Thread: avast! Home 5.0 beta

It has been established that an antivirus is a must for Windows users. Those who don't install one are taking the "heroic route" but you might as well use one, if the program comes for free. ALWIL Software's Avast antivi-rus is rated to have a good scanner and can keep out most malware as long as you allow for virus definitions to be updated regularly. Avast offers a free version for home users besides their commercial one, quite a sufficient one at that - with all the usual features such as real-time protection, heuristic analysis, email protection, and soon. It is compatible with Windows 7 and has a skinnable interface. The only annoying thing about it according to me is Avast's seeming penchant to be "noisy" audio alerts, visual notifications and so on all the time, unlike other antivirus software that just do the job and do so quietly. These alerts might be fun at first, and lets you feel that you are "protected" but one gets tired of it fast. This version (like all betas) is not final so its design and functionality isn't set in stone, expect changes before the final release. The beta is "time-bombed" to stop working after two months.