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Avast!'s default interface

An increasing number of digital threats becoming an ever-present danger to home computers have fuelled the growth of the market of counter-measure software. The emergence of many new and effective kinds of antivirus software has chipped away the dominance of the large corporations like Symantec (Norton). There has been an avalanche of software freely distributed over the internet but after careful sifting and selection, only few stand out as trustworthy and effective tools to defend against virus threats. One of the best of them is AVG Anti-Virus (in one of my preview reviews). Yet another good one is AVAST! Antivirus Home Edition.

Basically, all kinds of antivirus software have the same fundamental functions. First, it is to prevent viruses from entering your computer system. Second, it is to search and eliminate any viruses that get through the defenses, undoing any potential harm done. However, there are some intrinsic differences between the features and functions of the various kinds of software.

In the case of AVAST! Antivirus, its preeminent feature is that it offers a boot-up scan function. This is a supremely helpful tool but unfortunately, it is so rare, even on purchased software. Thus, the presence of this tool on a free software is a double plus point for me. The boot-up scan can definitely remove more stubborn viruses that other software might not be able to do, as it can eliminate resuscitators that viruses use to counter removal measures. In my opinion, scanning while booting does a great job of removing viruses during startup, allowing your computer to start on a clean slate.

Another key characteristic is the availability and customizability of the appearance of AVAST! Antivirus. It looks something similar to the Winamp design, and users have the choice of downloading new skins to change the interface to suit their preference. Looks wise, this resembles more of a music player than an antivirus program. The interface is relatively hassle-free and straightforward to operate. AVAST! can be programmed to run in real-time and in the background while the user does other things with the computer. While AVG's full system scan slowed my computer noticeably, AVAST!'s scan seems to take up less computer resources and does not affect working speed considerably.

AVAST! Antivirus will prompt and request for a boot-up scan (scanning before the operating system loads) every time it detects malicious software or files in the system. However this function is compatible on with Windows NT/2000/XP. Standard email scanning is present as well, and AVAST! can block spam if too many messages are coming through in a short period of time. One thing to note is that AVAST! does not allow the scheduling of regular full system scans like AVG (AVG scans after Windows starts up by default). This function is present, but only in the Professional Edition.

One very useful function on AVAST! is the Virus Recovery Database (VRDB). This basically stores information of a file and saves that information as backup. If this certain file gets infected and becomes beyond repair, VRDB can undo the changes and restore the file back to its previous configuration. This is an extremely helpful tool, especially for backing up documents of paramount importance. The downside of VRDB is that it has a tremendous strain on the computer, taking up a significantly large amount of resources. More often than not, especially so for home users, the VRDB takes up too much system resources to be of a realistic help.

AVAST! Antivirus Home Edition is an all-rounded software that home users can depend on to ensure the security of a computer. It can definitely rival the popular AVG in the freeware market. The boot-up scanning procedure has the potential to transform AVAST! into a premier antivirus software, but regrettably it was quite disappointing. The lack of signatures was the cause of several malicious files getting past the defense system and not the working of the scanning function itself. At this moment, before any improvements are made to AVAST!, I would safely put my bet on AVG instead.

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