Avast

avast! Free Antivirus (former avast! Home Edition) is an extremely popular, freeware antivirus program. It protects a PC from malware during everyday work ? sending/receiving e-mails, using instant messaging software or web browsing.

Similarly to many commercial antivirus programs, avast! Free Antivirus includes real-time protection and automatic virus definition downloading. The latter is extremely important because only an up-to-date virus signature database (updated even several times a day) ensures maximum sense of security.

The 6.0 version is a significant update containing numerous innovations and improvements. One of the most important of these in the freeware version is the AutoSandbox, a virtual machine for safe launching of suspect programs. In addition, a number of functions have been moved to the Free version from the previous commercial versions, e.g. the Script Shield (now operating also under Internet Explorer 8/9 protected mode) or Site Blocking. avast! 6.0 was equipped with a WebRep plug-in designed to evaluate the reputation of browsed websites based on the data supplied by avast! laboratory and users.