start to act differently, which could be a sign of a virus attempting to manipulate the software. The other shields include File, Web, and Mail, and each can be customized to your liking, like to block specific websites, scan files when they're being opened, scan inbound emails.

Network Inspector scans your network to find vulnerabilities, such as identifying routers that are using default passwords and checking if your network is accessible from the internet.

A feature called Do Not Disturb Mode will block pop-ups and Windows updates while any program is in full screen mode. This is great so that you don't see update or virus alerts while presenting something or playing a live game.

Blocking apps is allowed to protect yourself from viruses they might have. Alternatively, you can stop the virus scanner from checking for threats in folders of your choice. If there are files you want the scanner to avoid, you can add those to the exclusions list, too.

A great way this program protects itself is by letting you set a program password. Doing so prevents other people from making changes like turning it off.

At any time, you can open your statistics from the menu for an overview of every way Avast's software has been protecting you. See total attacks prevented, files scanned, threats quarantined, and more.

Some other things I like are the options that can be set for each virus scan type: full scans, targeted scans, boot-time scans, and custom scans. For example, Avast can check for potentially unwanted programs, follow links during the scan, test the whole file for threats, scan removable media, find rootkits, look for viruses on discs, scan startup programs loaded in memory, scan archives, scan only risky file extensions (like EXE and BAT), and turn off the computer automatically after a scan.

Don't Believe the Rumors: Avast Is Free

Some users have stated that Avast Free Antivirus is not free or that it's not a truly complete antivirus program. That's simply not true; it's a complete anti-malware tool.

There are, however, two versions of Avast that you can buy: Premium Security and Ultimate. These editions have a lot more features like a firewall, VPN, sandbox, webcam protection, and more. But these features are also available in other free programs if you want them.

So yes, Avast Free Antivirus provides constant virus protection, also called on-access or resident protection, for free. This means that it can completely replace antivirus software from companies like McAfee and Norton that charge for their software and for yearly access to updates.

My Thoughts on Avast Free Antivirus

Avast's free antivirus has been around a long time and is, overall, an excellent option. It includes just about everything you'd ever want from an antivirus program, free or otherwise. It's the only anti-malware tool you'll need on your computer, and it's often the one I pick when I set up a new PC for myself.