Software Tips

avast! Free Antivirus (freeware)

avast! Free Antivirus is not only the best free antivirus product, it may be the best antivirus product free or paid.

avast! Free Antivirus is based on multiple protective layers that work together to provide award-winning security. New features match top detection with increased efficiency. Computer memory requirements for the new antivirus and antispyware engine have been cut in half. Scanning is 40 percent faster, saving both time and computer resources. Complete rootkit protection includes real-time detection to ward off initial installation, on-demand scanning and boot-time scans.

It is user friendly and has a new interface with easy-to-adjust settings, a context-sensitive help menu and graphs showing ongoing protection activities. Users can set the time and conditions for complete scans, with avast even waking up their computer from hibernation for midnight scans before putting it back to bed. The two major pathways for malware into a computer are the web and email, with around 80 percent of new infections caught through internet browsing. avast! provides separate defensive strategies for each.

avast! Free Antivirus is designed for the average consumer who wants easy-to-use protection for basic email and web surfing. It is limited to home and non-commercial users. Go here for download.

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Register or Re-register Your Copy of avast! Free Antivirus

After you have installed the avast! Free Antivirus, it needs to be registered to continue protection beyond the initial 30 days. Your free license is good for 1 year. Each year thereafter, you will be notified when your avast! license is expiring and you will need to re-register to obtain a new free license.

To obtain a free 1 year license, follow these steps:

Go to the Avast website, avast.com

Click on "support" (top line), then under avast! Free Antivirus select "Get/Resend Free License".

Scroll down to the registration form.

Enter your e-mail address and then re-type your e-mail address.

Enter your name.

Select "at home" where the product is installed.

Under security check, enter the 3 letters shown.

Click the "Register for free license" button and then verify that you did not have any errors.

From this registration process, you will be sent a license key to the email address that you provided. Normally, you will receive the email within an hour. Be sure to check your spam email box since it sometimes ends up there.

Once you have received the avast! license key, follow these steps:

Right click on the avast! icon in the system tray. (small orange globe with the letter "a" in the lower right of your screen)

Select "Registration information"

Click on the "Insert the license key..." button at the bottom, you may have to scroll down to see it.

You can copy and paste the license key into the area provided or just manually type it in.

Click on the "OK" button. If you have entered it correctly, you will get a confirmation message stating such.

Check the new expiration date to verify that it is one year or more from today.

One last step.....

Along with a scheduled scan, avast! scans all your files when you're not at your computer. To set this up, minimize any open windows and right-click on your desktop, then..

Select properties.
Select the screen saver tab.
In the first box, click the down arrow.
Select avast! antivirus.
Set the wait time to 20 minutes.
Click the preview button to see what avast! looks like when it is doing a full scan. Press any key to get back to the properties dialog box.
Click the OK button to finish.

Anytime the avast! screen saver is running, just press the space bar to get back to where you were at.