AVAST - One awesome Free Security Software (Review with Avast 5 pic)

It's been two years since I first installed the AVAST antivirus. Like thousands of web users then, I used to rely on Norton and later AVG. 

Then I came across an article in Digit about AVAST and decided to try that. AVG was going all time low that time, it even failed to identify common trojans, thanks to which I had to reinstall the OS two times.

Then came AVAST. I went to the site and registered. It was a cakewalk. The word "free" appeared almost all corner of the site which usually made it a tension free process. I got the 1 year registration key almost instantly in my gmail.

So started the installer and with a boot scanning option. AVAST started a boot time scan as soon as it was restarted. It found 14 different virus at one go which went unnoticed by AVG earlier.

Before the windows could start, my system was completely virus-free!!! I could figure the difference. There was no warning message of antispyware programs, no slow loading of windows and pc hangs anymore.

So I continued. The only thing that needs to be done is the user has to register every year for the software (Free).

From my last two years experience, I've seen the following positive and negative points of AVAST -

Pros -

1. Completely free.
2. Difference between paid and free version is absolutely minimal for home users, specially if you compare with other free anti-virus softwares available. 
3. Easy to use User Interface.
4. Frequent updates.
5. Skinning support (From version 5 it will not be available).
6.  High end protection like anti-rootkit, boot time scanning feature.
7. Compatibility with XP, Vista, Windows 7 
8. Feature to selectively stop specific services like "Mail Scanner" when and if you don't require them

Cons -

1. Version 4 is a little bit resource hungry when compared to Norton 2010.
2. Has a compatibility issue with Zone alarm firewall or security suite.

The drawbacks of AVAST are supposed to be fixed in the latest version of the Software which is scheduled for release in 2010. It will remove the old UI and

introduce a new User Interface as shown below -

Screenshots - (Taken from Softpedia)

You can download avast (Current version) from the following link -

If you want to try version 5 beta, please check the AVAST forum.

Disclaimer: This is not an advertisement. It portrays the author's personal experience with a product.