Avast! 4.7 Home Edition from ALWIL Software is a full-featured antivirus package designed just for home users and non-commercial use free of charge. But how good is it and why do they offer it for free? Read more to learn why 50 million people are taking advantage of this free and award winning antivirus software.

Avast! 4.7 Home Edition from ALWIL Software is a full-featured antivirus package designed just for home users and non-commercial use free of charge. Also available from ALWIL Software is a paid antivirus software Avast Professional for Microsoft Windows, a Pro Family Pack which includes parental controls and antivirus software systems designed specifically for Linux and MAC's. The Home Edition is only available for home personal computing users and is the only free product.

Why would a software company offer their antivirus software for free? They believe that it is possible to avoid global virus spreading with efficient prevention but they also believe that many users are not able to or do not want to pay for antivirus software. Avast! 4 Home Edition combines technology available since 1998 with latest antivirus scanning technology.

Features of the avast! 4 Home Edition include: antivirus kernel detection which is early detection technology with high performance that is ICSA certified. Subscribers can expect detection of In-the-Wild viruses, which is those already spreading, and excellent detection of Trojan horses. It also scans for viruses hidden in data streams. However, this version does not include firewall, spyware of phishing protection, and should you need that additional personal computer security then you may wish to explore the professional or pro family pack.
The software download and user interface system with avast! Antivirus is very easy to use. A memory test will occur at start up and with the first scan the user will be guided through a mini tutorial which indicates existing viruses and malware that need to be removed as well as assists the user with configuring their scans and protection levels. As threats are detected the user is provided with an explanation of the threat and how it may harm the computer. This antivirus program also allows you to test whole disks or select folders. The Log Viewer shows the progress of the current scan as well as the statistics of detected threats, updates, and removed threats. The user can decide from various "skins" the design they wish to view and the software runs from the Explorer menu.
Updates to the software, including new knowledge about virus threats, are completed through a system of incremental updates. The updates can be completed automatically or scheduled. An up to date virus database and antivirus program is the most effective way to protect your home computer. Avast! 4 Home Edition updates according to your usage and internet connection. For example if your Internet connection is persistent, the updates are performed completely automatically at fixed time intervals. If you connect to the Internet only occasionally, avast! watches your connection and tries to perform the update when you are online.

This antivirus program offers a resident protection service that uses standard shield to protect the file system, with a generic SMTP/POP3/IMAP4 scanner, specific MS Outlook plug-in and heuristic analysis in e-mail modules. What does this mean in English? Resident protection is the real-time protection of the operating system and it is one of the most important elements of an antivirus program. avast! features a powerful resident module that is able to detect a virus before it has any chance to infect your computer through several different systems including the scanning and a learning antivirus software program that protects your email from the most recently released virus.
This antivirus software includes a "net shield" and "web shield" both of which detect network traffic and http web traffic to provide additional protection of viruses that may attempt to access your computer by scanning for malicious content that may prove harmful to your computer. This is done through a streaming method scanning as sites are located but it does not interfere significantly in the use of the internet or cause the user to lose patience while waiting for a page to be scanned and then loaded.

Do you like to pick a winner? Avast! has been winning industry awards since 1993 but if you're like most people, you want to know "what have you done for me lately?" Virus Bulletin has awarded avast! with a VB 100% award
in both 2007 and 2008 for virus detection. They've also earned the coveted SC from Secure Computing magazine.
This award is important because the people who really matter in the security technology industry, the customers, vote on it.

Avast! is currently celebrating their 50 millionth user, that is a lot of subscribers taking advantage of this free antivirus software protection. Avast! 4.7, the latest Home Edition, can be downloaded in a matter of moments to take advantage of the latest virus scanning technology, certified by ICSA labs. You can start your antivirus protection today, with no worries about how to afford your protection or how effective the service you choose is.

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