You don’t need to create an Avast account to use the software, which is great – but if you do, then you can sign up for Hack Alerts to let you know if your email address has been included in any known breaches. There’s even a ‘do not disturb’ mode to eliminate interruptions during games, movies and anything else that runs full-screen. It carries out real-time scanning of potential threats, as well as on-demand and scheduled system scans. However, the free version includes Avast’s core protection against malware via web, file, network and email, as well as ransomware protection for your choice of critical folders. There are also adverts for the paid version of Avast scattered around the interface, and a number of features are marked with a lock icon, indicating that they’re only available to premium users. The free version is partially funded by advertising, so you’ll be invited to install partner software such as Google Chrome, but this is easy to decline if you don’t want it. There’s nothing particularly annoying that you need to remove here, but it’s nice to have this kind of granular selection available. You can choose which of the Avast Free Antivirus modules you enable at the time of install, including a software updater, web shield, and browser cleanup tools. However, Avast’s interface is a little lighter on system resources, as shown in AV-Test’s system performance tests. It blocked 99.9% of malicious content in AV Comparatives’ real-world protection tests, with 20 false positives, and achieved a perfect accuracy rating in the most recent tests by SE Labs.ĪVG and Avast use the same malware detection engine, and perform identically in detection tests. Like stablemate AVG, the brand also offers more feature-packed paid-for subscriptions, but the free version is what it’s best known for.īut is this one of the best free antivirus options? Or are you better off with the likes of Microsoft Defender Antivirus instead? Malware detection performanceĪvast Free Antivirus’ malware detection engine achieved perfect scores in AV-Test’s latest real-world exposure and reference file-scanning tests, with a six-out-of-six system performance rating and only two false positives.
Gaming mode Ceases notifications and CPU-intensive activity when a game or application runs at full screenĪvast Free Antivirus is a long-standing favourite in the world of free malware defence.Per-folder ransomware protection Select specific folders to be protected against unauthorised changes.
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