Avast! Free Antivirus

To run avast! Free Antivirus your PC must meet the following criteria.

Operating Systems Supported

• Windows 7 (any Edition, 32-bit or 64-bit)
• Windows Vista (any Edition excl. Starter Edition, 32-bit or 64-bit)
• Windows XP Service Pack 2 or higher (any Edition, 32-bit or 64-bit)
• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4

• Pentium 3 Processor
• 128 MB RAM
• 200 MB of free hard disk space

Core Technologies

Antivirus and anti-spyware engine
Innovative scanning engine protects against viruses, spyware, and other malicious agents.

Real-time anti-rootkit protection
Prevents stealth malware (‘rootkits’) that, when loaded by the computer’s OS, are invisible to ordinary scanners.

Silent Firewall  avast! Internet Security only
Stops hackers, using heuristic and behavioral analysis and a white list of safe applications.

Antispam  avast! Internet Security only
Comprehensive spam and phishing filter, which works as a plug-in to MS Outlook and a generic POP3/IMAP4 proxy for other email clients.

avast! WebRep
Provides website reliability and reputation ratings according to community-provided feedback.

avast! CommunityIQ
Our technology uses a global network of sensors to provide us with data taken (anonymously) from the actual web-browsing experiences of an opt-in group of avast! users. This info is then used to protect all avast! users with the most up-to-date information on viruses and infected websites.
Because of avast! CommunityIQ, avast! has discovered 287 917 infected websites and protected 34 594 160 people from visiting them in the last 30 days.

Hi-Tech Features

Boot-time scanner
Scans your computer for infections before the OS can start to activate any viruses beneath it (now applies to Windows 7 and Windows Vista).

avast! SafeZone™  avast! Pro Antivirus and Internet Security only
Opens a new (clean) desktop so that other applications don’t see what’s happening – perfect for banking or secure ordering/shopping – and leaves no traces once it’s closed.

AutoSandbox
Prompts users to run suspicious applications in the virtual Sandbox environment.

avast! Sandbox avast! avast! Pro Antivirus and Internet Security only
Provides an extra layer of security for you to run your PC and its applications in a virtual environment – where any attacks are thus targeted (instead of your real PC).

OS supported:

• Windows XP SP2+ 32-bit
• Windows Server 2003, Vista, 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) only RTM versions are supported (Windows 7 SP1 RC is currently also supported)

OS not supported:

• Windows 2000
• Windows XP 64-bit (with any SP installed)
• Windows Server 2003 64-bit

Intelligent Scanner
Reduces the number of required file scans up to 80% through a white list of safe applications. Files identified as safe are not rescanned unless they change.

Silent/Gaming Mode
Automatically detects full-screen applications and disables pop-ups and other notifications without compromising security.

Green computing
Leaves a minimal “footprint” due to its efficient and effective technology.
avast! Real-time Shields – a team of 24/7 guards

File System Shield
Real-time scanning of opened/executed files.

Mail Shield
Scans all incoming/outgoing email for malware (a special plug-in is used for MS Outlook).

Web Shield
Scans all visited web pages, downloaded files, and java scripts. Thanks to the intelligent stream scanning feature, the Web Shield doesn't slow your web browsing.

P2P Shield/IM Shield
Checks files downloaded via P2P programs and while using IM or “chat” programs.

Network Shield
Protects against network-based viruses with two main components: a URL blocker for malicious URLs, and a lightweight intrusion-detection system.

Script Shield
Detects malicious scripts hidden in web pages and prevents them from hijacking and potentially damaging your computer.

Behavior Shield
Stops ‘zero-day’ threats and unknown malware before virus definitions have been obtained.

Others

64-bit support
Supports the 64-bit architecture platforms of Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Heuristics engine
Proactively finds malware undetectable with normal definitions and virus signatures.

Code emulator
Uses dynamic translation (a method much faster than traditional emulation) for both generic unpacking and within the heuristics engine.

Automatic processing
Infected files are processed automatically, without requiring user instructions.

Smart virus definition updates
Incremental updating minimizes the size of regular update files.

Fast application of updates
New format for the virus definition file means faster updates and reduces demand on CPU/memory, for uninterrupted computing.

Multi-threaded scanning optimization
Allows the splitting of large files between cores, which accelerates the scanning process on new multi-core CPUs and makes avast! run even faster.

Wake-up/Scheduled scanning
Schedule scanning at night or whenever you don’t need to use your PC.

Command-line scanner avast! Pro Antivirus and Internet Security only
Runs a scan directly from the command line.