Reviews of avast! Free Antivirus

1. 
   pugletman

   Reviewing 7.0.1426 (May 7, 2012)

   A lot of complaints here.. I can understand, yet I used norton and comcast security suite for a long time and it eventually slowed my system down to a crawl. I uninstalled all that crap , got avast and have been using for a couple of months now. Needless to say I think that it is GREAT for free! It does not hog up my system, yes surfing you can tell it is there, yet does it's job well. It is very full featured for free, so for those that complain.. well? all programs have quirks with diff pc's etc. you all know that.. I like it for what it is which is FREE!
2. 
   TGB72

   Reviewing 7.0.1426 (Apr 8, 2012)

   On Windows 7 SP1, the file system shield it slowdown the startup and the execution of applications considerably. On a plane Windows 7 (without SP) avast 7 also produce BSODs.
   I'm using avast since v4 and I've to tell that this is the most unstable and bloated version I've tried. A shame.
3. 
   Blaxima

   Reviewing 7.0.1426 (Mar 31, 2012)

   I've liked Avast, it's lightweight and does a decent job
   BUT
   I was moving some things around and wanted to reinstall avast to a different drive. I uninstalled my version and wanted to reinstall it again, which was version 6. Nope, the setup wouldn't let me. Instead it said it was going to download the latest version. I clicked cancel and my system became unresponsive while it continued to download and try and install the latest.
   
   Version 7 might work well by I don't give into forcible intstalls.
   
   EDIT. Decided to give 7 a try and I find it to be far too aggressive. Script files I use in foobar are now blocked so I had to disable the script shield. I also find that this version slows everything down from browsing to opening programs far more than the previous version did.
4. 
   gatorfan95

   Reviewing 7.0.1426 (Mar 8, 2012)

   This version installed seamlessly with none of the hidden crap in the last version. ie, no auto Chrome install. Still my favorite free AV.
5. 
   Music4Ever

   Reviewing 7.0.1414 R2 Beta (Mar 6, 2012)

   Avoid the link by 'sheen87' it's dodgy.

Discuss avast! Free Antivirus

1. Nov 21, 2010 - 7:54 PM
   jackolan

   Hi guys - newbe here. I have been using Avast 4.8 professional for yonks 4.8.1335 expiry 2018 and have found it el-stupendo. What's not documented about THIS edition is that when you run Malwarebytes manually, it handshakes with avast and they BOTH examine the files. Whats annoying lately is that although this is a legal registered and paid for edition, I have been getting these daily pop ups from Avast telling me my "free edition is about to run out so register now'. Firstly, I don't have a 'free' edition and it IS registered, I confirmed this by re-registering it and Avast sez 'OK' carry on. The a day later [ almost exactly] this stupid pop up appears again!!. It has not effected my upgrades nor any functionality at all but it is getting to be a pain having to just close the pop up and ignore it. What in the sam hill is causing this to happen AND regularly by time clock every 24 hours, no sooner or later.
   PS. my system clock and date is correct
2. Sep 9, 2010 - 9:45 AM
   sv800

   I downloaded the last version (1 week ago) I hadn't registered yet, what happen when 30 days expire. Does it still protect my PC?
3. Mar 15, 2010 - 3:29 PM
   Eddie1962

   Avast is signature based. Which means it has no heuristic scanning in the free version. It has it in e-mail. But what good is that when 9 out of 10 people use web based e-mail? When all you want to do is scan your machine avast will not "look" for certain behaviors. That's because it doesn't use heuristics when scanning files on your computer. Without heuristics your computer could be infected and avast will not detect it.
4. Mar 15, 2010 - 3:19 PM
   Eddie1962

   Avast is signature based. Which means it has no heuristic scanning in the free version. It has it in e-mail. But what good is that when 9 out of 10 people use web based e-mail? When all you want to do is scan your machine avast will not "look" for certain behaviors. That's because it doesn't use heuristics when scanning files on your computer. Without heuristics your computer could be infected and avast will not detect it.
5. Oct 15, 2009 - 6:21 PM
   Sativarg

   Might it be better to link to New beta refresh 5.0.167 as a home page for this reliece
   
   

   [Incomplete] change log:
   
   - improvements in the Explorer right-click scan
   - improvements in the localizations (French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Polish, Russian and Chinese localizations should now be complete)
   - Add and Submit commands in the virus chest now working
   - fixed a few memory leaks in the GUI process
   - boot-time scan logs now in the Scan logs folder (this feature is still unfinished)
   - added controls for actions on infected files inside archives
   - fixed the Block command in the Ask dialog
   - improvements in the silent installer
   - the program is now working under Windows 2000 (SP4 or higher)