Hands-on Guides

avast! - anti-virus

Submitted by admin on Fri, 11/07/2008 - 18:03

avast! is a full-featured anti-virus program that detects and removes malware and viruses from your computer. Although avast! is free for non-commercial use on a home or personal computer, your free copy must be registered after installation, otherwise it will expire in 30 days. Registration also ensures that you will automatically receive the latest avast! program versions and virus definitions as they become available.

Installing avast!

  • Read the brief Hands-on Guide Introduction
  • Click the avast! icon below to open the www.avast.com download page.
  • Click the 'Download' button under 'Free Antivirus', then click the 'Download Now' link that appears on the next page.
  • Click 'Save File' to save the 'setup_av_free.exe' to your computer, then double click 'setup_av_free.exe' to launch the installation program.
  • Read section 2.0 How to Install and Register avast! before you continue
  • After you have successfully installed avast! you may delete the installation program from your computer

avast!:

Homepage:

www.avast.com

Computer Requirements:

  • All Windows Versions

Version used in this guide:

  • 5.0

License:

  • Freeware

Required Reading:

Level: 1: Beginner, 2: Average, 3: Intermediate, 4: Experienced, 5: Advanced

Time required to start using this tool: 20 minutes

What you will get in return:

  • The ability to scan for and remove viruses from your computer
  • The ability to protect your computer from new virus infections
  • The ability to receive free program version and virus definition updates from the Internet

GNU Linux, Mac OS and other Microsoft Windows Compatible Programs:

Although we recommend avast! Free Antivirus in this chapter, there are other free anti-malware programs compatible with Microsoft Windows that are worth recommending as well:

Also if you can afford to purchase a commercial version of the anti-virus software for Microsoft Windows it may offer you more complete protection.

Although operating systems like GNU Linux and Mac OS are virtually virus free, there are compelling reasons for installing an anti-malware program on them. Firstly, viruses will eventually be created for these operating systems, and secondly, you may risk spreading viruses unknowingly, even if your own system remains protected from them.

At present, unfortunately, there are no free anti-virus programs that we are comfortable recommending for Linux and Mac OS. However, there are quite a few commercial products which offer more features and greater protection; a few of the most popular are listed as follows:

If you can afford to purchase one of these, do so.

1.1 Things you should know about this tool before you start

Computer viruses are malicious programs that can destroy files, slow your computer down and use your address book to locate and infect other computers. avast! can protect your system against viruses that might infect your computer through downloads from the Internet, email attachments, or transfers from removable media (CDs, DVDs, floppy disks, USB memory sticks, etc).

  • Make sure that you do not have two anti-virus programs installed and running at the same time. If you are currently using a different program and you want to switch to avast!, you must first uninstall the other anti-virus program before installing avast!.

  • New anti-malware and viruses are being developed all the time. The avast! database must be kept up-to-date to effectively protect your computer.

  • Among the more insidious viruses are those which can actually prevent the installation of avast!, and/or viruses that avast! can fail to detect and delete. In these kinds of situations, fairly advanced methods are required, and some of those are discussed in section 4.9 Advanced Virus Removal Methods.

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