back to article New avast freebie security scanner aims to keel-haul MS

A new version of avast aims to offer users of free anti-malware technology faster running protection against the latest hacking attacks, while offering alternatives to AVG and Microsoft Security Essentials. avast Free 5.0 comes with the same engine under its bonnet as its premium sibling, avast Pro Antivirus 5.0. Both versions …

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  1. MarkOne
    FAIL

    unfortunately..

    Whilst they still have the yearly re-registration nonsense for the free Home edition, I no longer recommend it to people that don't want to pay for security tools, I send them towards Microsoft Security Essentials instead...

    1. James Hughes 1

      Just out of interest...

      Why do you recommend the MS stuff over Avast/AVG/Another?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      all of 5 mins, and i'm slow

      the annual re-registration is still free and takes up little of my time so what's the issue?

  2. adam payne
    Thumb Up

    Yay!

    The GUI of Avast 5 looks so much better and is much more user friendly then previous versions.

  3. Britt Johnston
    Unhappy

    both Pro and Anti Virus?

    silly name arises from charging for freeware?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Love the figures...

    "The freebie version of the avast scanner has registered 100 million times since its introduction in 2004"

    Yup I donwloaded it for 2 machines. f**ked up both about 2 months later, removed.

    So can we minus my two installs from that figure please....

    1. Dave Murray

      Figures

      That's ok because the many PCs I've installed it on in the last 5 years, often using the same downloaded copy easily make up for that.

  5. N2

    Yeah but

    Im sure we'll see it on sale in PC World!

    Im still unsure if these free offerings cut the mustard, but having said that some of the paid up ones 'let one in' now and again

  6. Edwin
    Thumb Up

    Bleeding age again

    I discovered Avast when I discovered my ISP's licensed AV didn't support 64bit Vista (McAfee). Avast was one of the few AV scanners to support Vista properly early on, and it was the only free one.

    Great package!

  7. Paul Shirley
    Flame

    nice way maximise damage

    Whoopee! Now when the scanner goes into a CPU sucking death spiral it can take out all the cores. At least when AVG or Comodo wipe out I can still reach the shutdown menu...

    1. Dave Murray

      Except Avast doesn't

      Except Avast is much less of a resource hog than AVG. In 5+ years of using it on many PCs running Win 2000, XP, Vista and 7 it has never gone into a CPU sucking death spiral on me.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Still not for commercial use

    Over to MSE

  9. 0laf
    Thumb Up

    Always been fine for me

    I've use Avast free for years. Never had a problem with it. I had to ditch AVG when it fell out with Zonealarm.

    I'll be using the new version happily.

  10. Chronos
    Stop

    Does it expire?

    Because, if it does, you can shove it. The reason I used to use Avira and now use MSE is because they both don't just stop working on lusers with a cryptic message about licences. The false sense of security this creates is worse than running without an AV suite.

    1. foo_bar_baz

      You need to re-register annually

      Which is why whenever I get asked by family to help with their PCs I switch them to Avira.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Halo

    Forefront is better and 'client only' install is free forever...

    1. Download the Microsoft Forefront Client Security Evaluation...

    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7d0fbe8d-0174-4b49-b0e9-bbe6dfad3f79&displaylang=en

    2. Burn / mount the image

    3. Open an elevated command prompt (run cmd as administrator)

    4. Navigate to \CLIENT (\CLIENT\X64 if you have 64 bit Windows)

    5. Execute "clientsetup /nomom"

    Although Forefront 'client only' is offered without any time limit or license restrictions, MS seem to have deliberately made the installation process 'difficult' in order to push their preferred domestic platform; Security Essentials.

    I like Forefront a lot, it is built on the excellent Windows Defender (formerly GIANT AntiSpyware) technology and in recent Virus Bulletin tests it came out top of the pile, even beating Eset's NOD suite in reliably detecting all signatures in the wild and avoiding false positives. It provides an 'all-in-one' anti-virus anti-malware solution which replaces Windows Defender and integrates with Microsoft Update.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      Why don't they make more of a fuss over this?

      If MS have a seemingly perfect AV program why aren't they a) shouting about it and b) trying to make money from it?

