The Best Free Anti-virus That I Have Ever Used

Posted by Pubudu Kodikara on Feb 19, 2010 in Reviews, Software, Windows, Windows | 16 comments

Recently, ALWIL Software have decided to completely re-design Avast! Now Avast is modern, light, fast, and very effective. So, what I can see is, that, with the new release it have become the best free Anti Virus Software in the world! What do you think?

I think all of you can remember the old avast which had a look similar to a mini mode of a music player software? Actually, earlier, I never even touched Avast because of this reason! It looked aweful. But, when you compare it to their latest interface, its like the “Hell” and the “Heaven”! Not only that, people…. you must read its feature list!

Top Features :

Real time anti-rootkit protection

Unique “on access” technology checks all kernel-mode drivers that the operating system is loading for signs of rootkit behavior. This enables even unknown rootkits to be detected and stopped before they can do any damage.

• Normally, most of the free antiviruses doesn’t come with any real time protection. They can only scan and bust the viruses, but can’t prevent them. Fortunately, Avast 5 offers a great realtime protection to prevent malaware from infecting our system.

avast! Community IQ

Most samples we process come from sensors deployed throughout the avast! community in the Behavior shield and anti-rootkit modules. This is a unique source of data made possible only thanks to our huge user base. Most of the collected samples are analysed by a number of automated processes and only a small fraction of the samples need to be processed manually by our virus analysts.

Code emulator

When a suspicious executable is encountered (during both on-demand and on-access scanning), avast! is able to emulate the program’s code in an isolated environment. The code emulator is used for two purposes. First, it is used for generic unpacking. Secondly, it is used in the heuristics engine. Technically, this is done using dynamic translation, a method much faster than traditional emulation techniques.

Heuristics engine

Starting with version 5.0, avast! features a new heuristics engine designed to proactively detect malware undetectable with normal definitions. The heuristics engine is able to cover both binary (executable) and script malware.

• Just like Realtime-protection, most of the free antiviruse lacks the Heuristics engine!

Boot-time scanner

Allows you to scan your computer for infections before the operating system has started and before a virus can be activated (32-bit operating systems only).

Command-line scanner

Enables you to run a scan directly from the command line.

Wake-up for scan

Microsoft Windows is woken from sleep or hibernation mode, performs a scheduled scan, then returns back to sleep mode.

• Even most of the top payed anti virus software lack the above three features. I have only seen boot time scanning on Kaspersky and Panda Antivirus. But there you need to do it through bootalbe disks, while Avast doesn’t require any additional disks! “Wake Up for Scan” : This is a feature which I heard for the first time. I don’t think other anti virus systems have this feature!

avast! Intelligent Scanner

Can reduce the number of required file scans by up to 80% through a white list of proven safe applications. Files identified as safe are not rescanned unless they change.

• I can remeber this feature in Bit Defender, which is not free!

Behavior Shield

Monitors activity on your computer using a number of sensors (file system, registry and network based) and reports/blocks any suspicious behavior.

Behavioral Honeypots

avast! sensors identify and monitor suspicious file activity on selected computers, automatically submitting files to the Virus Lab for additional analysis.

File System Shield

Real-time scanning of opened/executed files.

Mail Shield

Scans all incoming/outgoing e-mails for malware. For MS Outlook, a special plug-in is used. Other email clients are protected by a generic POP3/IMAP4/SMTP proxy. New in version 5, the proxy also supports scanning of SSL communication (gmail.com, sympatico.ca, ….)

Web Shield

Scans all visited web pages and checks all files, pages and java scripts downloaded from the internet. Thanks to the Intelligent Stream Scan feature, the Web shield doesn’t slow down your web browsing.

P2P Shield

Checks files downloaded using P2P programs. – ABC, Ares, Azureus, BearShare, Bit Torrent, BitComet, BitLord, BitPump, CZDC++, Direct Connect, eDonkey, eMule, iDC++, iMesh, Kazaa, Kceasy, LimeWire, Morpheus, Opera’s DC++, Overnet, Qtrax, Shareaza, SoulSeek, StrongDC++, uTorrent, Vuze, WinMX, Winny2, Zultrax.

IM Shield

Checks files downloaded while using instant messaging or “chat” programs. – AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), Gadu-Gadu, gaim/Pidgin, Google Talk, ICQ, IM2 Messenger, Infium, Miranda, mIRC, MSN/Windows Messenger, Odigo, PalTalk Messenger, Psi Jabber Client, QIP, QQ, SIM, Skype, Tlen, Trillian, WengoPhone, XFire, Yahoo! Messenger.

Network Shield

Provides protection against network-based viruses. The module has two main components: a URL blocker, designed to block malicious URLs (as defined by the Virus Lab), and a lightweight intrusion-detection system.

• These shields, which falls into real time scanning, will help you to prevent malware from infecting your PC. As I said most of the free systems dosn’t provide this. P2P shield is really new to me and I have seen the IM shield only in Bitdefender.

Silent/Gaming Mode

New Silent/Gaming Mode automatically detects full-screen applications and disables pop-ups and other on-screen notifications without degrading security.

• This is completely new to free anti virus systems!

Multi-threaded scanning optimization

avast! runs faster on new multi-core CPUs. A new avast! feature allows the splitting of large individual files between cores, accelerating the scanning process.

• Not only on new CPUs, I have tested this on my old PC which worked really fine. No major slowdowns!

Green computing

Reduced demands on the disk drive result in lower energy consumption.

• Green Anti Virus software? This is completely new to me!

Graphical user interface

Easy to navigate graphical interface.

• I think this is the major thing that they have changed! As I said earlier, they have changed from a non user friendly GUI to a completely attractive interface!

Screen Shots :

Avast Main Screen	Avast Quick Scan
Avast Network Shield	Avast Boot Time Scan