The bottom line: Avast continues
to push the envelope of top-shelf free security features with hybrid
update tech, file reputation analysis, and more. It's independent
benchmarks are a bit weak, but more than 150 million people trust Avast
to keep them safe.
Review:
Looking to compete with both
paid and free security suites, Avast wants to create a unified approach
to your computer security. Long gone are the days of the quirky
interface. Avast is accessible and robust, with an impressive list of
free features and strong, though hardly stellar, performance benchmarks.
Avast has improved its installation
process so it's faster than before. It's not the fastest on the market,
not by a long shot, but a standard installation took us about three
minutes.
Some items of note during the installation that will come
up later in the review: to avoid the new Windows 7 and Vista desktop
gadget, or the new Web Rep browser add-on, you must choose the Custom
install option and unchecked those here.
Automatic installation of
these features is frowned upon, although Avast does provide a clear
method for uninstalling them. It's just not as simple as a check box
that gets its own installation window, since you have to go through the
Customize menu, which makes the auto-install sort of surreptitious.
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