Avast for piece of mind. (Avast 4 Home Edition)

Member Name: jespin

Product:	Avast 4 Home Edition
Date:	10/08/09 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: On access scanning of drives. Free.

Disadvantages: You must re-submit your email address every year to Avast.com

In todays computer orientated society, more and more of us are spending increasing amounts of time on the web whether it be shopping, gaming or communicating through instant messenger services. However, with this increase in usage comes the increase in both cyber related crimes as well as risk to a users system. These are some of the main reasons why every computer should have some form of antivirus package to help maintain the overall security of your system and personal files.

Many of you may be familiar with such names as Norton or Mcafee however, these products are often very costly to both purchase and maintain. Frankly, both of these anti-virus products are not worth wasting your money on as they are often a resource hog as well as somewhat in-efficient in virus detection and removal. So, with some of the most well known names being somewhat useless, what are the alternatives? Well believe it or not, there are many cheaper or free alternatives which are 100% better than their expensive counterparts. At the top of this list of alternatives in my eyes is Avast 4 Home Edition.

Available under a free licence that you review every year, this software is available for download from : http://www.avast.com. With an on-access scanner which constantly scans your computer as you work and perform tasks, it is very good for both people who do not have the time to initiate scans themselves or those who cannot be bothered. With adjustable risk setting, you can increase the level of scans conducted from a normal state to a high risk state which will increase the likelihood of virus detection. Furthermore, Avast offers a pre-boot scan of your computer every now and again which means that your system will be scanned and rid of any viruses found before your actual operating system kicks in.

With an easy to use interface as well as at least one virus database update every day, you can actually be safe in the knowledge that Avast works. Unlike Norton which finds viruses and sometimes goes "Ahhhh what do I do?", Avast will remove or quarantine the files based upon what will be better for your system. As well as the on-access scanner, there is also the ability to conduct manual scans of individual files or a system wide scan.

Of all the anti-virus software I have used over the years, I am most impressed with Avast. It does what it is supposed to do and gives the user a sense of security unlike some of the other anti-virus software available. Furthermore, with its talking update notifications and crisp interface design it not only performs but feels more complete than Norton, McAfee and even AVG.

A definite must for any computer system, I would definitely recommend you download and use this as your main anti-virus as opposed to paying rip-off prices for others which don't work as well.

Summary: A definite must for all computer users.

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