      Also, how funny would it be is the last step was:

      Execute "clientsetup /omnomnom"

      Thanks for the info.

  12. Dave Murray
    Thumb Up

    At long last

    At long last the best free A-V has a new version! I've been using and recommending Avast 4 almost since it came out for everything from Windows 2000 - 7 and in all that time I've never had a virus infection and neither have any of the people I recommended it to.

  13. Bill Gould
    Gates Halo

    No problems

    Avast has worked fine for me since ... version 2(?). Thus far there's been one documented false positive that could fsck a Win32 install, but AVG had 3 in the last 2 years.

    I still recommend Avast to people because it's free, works and is dead simple to use.

  14. M Room

    AVAST Fan

    I tried Norton and it was OK to start with but then ran into problems with paying for the update. I binned Norton and went to AVG - started OK for some time and then got really temperamental on me and I binned that and moved on to Avast.

    I did try the Microsoft Security Essentials but then my computer virtually ground to a snail pace - I have not got the patience for something that bogs down my computer to run like they did back 25 years ago.

    Avast is fantastic, updates automatically usually once a day and sometimes more. The programme is free and re-registration after 18 months is also free (for home use). I have recommended it to others and continue to do so.

  15. cs94njw
    Thumb Up

    No problem whatsoever

    Installs fine on every PC I've used. Even installed it on my In-law's PC, and not once have I had to solve any issues because of it - which I think is worth its weight in gold.

    On slightly older PCs it does make them run a little bit slower, but I've never had a virus. In fact, I quite happily visit virus laden websites, quite assured Avast will detect and stop any infections.

    It updates its virus definitions by itself without any interraction, and updates its program by itself without any interraction.

    What more can I say!?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      you could say

      "Sponsored by ALWIL".

  16. Ross Nixon
    Thumb Up

    the new kid on the block

    is Panda Cloud Antivirus.

    Unobtrusive, detects more malware than any other freeware (Ok some false positives), doesn't need signature updates.

  17. jake Silver badge

    Best AV software?

    The Slackware distribution of Linux.

    At least when setup by someone who understands the needs of the end user.

    My Mum (73+) & Great Aunt (95+) swear by it, as opposed to at it.

    Before you comentard on the subject, please note that I understand their needs ... THEY didn't install the cut-down, customized version of Slackware. I did, based on how they use their computers, in real life. Nor do they handle the (scripted) update schedule. I take care of that from my own home ...

    These days, when I go visit Mum or Auntie, it's to visit ... not to fix the computer. All around, that's a much nicer state of events :-)

  18. Simon Says
    Thumb Up

    Yarrr!!

    Been using avast! ever since I moved to 64bit XP and discovered AVG didn't work with the 64bit OS and haven't looked back. It's been rock solid, been very resource light, has very frequent virus database updates, and most important of all barely ever requires a reboot of my machine (doing so is only needed when the core program itself is updated - which isn't very often). I got very bored having to reboot every time certain other AV products just needed to update the virus database. Having to re-register every year (which involves filling in a couple of boxes on a website and then just copying and pasting the code which is emailed into the program) is a small price to pay for an AV solution that "just works".

  19. kwikbreaks
    Welcome

    Logic

    I've seen quite a few recommendations for MSE but I really don't see why I should trust one MS product to protect me from malware that exploits glaring security holes in another MS product.

    Ruling out a good AV product on the grounds that you are too stupid to understand the warning message that you need to request a new auth code seems to be just about as daft as the requirement to download a fresh code.

    I look forward to getting the latest Avast - I've never had a problem with it and never had a nasty while using it.

  20. SilverWave
    Happy

    If you have a legitimate Win7 OS....

    Easy solution is to just install Microsoft Security Essentials and forget about it.

    I am not a MS fan but if you are going down that route you may as well use it. I recommend it to family as there is no renewing the license rubbish.

    Its seems quick and to have a low overhead based on the last laptop I installed it on.

    TBH with MS in the game the writing's on the wall for the AV vendors.

    And _my_ machine is running Linux, as you have to be nuts to run an OS that needs an AV.

    :)

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