avast! antivirus 4.8 Home Edition
from PC Magazine  REVIEW DATE:04.10.08
Ratings Editor     Very Good
Reader     Unrated
by Neil J. Rubenking  
When the version number of a new software release is just 0.1 higher than the old one, I expect a ho-hum incremental update. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that avast! antivirus 4.8 Home Edition adds significant functionality: It now protects against spyware, rootkits, and other forms of nonvirus malicious software.
Best of all, it's free for personal use. 
        
The $39.95 Professional Edition does include a few additional features. Its users can switch to an advanced user interface that allows more detailed configuration. It offers a command-line scanner and the ability to schedule regular full scans. A script blocker watches for dangerous scripts on Web pages, and its PUSH updates feature goes beyond the free version's automatic update checking. If you're using avast! in a business environment, you must purchase the Professional Edition. But the free Home Edition is 100 percent full-powered where it counts: clearing viruses and spyware off your system and preventing any new infestations. Great Detection, Decent Cleanup
 
As always, I rely on the large independent testing labs to certify the efficacy of a product's virus protection. In a test of avast!'s ability to scan and remove viruses on demand, AV-Comparatives rated it Advanced+, their highest level. In a separate test of its ability to detect viruses using proactive behavior-based techniques, it earned an Advanced rating, the second-highest level. Avast! also gets good marks from Virus Bulletin. It hasn't missed any viruses on Virus Bulletin's tests since 2004, though it failed one VB100% test due to a false positive.
 Avast! has certification for virus detection from both West Coast Labs and ICSA labs, but neither one gave it its higher certification for virus removal. Results from AV-Test in Germany were similar. That lab rated it very good (its top rating) at spyware detection, good at malware detection, and merely satisfactory at cleaning up infections. On that test, Norton and McAfee scored the same in those two detection categories but rated very good at cleanup. The labs seem to agree, then, that avast! is better at detecting malware than at removing it.

The product installs quickly, though it does require a reboot to finish the installation. I found it to be quite chatty. It speaks the message "Virus database has been updated" when appropriate. When it detects a virus, a siren whoops and a voice warns "Caution-a virus has been detected." You can turn off or replace the sounds if they become a problem. In addition to the expected system tray icon for the product itself, you'll see another for the Virus Recovery Database, or VRDB. This unusual feature takes a census of the files on your system, retaining data about the three most recent versions. If a virus manages to get past avast!'s initial protection, the VRDB can be useful in repairing infected files. By default, it builds the database automatically when the computer is idle, so you don't have to think about it at all. The product checks for threats in memory each time it launches. If it finds malware actually running, it offers to launch a boot-time scan-a powerful feature. The boot-time scan runs before Windows has loaded so that rootkit techniques are prevented from working, and most malware has no chance to defend itself against removal. You do have to keep an eye on the text-only scan when launched automatically, because it will ask what action to take the first time it hits a malware-related file and again if it finds an infected file in a system folder. If you request a boot-time scan manually, you can preselect the program's actions, thereby letting it run unattended.
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