Comments on: An Overview of Free Antivirus Programs – Part IV – Avast 4 Home Edition

By: stealth tank

stealth tank — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:08:57 +0000

@shadow

No
When i tried AVG and avast they conflicted so you can NOT use avast and AVG ok?

By: Shadow

Shadow — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:43:24 +0000

Avast uses the Kaspersky engine just so you know, it also won two awards for protection. On the twist side of things yes its slow but what AV isn’t??

You can use Avast and and AVG together as both are microsoft compliant!!

By: Balaji Pooruli

Balaji Pooruli — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:01:30 +0000

Hi J,

To see the 7 different resident protection shields, you should do the following.

1. Right click the Avast Icon from the system tray.
2. Select On-access protection.
3. When the dialog box opens up, click on details. This will open a new dialog which shows the 7 different resident shields that you can configure.

Thanks,
Balaji.

By: Dragonfly

Dragonfly — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:16:28 +0000

I have been using the Avast Programme for past few years with spybot scanner. so far I didn’t came across any problems. I onece tried Kaspersky 7 and found out there are no hidden viruses. Overall it’s good programme.

Regards,
D

By: J

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:21:49 +0000

Hi!
I got Avast v4.8 but I can’t seem to find out HOW to configure the “7 different resident protection â€œshields.â€”
Would you be so kind and show me in the right direction?

Best Regards
J

By: habibbijan

habibbijan — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:51:02 +0000

Hank – sorry to hear about your bad experience, but I don’t think those results are typical.

Believe me, I’ve thought more than twice about protecting my computer(s) with freeware, and I’ve come to the conclusion that reasonably-savvy users should never have to pay for security software. Firewalls, anti-malware, and system virtualization software are all freely available, and those of us “in the know” can have a virus-free existence without paying a penny.

I haven’t paid for an antivirus program since 2000, and I don’t ever plan to again.

By: Hank

Hank — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:33:38 +0000

DO NOT USE THIS PROGRAM!!! I had this installed on my pc and decided to pay for Zone Alarm. I found three virus and 10 spyware! Gets worse. On my wife’s pc, same deal but upgraded her laptop. I removed Avast on her PC.. 9 viruses and 35 spyware! I know this topic is about freeware but when it comes to protecting your computer, think twice.

By: Grannar Olice

Grannar Olice — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:43:22 +0000

Thanks for your work and clear documentation.

I was hoping your reviews would help me decide if I should chuck Avast! for AVG free. Your review would indicate AVG and Avast! are about the same in that department.

I would like a faster running computer, especially when opening large folders.

One thing I don’t like in Avast! is the inflexible Web Shield. I have to temporarily shut down real time to get things in. But I can work around this [also see below].

One thing I have done is shut off web shield [duplicates standard, just catches stuff earlier] and network shield [says it protects from Internet worm attacks--like a firewall only different--and I have a firewall [Sunbelt, better than nothing] which does that kind of stuff?–NIPS], and cranked back the standard shield>advanced to not scan files on open [duplicate what basic does?] and scan created/modified files only the default extension set. With this maybe Avast! load and speed is more like AVG–hard to tell, but opening folders seems faster.

Not so incidentally, I run XP as a limited user, so am not so afraid of malwares. I have a gig of RAM, so the speed concern is CPU/HD.